Star Wars: Battlefront 2

First off, before we begin this review, two things. First: yes, I know about the Micro-transactions/Loot Box controversy and yes it is a big deal and awful, disgusting and EA should not be spared the whip at all for this and should properly be hated for it as well as I personally believe you shouldn’t be playing this game because of its loot box system they have installed. And two: this is STRICTLY a review of the game itself AS A GAME. Not as a “Star Wars Game,” just a game.

Still have to unlock heroes with in game money. But the real (fanboy) question I have is: WHERE ARE THE DROIDEKA!!?? THANKS EA!!!

Please keep the above in mind as you read the rest. I’m personally disgusted by micro-transactions and how horrible EA has gotten with this system. If it was strictly a “cosmetic only” system I, and I believe everyone else, would not care it had loot boxes. But since they locked progression behind loot boxes and “encourage” you to pay real money to “get better,” it’s disgusting and this type of behavior should NOT be encouraged.

This game is NOT an MMO. This game is NOT a Free-to-Play title. It is a whole, AAA priced $60 title that locks you out of equipment and encourages you to spend more money to get better things and doesn’t even hide the fact that they’re doing it and OPENLY say they’re doing this to all there titles in the future. The only reason they halted it (for now, it’s coming back some other way) is the rumor that Disney came in and told them “we’re unhappy” about this.

I am COMPLETELY and TOTALLY afraid and honestly pissed off about this because this affects the future titles of the biggest hitters such as Battlefield, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Sims, and Dead Space (Dead Space, granted, probably never will get another title now because the studio is closed but I digress.) So now, as a gamer, I personally have absolutely no interest in there upcoming “Anthem” title and honestly hope it crashes and burns because we, the gamers, will not take this bullshit anymore and refuse to buy the game.

To refer to the second part above, the “review as a game” I say that simply because I am not a complete “knower-of-all” that is Star Wars nor have I seen all the movies (please don’t kill me.) So ‘historical accuracy’ of the movies, shows, Et Al won’t be taken into account here. Any questions about accuracy, timelines, etc. should be referred to our resident Star Wars fan/devotee and my boss Wiggin.

With those details out of the way (wow almost one whole page with me bitching, sorry) on to the review.

First off, I want to ask a question to Dice. What happens when you make a new game? Do you start from scratch? Do you throw out the people that work on the games before and just get new people to take over? I only ask this because your previous titles you’ve made, including the battlefield series, had a certain amount of functionality, features, things that made the game good or just a quality of life thing that made things better. And it just seems like you throw it all out the window and act like “this is our first game, we’re still getting the hang of it” whenever you make a new title. I can’t speak for Battlefield: Hardline because I never tried it but other titles I have played of your and it honestly seems to be a pattern with you. A liked function in BF4 is not in BF1, gets put back in subsequent patches/DLC. Now I’m not saying Battlefront 2 is just a re-skinned Battlefield (which it is but it at the very least uses the foundation of it) but some BASIC, functionality that we liked in previous titles are…who knew?…not there anymore.

Loot boxes. The bane of all games existence. It needs to be said again: THANKS EA!

Examples:

-Customization: NONEXISTENT

-Skill: NONEXISTENT (I know, arcade, skill doesn’t matter, just mentioning it)

-Server stability: NONEXISTENT

-Heroes: PALPATINE CAN KILL YOU THROUGH WALLS, NO LINE OF SIGHT AT ALL. BOSSK CAN KILL YOU FROM ACROSS THE MAP WITH A BODY SHOT. (The rest are just tough which is fine.)

-Spawn system/Squads: What the hell is this “random squads, can’t play with friends unless you die/spawn at the same time” thing? And why am I forced to spawn against my will when the game is done loading. Don’t even have time to choose the class I want.

-Spawning: to get sniped/Darth Mauled? REALLY? No spawn protection or a spawn they can’t reach?

-Gun play/weapons in general: 500 kills to get ‘the best’ weapon of that class when I can, at best, get 2 kills with the default ‘shitty as fuck’ weapon per life? And the “best weapon” is no exaggeration. The last weapon unlock I’ve seen people use on any class is the best weapon.

-Decent maps/Game Engine: WHY DOES EVERY LIGHT TRANSITION HAVE TO BLIND ME LIKE I’M STARING AT THE FUCKING SUN WHEN I’M JUST WALKING OUT A DOOR!?

-Unlocks: Like I said, lootboxes. I’m not spending another fucking dime on this game to get a better advantage

First person/Third person again. But for some reason the scope on this heavy pistol only shows up when in first person…THANKS EA!

Same gun, no scope, screws with my aim. THANKS EA!

I know this game is suppose to be an ‘Arcade Battlefield’ title. You’re suppose to get in, play a little bit, to distract you for a bit, then that’s it. But we all know that type of game is reserved for the private time when you’re on the toilet or wasting time while you’re on the bus. There are a lot of us who will be playing this game for hours on end because we want this weapon, that unlocked, etc. And compared to the first Battlefront that EA made, this is SLIGHTLY better. That game was ATROCIOUSLY BAD. So bad I wanted my $10s back for spending money on it. Now overall Battlefront 2 is better but there are so many game play problems with it, right now they don’t seem that much different. Better in some areas, worse others.

The one thing I’ve had an EXTREME problem with and is COMPLETELY UNFOR-FUCKING-GIVABLE after so many major titles launched with this problem: lag. How in the hell can you launch Battlefield 3 with lag problems and almost immediately fix it, BF4 was a MESS at launch and wasn’t completely “fixed” after what was a long time. Hardline, as far as I know launched with no problem, as did BF1 (however as of the recent DLC that has changed) but do you think launching Battlefront 2 with this problem that no one would notice?

