Star Wars Battlefront II is coming, and it’s my responsibility as a videogame Internet writer person to provide a take on it. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan (although I got a pretty big kick out of The Force Awakens ), but I did enjoy EA’s recent Battlefront revival quite a bit. It was oddly light on content for a big, AAA shooter, but its foundation was rock-solid. From a pure mechanics perspective, it was fantastic. Now that the trailer for Star Wars Battlefront II has leaked, it’s time to speculate. More importantly, it’s time to take a look at what the trailer teases about the new game, and apply that to what this new game needs to make up for the first one’s lukewarm reputation.
First and foremost, we need to talk single-player. We all thought for a long time that multiplayer-only shooters could do the big bucks, but Star Wars Battlefront and the first Titanfall proved otherwise. Just as many people only play Call of Duty ’s campaign mode as people who only play online. Titanfall failed and the brand never recovered, but Star Wars is strong enough that people will buy no matter what. Except this time, the word of mouth will be better simply because that many more people will be able to jump in and play. The campaign teaser is just enough for EA to say, “Yeah, we got one now.” At this point that’s enough.
The second major point in the Star Wars Battlefield II trailer is the expanded use of the Star Wars setting itself. The first was vaguely tied to the original trilogy, although Jakku was also used, but its lack of a campaign also contributed to a lack of identity. Now, it seems like online will be more of a “all of the Star Wars ” kind of deal. Obviously it’s impossible to tell if there’s any crossover, but fans of individual characters and movies should be much more satisfied this time around. The lack of stages and content in the first one meant playing as the hero or villain characters had only so much novelty, so expanding the roster to the degree of including all three eras should help in that regard.
With just a short trailer with really only two major focuses, and a third on the inevitable DLC tomfoolery, Star Wars Battlefront II is already a promising prospect. Having a story mode alone, assuming it’s the usual 5-8 hours’ worth, should be a major selling point. The different possibilities for angles should have the nerds speculating for months leading up to this thing’s release, and the more die-hard fans will likely have plenty to chew on with the online modes. The key here is content.
Usually I’m not one to argue for content volume in a game, especially one with good core play, but shooters almost need content, with regular additions via reasonable DLC to keep things alive. That said, a campaign, assuming it’s valuable and meaty, will help keep Star Wars Battlefront II in more evergreen territory.
What do you all think? Star Wars Battlefront II is just a bit of pre-rendered footage right now, but there’s a lot of room for improvement, and DICE seems committed to making up for last time’s disappointments. Let us know what you want to see in the comments.