I’m sure some of you have heard about the release that is Star Wars: Battlefront. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to see, play, or at least hear about this game somewhat. It is EA’s first Star Wars franchise release since Lucas arts was disbanded and they were given the rights by Disney. As someone who has played almost every Star Wars video game, I find this release to be very important.
Let me start by saying that me and EA haven’t had the best relationship in the past, as I’m sure is the case with many PC gamers. Where as Lucasarts has always held a special place in my heart and my game list…. I’m sure many of you have series where just the faint hope that a game might recapture that magic is enough to keep you buying (looking at you silent hill fanbase… keno machines come out next year!) Sadly, I have quite a few of these and star wars games in general are on that list. So I’ve been stewing over my opinion on Battlefront… going through lists of features that could have been done better (Lightsaber combat, more rebel vehicles, server lists on top of matchmaking), minor complaints, and hours of streams of the game trying to decide how I feel and I think I’ve finally come to a decision…. [dramatic pause]
I think Battlefront for all it’s faults is a game that is good in a long list of ways and I actually want to commend Electronic Arts. Now as I said, the game has some faults but it also has it’s strengths and the combination of both of these are why I think Electronic Arts deserves some respect… They not only picked up a franchise that has a lot of die hard fans but also decided to take on attempting to recreate one of the series in the franchise that fans loved… That is a move as dangerous as it is bold, and seeing the game they came out with it is clear that the strength and weaknesses fall in a lot of the same categories of the original battlefront and battlefront 2. Knowing they didn’t just pick up the franchise and immediately start changing things shows a sense of respect to the player community that it is good to see. Not that Battlefront is without a few nice upgrades (graphics and expanded weapons for a start) but they didn’t overstep to try to do new things…
This also gives me some bright hope looking ahead to what EA will do with the franchise… They went back to a beloved game and made it new again with the promise of new content rolling out in season passes. What I’d love to see for the future is the revitalizing of some of my other favorite Star Wars titles like X-wing and especially Jedi Knight.
I am not sure how much freedom Disney has given EA to make/continue the star wars stories as Battlefront is lacking a campaign mode and only follows loosely what is already established in the original three movies. My hope is that Disney doesn’t mind a more complete universe around their movies as they would allowed for continued adventure of Kyle Katarn, maybe a chance to catch up with Ahsoka and Anakin in the clone wars, and other fun flights while we wait for more movies to come out.
Until then, I’ll be here dreaming of more adventures in that galaxy far, far away.