Star Wars: Battlefront (2015)

[giftheck]

There's your issue right there. You're expecting it to be like the old games when it has been said from the start that while it does take certain inspiration from them this game's not a continuation of that style.

[commanderawesome]

My deluxe edition Darth Vader PS4 bundle came in the mail yesterday.
I think the game's really awesome, though I'm a bit disappointed by the small amount of singleplayer content. Though overall I've found the game to be very fun and well polished.

I'm also loving the classic SW games the bundle comes with.

[giftheck]

I like it myself. I find it quite fun, even if I'm not all that good at it yet It's the first shooter I've played online and being in the UK others have had two days over me to get to grips with it. I still wish there was more single player content, though.

[ZoomV]

There's your issue right there. You're expecting it to be like the old games when it has been said from the start that while it does take certain inspiration from them this game's not a continuation of that style.

That's kind of the problem. They used the battlefront title, but didn't give us a battlefront game. Dice's Battlefront doesn't feel that much different than any other modern shooter. It's just lasers instead of bullets.

[Maveritchell]

So maybe it's because I'm an idiot, or maybe it's because I'm just too naive, but I finally got home and got the chance to unpack the copy of Battlefront that Amazon sent me. So, uh, it's an empty case? I went back and looked at the order page, and sure enough, it's listed "download only." What fresh idiocy is this? Why did I have to wait for a physical thing shipped to me to get a game that I apparently don't even get a physical copy of? Why is there even a separate ordering option for a digital-only copy if all copies are digital copies? I feel both embarrassed and a little angry.

[Maveritchell]

So I just tried this game. Is this a thing in games now? You just have better weapons if you've played for longer? What garbage.

[TWINKEYRUNAWAY]

So maybe it's because I'm an idiot, or maybe it's because I'm just too naive, but I finally got home and got the chance to unpack the copy of Battlefront that Amazon sent me. So, uh, it's an empty case? I went back and looked at the order page, and sure enough, it's listed "download only." What fresh idiocy is this? Why did I have to wait for a physical thing shipped to me to get a game that I apparently don't even get a physical copy of? Why is there even a separate ordering option for a digital-only copy if all copies are digital copies? I feel both embarrassed and a little angry.

That's pretty messed up of them. Do you like it so far? pros/cons?

[Maveritchell]

Do you like it so far? pros/cons?

The game's beautiful. The art team did a fantastic job, and even running the game at low, it looks great. It plays reasonably well, although it doesn't feel very deep - you start with just one option when you're playing (a rifle and that's it). Any other options - better weapons, different types of weapons - you have to unlock through playing, which is full-bore, anti-player lunacy. In fairness, it felt like my first couple of matches were with/against players similarly underequipped, but as soon as I restarted the game, I was up against players with a whole bunch of stuff I'd never seen or tried.

I'm not very objective about the game right now, given my experience with buying/downloading it (downloading 30 gigs took up the whole day and murdered my bandwidth), so maybe I'll revise this, but the UI felt very stark and uninspired. It's very clean and easy-to-use, but it doesn't feel like Star Wars; it feels like bog-standard Web 2.0 with Star Wars images in the background. The maps are frustrating to navigate, but that may be inexperience. They feel too busy, and the way spawn points constantly shift feels like a poor workaround to make sure people get to play on every part of the map.

I haven't tried anything but the multiplayer matches, and only for a few hours.

[SG-17]

There's your issue right there. You're expecting it to be like the old games when it has been said from the start that while it does take certain inspiration from them this game's not a continuation of that style.

That's kind of the problem. They used the battlefront title, but didn't give us a battlefront game. Dice's Battlefront doesn't feel that much different than any other modern shooter. It's just lasers instead of bullets.

Have you actually played any modern shooters?

[BF2-Master]

Post removed.

[commanderawesome]

Well, can you think of a better name for it? It may not be too similar to the series it shares a name with, but the title is still fitting.

[giftheck]

There's your issue right there. You're expecting it to be like the old games when it has been said from the start that while it does take certain inspiration from them this game's not a continuation of that style.

Then why throw the name on it? Why not create your own franchise name? Star Wars: Walker Assault or something? Did they really need the Battlefront title if they weren't making a Battlefront game?

I'm wasting my breath though -- the reviews, in my experience, have displayed quite clearly that nobody cared about the mechanics of the previous games. They just liked FPS with Star Wars stuff, and that's not necessarily a bad thing but it does make me feel rather stupid for having enjoyed the mechanics of the old games if they were so boring to begin with. (I'm the one guy who liked collecting CP's?)

Have you seen what LucasArts were doing with Battlefront III before they were shut down? That by no means was a 'Battlefront' game if you're going off what the title used to mean when under a different studio. Iron sights, no command posts, online only, no reinforcements.

I think it's interesting you think you're wasting your breath because you think people are heaping 'undue' praise upon this game. Have you looked at the Metacritic user scores? A lot of angry fanboys on that site are giving this poor scores because they can't take the nostalgia goggles off. It's much like what happened to DMC: Devil May Cry.

If the original Battlefront line had continued, they would not have stayed 'true' to the original game at all. This is the way game design goes. Ideas change, sometimes pretty radically.

