What was Star Wars Battlefront to you?
To me, it was a game that was both charming and strategic in singleplayer, and hilariously fun in multiplayer. With the limited amount of maps and classes in the first game, myself and others spent an incredible amount of hours playing this game, whether that be on the couch sitting next to our friends pretending that you weren’t looking at their side of the screen, or through the online multiplayer that spawned its own world as the series went on.
Indeed, this online experience became just as fun as the local version, with the sequel spawning a ridiculous amount of user-made mods, maps, characters and gameplay tweaks. It changed the game from a title you would just pick up and play to a community of players that simply loved the product and universe enough to put their time and effort into improving it, and with the added features and abilities of the PC version including XL modes and user made modes, the game slowly became a masterpiece.
With such fond memories of the first two games, when I heard they where making a new Battlefront, I was instantly excited. Here, we would finally get to experience that feeling again in the modern age, with upgraded graphics and physics we could only dream of back then. I couldn’t wait to hear more about it, and this year at E3 we finally got to see some gameplay.
And, I was disheartened.
I didn’t know why. I toyed with the feelings in my head. The graphics looked great, I thought, and it definitely was Star Wars; all the familiar locations, sounds and characters where here. But something felt missing. Something wasn’t there that was there before.
The game had no soul.
Now, I’m not going to be one of those petty people that petitions a product be changed before it is released. I am basing this all on the limited amount of information we have at the moment, and this is all just my feelings as they are at this point in time, they may change. But let me explain why I feel this to be true.
What gave Battlefront its charm was not Star Wars. Sure, the recognisable name meant we felt more connected to the game as it was part of a series we all loved, but that wasn’t the reason it was so great. That’s exactly what the new Battlefront has missed. DICE and EA are putting their money on the fact that we will love it because it is Star Wars, when they should be banking on the fact we would love it because it is Battlefront. And this misunderstanding has already become incredibly clear.
From the gameplay footage, we can tell that many of the battles are going to be similar to battles in Battlefield, following a number of objectives around a map in order to progress the battle. That in itself isn’t too dissimilar to Battlefront – indeed they had a number of modes, and I’m sure there will be a conquest like mode in the new one. Clearly though, the way the battles are fought have been altered. It is now somewhat more linear, designed to have chokeholds where large battles are fought and players are funneled so that the action remains large in certain areas, rather than in the original Battlefronts which involved players all over the map at any one time, mostly engaging in small skirmishes with large player gatherings being rare.
In addition, they have cut the factions down to simply the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. Now, I can see why they did this – in the modern age it is simply a truth that to create such high quality assets it takes much longer, so I can accept that they cannot include as much content as we had before. What I cannot accept though, is what was revealed in a recent interview with Eurogamer.
In this interview, DICE explained that AT-ATs would be uncontrollable because they have to have a set path for the mode to work. Battlefront was all about being able to wander about and mess with these giant vehicles. The joy of ignoring your objective – the destruction of shield generators protecting the Rebel base – and instead heading straight for the Rebel camps was exactly the sort of gameplay that made Battlefront what it was. That choice and control was one of the reasons every battle was different, dynamic and ultimately – fun. This lack of control you now have is endemic of modern DICE, creating experiences that are great for trailers and a short time, but ultimately, hollow. Battlefield 4 suffered the same issue: it was a well crafted title, but it had no purpose, no heart.
In addition, they have already announced a DLC pack – Battle of Jakku DLC – which already gives signs that modding will not be an option, or at least supported, and that this will be run very similiarly to a Battlefield title. You also cannot play as Ewoks, so gone are those crazy maps of fighting Gungans, Ewoks and Jawas, just because.
The new Battlefront will probably be a great game. But I didn’t want to play Star Wars Battlefield. I wanted Star Wars Battlefront.
