I’m a bit fan of shooters. Doom, Half-Life, Halo, Rainbow Six, CoD, Battlefield. No matter what type of shooter, I’ve had a try of it, and probably loved it, or at least had a great amount of fun while I played it. Whether it’s tactical, like the Tom Clancy shooters or completely for fun like Call of Duty, I’ll find a shooter that I’m in the mood for.
I’m also a huge Star Wars fan. I’m one of the few people I know that even have a love for the Prequels (but that’s not for discussion here.) I’ve got Star Wars Lego, my main bag I use for going around is my Star Wars bag. I have t-shirts, socks, even a Kylo Ren Black Series figure I received for a birthday presents, and I of course have my tickets secured to see The Force Awakens when it drops next week. I’ve played a ton of Star Wars games, and always had fun, even when they aren’t rated too highly.
You can probably guess from this that I’ve been playing Star Wars: Battlefront, and I’m not ashamed to admit I’m having an absolute blast with it. I’ve also been playing a hell of a lot of Halo 5: Guardians too. They’re completely different, and they both have me hooked. If I’m done trying to get a couple REQ packs in Halo, I’ll hop over to Battlefront and try and get my way to Rank 50, just have some fun flying TIE Fighters or even try my hand at getting the last few achievements I need to 100% the game in terms of awards.
Even though they’re both shooters, I play them with an entirely different viewpoint, and it even takes me a few minutes to adjust to how I play when I have switched from one to the other. In Halo, I’m playing to win, (at least when I’m playing Arena playlists) and I’m concentrating hard on making sure I’m killing more, dying less and getting as many objectives as possible. When I play Battlefront, I’m there to have fun. I don’t care whether I win or lose, I’m there to see, and do, cool stuff. I’m there to disappear into the world of Star Wars. This isn’t much different than when I play Halo, but that only happens when I play the single-player. With Battlefront, the entire experience immerses me into the Star Wars Universe. I’m a Stormtrooper, equipped with my trusty E-11, and I’m there to stop the Rebels from doing whatever they can to stop us.
There are plenty of complaints and criticisms that Battlefront has, and they’re all legitimate. There’s only a handful of maps, some of the modes are less fun than others and generally, the customization is a bit more lacking than it could be. With that being said, this is everything I wanted from the reboot of Battlefront, and this is what I feel some people forgot. This isn’t Battlefront 3, and they never intended for it to be. This is DICE’s vision for what Battlefront in this decade should be, and for what it’s worth, I feel like they actually made a better game at it’s core than the original two games ever were.
That being said, it doesn’t matter what my opinion of the game is, because as I’ve already stated, I have a bias towards Star Wars. This is why I’ve never reviewed the game. What I do feel, is that although the game is completely for casual play, without too much depth in terms of a competitive shooter, it’s a competent and extremely entertaining game. It’s also completely faithful to the source material. It looks like Star Wars and it sounds like Star Wars. The love that went into each of the models is insane, and even with obvious time constraints that came with releasing a Star Wars game to help build excitement for the return of new films, I feel like it did the best job it could have possibly done.
We’re also being treated to multiple instances of free DLC. The first of which, The Battle Of Jakku, introduced an entirely new game mode that’s fun and interesting, as well as one of the most breathtaking maps in terms of aesthetics I’ve seen in any shooter I’ve played in a long time. Both the small and large version of this map are great fun to play, and bring a different feel from the other 4 planets that are currently in the game.
I’m excited to see what the expansions will bring to this game, and I’m not putting money down on the Season Pass until I do see the direction in which their going. To be honest with myself, however, I can see myself saving up money and getting the Pass as soon as I can. Why? Because it is simple, I want more content. I want more maps, vehicles, ships, guns, gadgets. I just want more Star Wars. It scratches a shooter itch that’s similar to Call of Duty, just far less frustrating, and it does it in one of my favourite sci-fi universes. I’ll keep playing Star Wars Battlefront as a casual shooter, and if I ever want something a bit more competitive, I’ve got Halo, or even Rainbow Six Siege when I get around to buying it.
Battlefront is a different kind of shooter in a world where every new game in the genre to come out focuses on the eSports and competitive side of things, and you know what? That’s fine.
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