Star Wars Battlefront Review - I Find Your Lack of Depth Disturbing

[Loonyyy]

"Not for nightly gamers" "Not for gamers" "[something something] Battlefield". Oh, and the tutorial part? Do you remember the Battlefield 3 opening? Do you remember the godawful handholding of the entire waste of space that was the Battlefield 4 opening? Does this mean that Battlefield is made for people who "rarely play - or have never played - modern shooter games"?

You miiiiiiight want to talk about the actual game, rather than spend a good chunk of the review making a poor comparison. Like, yeah, DICE made it. But it's not a Battlefield title, and most of the people comparing and contrasting the two have no clue what they're talking.

"For Battlefield fans, this is not the team-based shooter you are looking for. Everyone else should evaluate on a case-by-case basis"

Yeah, that's the problem. I'm not a Battlefield fan, I'm sick to death of that piece of shit. I want to know about this game. Not about how you wished you were playing a class based shooter, or about how it could be more like Battlefield, or how the Heroes are OP (Because that's totally neeeeever been a part of Battlefront).

The only thing that this review told me that was of any real use was the content on offer. And I already knew that. There's very little in there that actually tells me about what the game is like from the perspective of having played it. I might as well being reading yet another ridiculously inaccurate comments section about the game.

Yeah, not really a great review.

Yeah. Can't say that review was particularly useful.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

The developers can say that Battlefront wasn't intended to just be Battlefield : Star Wars but the proof is in the published pudding.

It's completely valid to compare a multiplayer FPS shooter to its contemporaries and recent releases with similar mechanics, and there is undoubtedly a Battlefield skeleton beneath the Star Wars skin.

Where's the proof? Battlefront has no class system, less vehicle focus, more game modes, "heroes" and a very different base shooting mechanic (aiming and crouching does not affect accuracy, leading to gameplay that's more movement oriented). The only real similarities are that they are both team based, contain vehicles (in some modes) and can support fairly large battles.

Yet the review reads as a comparison to Battlefield, when the similarities are only superficial and genetic (being made by the same studio). Comparing to similar games is fine, that's a basic part of setting the score after all, but outright comparing to a game that is meant to occupy another niche (class based large scale battles vs free form open battles) is bordering on fallacious. It is like me comparing a cream cake to a schwarzwald cake and docking points because the cream cake doesn't have nuts and meringue in it. Sure, the cream cake doesn't have nuts and meringue in it, but that's very much the point of making a cream cake and not a schwarzwald.

 

[Joccaren]

So exactly like Battlefront 1 and 2?

I honestly don't know why people regard Battlefront 2 as this legendarily awesome Star Wars FPS.

I own the game on PC and really it is a very very simplistic game regardless. And to the people who were complaining this new Battlefront game is too much like Battlefield 3/4 with a Star Wars skin.

Battlefront 2 is Battlefield 1942 with a Star Wars skin.

Well, yes, and thankfully Dice went with the older games, rather than trying to copy their new games. It was the #1 call people didn't want them to do - we want Battlefront, not Battlefield. Modern battlefield games suck balls, especially the more Dice tries to turn them into serious games and remove all the fun shit that keeps people playing.

As for Battlefront being BF 1942... I've got both and no. Guns handle reasonably differently, Jedi and other heroes exist, map design is a lot more varied, Jetpacks, Space Battles, Galactic Conquest...
Yeah.

OT: So its not a Battlefield clone with a Star Wars skin?
GOOD.
This is exactly what everyone asked for, and its actually making it more tempting to get the game. I don't the games of today, I want an original battlefront style game.
That said, it is really lacking without the proper spacefights and single player modes like Galactic Conquest or the Campaign, but W/E.

This makes it tempting to get the game at some point actually. I might do so. Sounds like a game that'll be fun to just dick around in for a bit, which'll make it exactly the sort of game I want to play.

 

[RJ 17]

So this is essentially destined to go the way of Titanfall with ghost town servers within a month or two? Sounds about right.

Seriously though...$50 for a season pass...I'm still laughing at that bit!

 

[Glaice]

Looks like Battlefield: Star Wars edition to me, plus it's an EA published game so that's a big NO for me. I don't support mega publishers and neither should the average consumer.

 

[Denamic]

He's talking about how it's mechanically shallow, not having a story mode has nothing to do with that.

I know, most multiplayer games are shallow.

But what games are you including in "most multiplayer games?" Or perhaps it's better to ask what games aren't included in that statement? What games do you consider to have depth, and what do you even consider to be depth?

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

But what games are you including in "most multiplayer games?"

The thing is with multiplayer, is that there is only so much you can do with these games; Capture the Flag, etc. The games themselves might have some substance, but it is generally lost in multiplayer. The objectives for each kind of multiplayer game don't have a lot of depth to them, I think it's kind of required in order to keep the action moving.

 

[Rastrelly]

Yeah the game has no depth, most multiplayer only games don't. Blame the lack of a single player campaign.

In Quake pros can plasmawalljump while rocketing the opponent on the other half of the map, in HL pros can gausshop the whole place while eliminating everyone with homing missiles, in UT99 pros can telefrag half enemy team with properly picked set of leaps, while fragging other part via strategically sent in Redeeer shot, in the new Battlefront pros can shoot better. Yaaay!

