EA and DICE's remake of Star Wars Battlefront II has been mired by controversy from the beginning, with ripples still being felt to this day. We all know the story: Lootboxes, Star Cards, terrible balancing, and a generally unpleasant gambling-esque gameplay model that only rewarded suckers who could cough up extra cash. However, after three years, countless hard drive-munching updates (seriously, what a pig of a game this can be sometimes — it can hog an external drive all by itself) and plenty of elbow grease from the few remaining developers, I can safely say that the new Battlefront II is not only buyable, it's bloody fantastic. And anyone who still dismisses it as the poor black sheep of the series is frankly doing themselves a disservice.
BFII has been given the full No Man's Sky treatment. If you only played it in 2017 and redownloaded it now, you'd be experiencing a totally different game. The entire anti-consumer model has been ditched - no more pay-to-win mechanics, no more random loot boxes, no more insurmountable prices for unlocks — all replaced with masses of new content to dig into. Bringing together the Prequel, Original and Sequel Trilogy eras, now with more-or-less equal representation across the board, the game feels like a true celebration of all Star Wars (well, "Disney Star Wars" at least).
Capital Supremacy has superseded Galactic Assault as the main crowd-pleaser mode. While originally focused only on the Clone Wars, it's since been updated to include the "Age of Rebellion" and "Age of Resistance" eras. A mode that captures the epic scale of a Star Wars battle, 20-man teams (flanked by several bots) fight over command posts before transitioning to an assault on the losing side's capital ship. And it's no quick task to do any of this; with two well-balanced teams, some matches can take actual hours to complete. The mode has, without exaggeration, given me some of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever had in a video game. Galactic Assault is still around, tucked away in a sub menu now, but even that is way funner now than I remember it being despite it not having changed much. If you just want to play as some of the iconic movie characters who you can never get in other modes because some dickheads always camp on the select screen to get them first, don't worry, Heroes vs Villains has got your back. The smaller scale deathmatch and objective modes are solid too. I love that DICE also put in a full blown survival horror mode where you play as some Stormtroopers trying to survive a night on Endor while the terrifying Ewoks hunt them down. Weirdly, the Ewok has now been upgraded to the Rebels' infiltrator unit in other modes. Charming stuff like this is what the game was sorely lacking in its first build.
The single-player campaign is unfortunately still a thing, and no amount of gameplay updates can save it from being a mediocre, forgettable experience. Seriously, I've never been a fan of it. We have enough stories about Imperials growing consciences and joining the Rebels. This one doesn't bring anything new to the table. Plus Del is an weird-lookin' mofo. Shriv x Iden, true OTP, don't @ me. For fans of starfighter modes, DICE have unfortunately more or less abandoned them all. I guess the new Star Wars Squadrons is meant to be a consolation prize? For a minor gripe, the game still has balance issues — CS matches are heavily skewed in favour of the Separatists because of the ship layouts for just one example — but honestly, this is the kind of game where you can forget stuff like that and enjoy being an underdog sometimes. That is what Star Wars was originally all about, after all.
Because fans (and entire governments) shat on this game non-stop for years, it can now be found at the bottom of bargain bins for less than six quid. If you're still skeptical (and tight in the wallet), take the risk and get it on the cheap, it's more than worth it at this point. I guess having a bad rep has benefits sometimes.
Hardly the same game it was at launch (which is a good thing)
EA and DICE's remake of Star Wars Battlefront II has been mired by controversy from the beginning, with ripples still being felt to this day. We all know the story: Lootboxes, Star Cards, terrible balancing, and a generally unpleasant gambling-esque gameplay model that only rewarded suckers who could cough up extra cash. However, after three years, countless hard drive-munching updates (seriously, what a pig of a game this can be sometimes — it can hog an external drive all by itself) and plenty of elbow grease from the few remaining developers, I can safely say that the new Battlefront II is not only buyable, it's bloody fantastic. And anyone who still dismisses it as the poor black sheep of the series is frankly doing themselves a disservice.
BFII has been given the full No Man's Sky treatment. If you only played it in 2017 and redownloaded it now, you'd be experiencing a totally different game. The entire anti-consumer model has been ditched - no more pay-to-win mechanics, no more random loot boxes, no more insurmountable prices for unlocks — all replaced with masses of new content to dig into. Bringing together the Prequel, Original and Sequel Trilogy eras, now with more-or-less equal representation across the board, the game feels like a true celebration of all Star Wars (well, "Disney Star Wars" at least).
Capital Supremacy has superseded Galactic Assault as the main crowd-pleaser mode. While originally focused only on the Clone Wars, it's since been updated to include the "Age of Rebellion" and "Age of Resistance" eras. A mode that captures the epic scale of a Star Wars battle, 20-man teams (flanked by several bots) fight over command posts before transitioning to an assault on the losing side's capital ship. And it's no quick task to do any of this; with two well-balanced teams, some matches can take actual hours to complete. The mode has, without exaggeration, given me some of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever had in a video game. Galactic Assault is still around, tucked away in a sub menu now, but even that is way funner now than I remember it being despite it not having changed much. If you just want to play as some of the iconic movie characters who you can never get in other modes because some dickheads always camp on the select screen to get them first, don't worry, Heroes vs Villains has got your back. The smaller scale deathmatch and objective modes are solid too. I love that DICE also put in a full blown survival horror mode where you play as some Stormtroopers trying to survive a night on Endor while the terrifying Ewoks hunt them down. Weirdly, the Ewok has now been upgraded to the Rebels' infiltrator unit in other modes. Charming stuff like this is what the game was sorely lacking in its first build.
The single-player campaign is unfortunately still a thing, and no amount of gameplay updates can save it from being a mediocre, forgettable experience. Seriously, I've never been a fan of it. We have enough stories about Imperials growing consciences and joining the Rebels. This one doesn't bring anything new to the table. Plus Del is an weird-lookin' mofo. Shriv x Iden, true OTP, don't @ me. For fans of starfighter modes, DICE have unfortunately more or less abandoned them all. I guess the new Star Wars Squadrons is meant to be a consolation prize? For a minor gripe, the game still has balance issues — CS matches are heavily skewed in favour of the Separatists because of the ship layouts for just one example — but honestly, this is the kind of game where you can forget stuff like that and enjoy being an underdog sometimes. That is what Star Wars was originally all about, after all.
Because fans (and entire governments) shat on this game non-stop for years, it can now be found at the bottom of bargain bins for less than six quid. If you're still skeptical (and tight in the wallet), take the risk and get it on the cheap, it's more than worth it at this point. I guess having a bad rep has benefits sometimes.