The Star Wars Battlefront Beta ended two days ago and for those who didn’t get a chance to play it, here’s all the info you need to know.
Two game modes were available at the start, Drop Zone and Walker Assault. Drop Zone was set on a small map on the planet of Sullust where teams fought to take control of escape pods. The matches are fast, frantic, and require players to look for flanking routes on offense and set up a perimeter on defense. Matches can sway either way and most games I played felt balanced. Walker Assault takes place on a relatively massive map on the frozen planet of Hoth. The Rebels must push to control and activate two uplinks to lock-in Y-Wing bombers that make the huge AT-AT’s vulnerable for a period of time. The Imperials must protect these massive walkers until they reach the shield generator. This mode feels like Rush from Battlefield on a Conquest sized map. Vehicles and heroes are regulated to power-ups that players pick up by walking over them, giving items like TIE fighters and AT-ST walkers and characters like Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker to those who find them first.
All in all, Battlefront is breaking many players’ expectations but some are still asking for more. The lack of a single player campaign in favor of lackluster co-op survival missions, a limited choice in weapons and gear, and some of the most important and powerful items being left to those who manage to rush for them first seem like unique, but ultimately poor design by EA and Dice. To break it all down, here’s a list.
Pros:
- Solid mechanics that are easy to pick up
- Authentic Star Wars feels due to amazing attention to detail
- Balancing needs tweaking but matches feel fair for most games
- Cards provide unique loadout options
- Scale and maps for each game mode remain true to the films while maintaining balance for teams
Cons:
- Vehicles and heroes are assigned to power ups meaning the are first come, first served
- Not enough weapons to provide variety. Only four blasters were available in the beta
- Power ups are available frequently but players can end up getting too much of the wrong thing for the wrong situation
- Heroes can’t activate objectives and get regulated to the role of temporary, but powerful tanks
- Accuracy on weapons needs to be tweaked. Everything fires in a straight line no matter what
Star Wars Battlefront releases November 17th. We will be looking forward to more updates as EA and Dice flesh out their game in the last month of development.
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