 

[Denamic]

But what games are you including in "most multiplayer games?"

The thing is with multiplayer, is that there is only so much you can do with these games; Capture the Flag, etc. The games themselves might have some substance, but it is generally lost in multiplayer. The objectives for each kind of multiplayer game don't have a lot of depth to them, I think it's kind of required in order to keep the action moving.

I think you're confusing goal and method. In competitive games, the goal is always and should always be simple. Kill the enemy more than they kill you, destroy the enemy's base, capture the enemy flag, etc. You don't have a deep game because you have a complex goal. Depth is in the method. For example, in starcraft, your objective is to kill your enemy. It can't get any simpler than that, but to call it shallow would be monumentally wrong. I have 1300 hours in dota 2 and I'm still learning new things, yet the objective is as simple as it gets; destroy the enemy's base.

 

[Celador]

I think you're confusing goal and method. In competitive games, the goal is always and should always be simple. Kill the enemy more than they kill you, destroy the enemy's base, capture the enemy flag, etc. You don't have a deep game because you have a complex goal. Depth is in the method. For example, in starcraft, your objective is to kill your enemy. It can't get any simpler than that, but to call it shallow would be monumentally wrong. I have 1300 hours in dota 2 and I'm still learning new things, yet the objective is as simple as it gets; destroy the enemy's base.

That's actually a nice comparison and a valid point - the thing that makes dota 2 and other moba's so attractive is the ability to swap to a completely new hero which has completely different abilities, requires you to learn new tricks and tactics even if you play on the same exact map for a thousand hours. Even better if moba has several maps and game modes.

Unfortunately Battlefront fails to deliver any kind of diversity and depth on that... front.

Even so i was staring on checkout window during beta and still occasionally tempted to buy it. Just because of the looks and sounds alone. It's shallow and i will probably get bored in a week but lets face it - Fallout 4 can only carry you so far, there's nothing better to do this days.

Perhaps if i knew exactly what's coming in future dlc's i would've bought it.

 

[ManofMetropolis]

After reading complaint after complaint over Battlefront, I decided to chime in on why the hate is unwarranted. The two biggest complaints are that there is no campaign and there is a lack of content. I can see why someone would be deterred from purchasing a game with no campaign. I have been playing games all of my life, and it?s hard to wrap you head around the lack of a story for a game as big as battlefront, but that is not the game Dice set out to create. This game is made for Star Wars fans, and if you love Star Wars, do you really need to see the story of the original trilogy again? You know what happens. You know the backstory, the characters, and the battles. Instead of a story, this game gives you the chance to be inside of the world you have grown up with and cherished. The moment I picked up the controller and walked my trooper onto the snowy trenches of Hoth, I knew I was hooked. Laser fire blanketing the battlefield and x-wings and tie-fighters swooping overhead, the world has been recreated with extreme detail. The love for Star Wars shins through on each and every map, character model, weapon, and mode of play. The complaint of the lack of a campaign, is a weak one. Players know the story, and now they are playing as a part of it. You can fly a speeder or pilot an X-wing; kill hordes of rebels as Boba Fett in Battle mode or fight together with your friend as Han and Luke in Heroes vs. Villains mode.

This brings us to the so called ?lack of content.? This is laughable. There are so many modes of play in this game, it should be considered that DICE really has made a number of Star Wars games and blended them all together into a veritable smoothie of Star Wars goodness. The Training mode alone is enough to make a true Star Wars fan giddy. One moment you are flying through Beggar?s Canyon and the next you are chasing rebels through the forests of Endor. You can even play that battle of Hoth from Empire Strikes Back with a buddy splitscreen or online co-op. After you?re done altering Star Wars history and crushing the Empire on Hoth, you can hop into Survival Mode and fight of wave after wave of Imperial attack. This can be truly challenging a blast to play with a friend. Once you?ve has enough of training and co-op, it is time to delve into nine modes of multiplayer. Each one is a cleverly crafted and refreshing take on the modes we have all become familiar with in modern shooters. Dogfights in air warfare, capture the flag, and team deathmatch are all here, but the highlights are the 40 player Walker Assaults, Supremacy matches, and modes featuring heroes and villains. Without spoiling the magic of playing all of the modes for the first time, I?ll just say that this is obviously a game made by Star Wars fans, for Star Wars fans.

If you want a Star Wars story, watch a movie, read a book, or pick up one of the great new comic series that Marvel is pumping out these days. Let Battlefront be what it is; a game. Gamers have grown a little too accustom to having Grand Theft Auto and Fallout sized games, and don?t get me wrong, I love those type of games too, but it?s refreshing to pick up a game that is actually a ?game.? Something you can pick up and play to escape the mundane. You aren?t forced to dig deep into a story because you already know it. The world is familiar as are the controls and games modes. Battlefront is fun in a way that seems to be missing from many newer games. Simplicity is just mistakenly viewed as a ?lack of content.? But isn?t it sometime the simplest games that are the most fun? DICE has tapped into something that we seem to have forgotten as gamers. Games are supposed to be fun. Nostalgia and simplicity have been combined to create a beautiful ?Game? made for fans. Battlefront feels like a game that should have been made a long long time ago. The clever use of the license and characters make it stand out as one of the best Star Wars games ever made.