Star Wars Battlefront 2 Review

"The Force is Fine"

Campaign

The first Battlefront effort from DICE was a solid experience, it brought an authentic game but was certainly a shallow package. This second attempt is larger in scale offering a full single player campaign and a more robust multiplayer in some areas.

The story follows Iden Versio, an Imperial Special Forces officer that's part of Inferno Squad. It deals with the time between episode six and seven in the main line Star Wars films. It lightly touches upon key events and follows through on how the Rebellion dealt with what's left of the Empire.

There were some interesting aspect in regards to the lore and the many locations you visit throughout. I did however feel that many aspects of the game were rushed through and that certain choices key characters made didn't have much of an impact.

They sort of just went with things and I didn't show any struggle in how they approached their objectives. This made it feel like too typical of a Star Wars tale, one of which we've seen many times before.

The random levels also felt as though this story was about small little adventures instead of being a cohesive piece. It's not terribly long, but that's really not at all an issue. It can be a fine playthrough though it did have the potential to really stand out.

I found there was a certain reliance on nostalgia as well with random heroic characters popping in as playable options which took away from the fantastic Iden Versio. When looking at the split of levels I wanted to mention that far too many were ship based.

Multiplayer

This is really the core part of the game as it's where many will spend the most time. The disappointing aspect of this is that it feels condensed compared to the first entry. Galactic Assault is amazing, it's massive and there are a pile of maps that can be played on.

This mode has large scale battles across giant worlds where players work through Objective based situations either defending or attacking along the front. There's also Starfighter Assault that has players battling in Space across a series of objectives.

It's not really too in-depth and not what I had hoped for, but I can see the variation in battles providing a solid option for those that want straight up aerial combat. It's mostly just attacking or defending certain structures, but I suppose it's alright.

Blast is the Team Deathmatch offering a selection of cut out portions from the larger maps and this works fine for those that enjoy it. Strike is a disappointing not really turn based defense mission that's awful. I was disappointed assuming it was an objective grab bag and it's sad they chose to remove some nice objective modes from the last game.

Instead it's either planeting or defusing a bomb and the sides do not change, it's lame. The final area is Heroes vs Villains which removes the exciting Search and Destroy type offering from before to instead just have a large powers battle to hunt a selected key individual, it's just alright.

Gameplay

Star Wars Battlefront 2 looks incredible, the visuals are unreal and on Xbox One X they will dazzle. I don't think I've seen many games that look this amazing and it's truly authentic to Star Wars. This is not only in terms of the visuals, but the sounds and music perfectly capture that universe.

The combat is well done, it feels balanced and the blasters vary in what sort of attack they provide. I liked how the multiplayer would reward players based on performance and that was a grand choice over picking up random spawn tokens in a map which was stupid. There's also a whole game progression system where players unlock items or cards to use.

The cards have been discussed heavily recently and I don't find they greatly affect large scale battles, at least not currently. Whether you're on foot, or in space everything functions smoothly. It's all really a unique delivery here as it's one of the most gorgeous games I've ever played.

The Conclusion

Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a game that has had massive amounts of hype around it and some questionable aspects just prior to launch. This really was a perfect game when I first started playing it, but the more you look at the general package it has some issues.

It's a shame as some more work on making every aspect of the game stellar could have created a perfect package. The campaign had an amazing new lead, but she was often set aside to have this just be filled with nostalgic characters.

The story had interesting points, a nice dive into the events between episodes six and seven though it was just powered through narrative wise. The multiplayer is fantastic if you just like a couple modes and there is a great selection of maps present.

Each brings a unique world, there is a fine quantity of heroes present and the coverage of all three eras is appreciated. I do really enjoy playing this, but when you look at some of the aspects that could make Battlefront 2 perfect, it falls short.

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Star Wars Battlefront 2 Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Microsoft

Rating Overall: 8.0