I'm sorry, but I think a lot of this bad reaction was evident the moment EA announced this game, just because it's EA/DICE. It's like they expected EA to either give Free Radical SWBFIII back (a lot of the comments I've read actually mention FR's SWBFIII - let it go, people, it will never happen, it was never going to happen) or revive Pandemic Studios to do it.

So, what do I think of the game? I'll just replicate what I said on Facebook here:

DICE have done a good job on recreating the Star Wars feel. It's a very competent shooter with some nice throwbacks to older Star Wars games. The biggest issue is the lack of content, especially the Single Player experience. The AI there is decent enough to get away with having more than just Training, Battles and Survival. The Multiplayer obviously has more modes and is quite fun (it's my first online shooter so I kind of suck compared to the other guys - or, let's put it this way, I was playing a stormtrooper for most of the matches, so that part is accurate lol) but again there is a lack of content. Some of the maps are largely the same as each other (Walker Assault and Supremacy share the same maps). Heroes are fun and on the PS4 starfighters are just as controllable as they were back in the original game. The token system is a nice idea for certain things but for others certain systems should be given in their stead. For instance, it doesn't really make sense to have a token that puts you into an AT-ST when it would be better if they had static AT-STs located at certain spawn points you could just hop in. People were ragging on the AT-ATs being AI controlled as well, but in all fairness that's probably for the best.

If you're looking for a continuation of the style from the first two games, I am afraid you'll be disappointed. It has quite a few callbacks, such as the ability to switch between first and third person (quite handily, you do not need to pause the game to do this now on the console versions, which you had to do on the PS2 if I remember right) and third person is handled really well.

All in all, Star Wars Battlefront is a competent shooter that is let down by the lack of content at launch. The Battle of Jakku will add two maps to the game and there will be four content packs you can get early if you got the seaosn pass. Setting those aside for the moment and judging the game at launch, I would give it a 7/10. It's a good start to a rebooted version of the franchise, but it clearly needed a bit more time in development.

[giftheck]

What do you mean pause the game? The old Battlefronts could also switch to 1st/3rd person view with a click.

I should really have edited that, but I quoted it wholesale. Somebody on SWBFGamers pointed this out to me as well. My first version of SW:BF was for the PS2. As far as I can recall, you could only switch between the two on the options menu on that version, there was no button combination to do it in game. Of course, when I got the PC version, I traded the PS2 version in.

[giftheck]

Oh. Yeah the PS2 was like that.

By the way,how do you rank up on GameToast? I am new here :/

Yep. We also weren't allowed any DLC and getting online was a chore that involved having to buy an adapter (hence why I have never been online with the first game)

I believe ranking up is based on how many posts you've made.

[The Nasal Abyss]

So I just tried this game. Is this a thing in games now? You just have better weapons if you've played for longer? What garbage.

Honestly, I feel myself turning back towards the A280 and E11 (default weapons for both sides) more often than any other weapons in the game. Sure, they might get outslayed in super short range, but if you hit all your shots they are still just as good as any other weapons.

I'm in love with this game right now.

[giftheck]

I'm finding this game quite fun. I'm improving while playing (at the very start I wasn't getting any kills and plenty of deaths). I hope they diversify the content in the future DLC: I personally want to see either Bespin or Coruscant, maybe Dantooine and Kashyyyk, plus a few other skins for the Empire particularly (They also need Wookies and Bothans for the Rebels, but I would not say no if they brought in skins from the old EU, like the old EVO Trooper, TIE Fighter Pilot, AT-AT Pilot, Heavy Trooper or Navy Commando). You're right about the guns, though: either the E-11 or A280, or the DLT-19 are the most suitable guns.

Biggest issue is lack of single player content.

[Maveritchell]

So I just tried this game. Is this a thing in games now? You just have better weapons if you've played for longer? What garbage.

Honestly, I feel myself turning back towards the A280 and E11 (default weapons for both sides) more often than any other weapons in the game. Sure, they might get outslayed in super short range, but if you hit all your shots they are still just as good as any other weapons.

I'm talking about the availability of things like the impact grenade or homing shot, not to mention any of the second-slot abilities. You're just straight-up locked out of those unless you've played for several hours. This game is hostile in its anti-new-user sentiment.

[BF2-Master]

Post removed.

[giftheck]

Then what does "nobody cares about the old mechanics" equate to, exactly, may I ask? Because a lot of what I read aside from this comment makes me think that anybody 'defending' (an interesting term picked up off said aggregate sites if you like this game) the game is giving it 'undue' praise. How can I differentiate between what you meant when it's not all that far off what the users on aggregate sites are saying when they post 0s and 2s?

It's true: some of the old mechanics have gone (and I would add that as a detriment) such as being able to hop into any vehicle, or the class system. But for the most part, at its core, it's still a FPS/TPS in which your team's goal is to win. That hasn't changed from the first game. How they expand upon that has, and it's not surprising because we're talking different devs.

This game's more like the first game: a test bed for what works and what doesn't. I wouldn't be surprised if the next game brought back classes alongside the Star Cards system, and vehicles you can hop into.

[TheMastermindOfMaom]

One thing that I dislike about the new Battlefront is that a lot of times the match will be filled with what I call ''explosive spamming''.