What is with this random squads screen? When I’m playing with a friend, I want to spawn WITH MY FRIEND. Not just some random people. THANKS EA!

And no I’m not talking about some annoying stutter or every couple of hours theirs a “freeze.” I’m talking about game locking, “don’t know if you’re modem is dying because this might be packet loss,” “30 seconds of people running in place to find out who killed you finally” lag. And CONSTANTLY. You get an hour of freedom from it a night then it just turns into a completely unplayable mess. On average I get one good match a night where there is no lag then it turns into “I’m shooting my heavy pistol as fast as a machine gun cause the game doesn’t know if I shot or not and I’m sliding backwards even though I’m trying to move forward” lag.

So if any of you read the beginning where I was bitching about 500 kills and saying how much I suck…I don’t mind the number I need to get it, I mind the fact I CAN’T GET A KILL BECAUSE I’M STRAFING INTO A FUCKING CORNER AGAINST MY WILL!

Honestly that’s my biggest hangup about this game. I want to play and enjoy it but I can’t do that when I have almost no control of myself.

That and the fact that the game mechanics have a “Avenge/Revenge” spotting system which I guess is exactly what the pilots in the first game wanted? I don’t know. In other words, when you get killed by someone when you respawn you get a 3D spotted target (for a limited time) of the person/vehicle who killed you saying “Revenge” under it, as a device to make you say “screw helping the team, gonna kill this sumbitch who killed me.” It also works when you see a teammate die, it will 3D spot the target for “Avenge” (limited time) which I think most people tend to ignore. And that’s all fine and dandy of course but what do you think that works with starfighters? Yep, if they “witness” a teammate die from someone a mile up, they see the 3D spot of of the person and of course being a starfighter, instantly murder him and everyone around him and almost no way to counter them from the ground.

The server was lagging so hard that people were leaving. This was the best I could do that match. Ironically, it would only find me this server all night. THANKS EA!

Another starfighter is the only sure fire way to get deal with it…if you’re able to stay alive longer than 3 seconds when you spawn in one because more than likely the enemy fighters instantly murder you as you spawn with no way around it because there is no spawn protection and they can see you spawn from across the map.

And certain (Galactic Assault) maps have starfighters and I personally feel like they shouldn’t be on there but I guess since the movies had them fine…make people happy? But “air support” should strictly be a team effort. They shouldn’t just be able to murder the entire team in there spawn, they should be a bit hit and miss and only really powerful when there team is able to spot them and not the random “avenge/revenge” spots the game normally do, which I believe should taken completely out of the game.

Then theirs the loading of the game. What the hell is going on? It’s load times seem completely random. Sometimes it’ll take 15 seconds to load the same map for a new match, other times (I timed it) it took a MINIMUM of 3 minutes to load the same map. Then other map it loads I won’t even have time to take a sip of my drink before it’s ready then it will go and get stuck loading the main menu. It took 5 MINUTES to load the main menu one time…and I honestly don’t know if it would’ve loaded because I finally go so sick of it I alt-F4’d. Seriously, how in the sweet name of the Frostbite engine did they think this was okay?

I guess I should move on to the pluses of the game which seem a bit few and far between but I guess I it needs to be said. It’ll be short though, just out of my annoyance of the game.

Like anything the Frostbite engine does, it is very, very pretty and sounds awesome. They really need to learn, however, to LET GO OF HDR and simple do a “slightly darker/slightly lighter” lighting system because even when I have HDR turned off, going from inside to outside (unless the lighting is more/less the same) is just A PAIN. If you want to blind me when I look at the sun, fine. But when I’m just walking outside and it feels like either I walked into a the whitest bed sheet possible or the game is broken, does not good game play make.

Huh, I was trying to be positive but even the positives have a negatives.

Yep, unlock better ways to kill but it’s completely random. THANKS EA!

The gun play (when you’re not lagging that is) feel good, responsive. The selection of guns person class is limited (as mentioned above) to four as of now.

Voice acting is good. When orders/buffs are shouted and the team responds feel very investing into your gameplay. And of course all the droids are spot on.

Only time will tell how well the game gets developed, especially with the Loot box mechanic they say they’re going to keep in. Hopefully they’ll actually listen to everyone and try and make amends with gamers but I’m honestly not holding my breath. When it comes to customization, compared to the first one this one is completely empty. But probably it’s there it just hasn’t been unlocked yet, next DLC here we come. Or even better yet, the customization feature just hasn’t dropped in our loot boxes yet. Because I was expecting to be a (Googles name) Blue Twi’lek because they were in the first game and while I never unlocked it (cause fuck level 50) I was expecting something along the lines of the first game: play, get credits, unlock what you want. The current loot box system/crafting/buying is, ignoring the obviously P2W aspect, is just a complete and total mess.

Flying in any game mode takes time to get use to with the dead zone and the only insult to be as a ‘casual’ fan of the series. WHERE…ARE…MY…DROIDEKA’s!? HUH EA!!?? Coming in a DLC isn’t it? THANKS EA!

Notice to EA: If you want a better review you have two options:

1. Admit you fucked up royally, make a better game and respect the people that buy your games.

2. Spend a MINIMUM of 4,500 hours kissing my ass and expect that to triple after that amount of time. (Link)

3. Spend $2,100 on my loot boxes (1 chance in a trillion to get a good review but is locked behind “Rank 10: Decent Human Being” determined by me)

(*The above review and personal feeling about it are my own and do not represent the opinions of Ansible Gaming.)