Star Wars Battlefront 2: 4 Things We Don’t Like

With the multiplayer beta for Star Wars Battlefront 2 about to wrap up, feedback has been pouring in with early thoughts aplenty. The general consensus is that there’s a distinct improvement on the original with a ton of added depth, though it’s hard for some to shake reservations.

Having played the beta almost to the point of ennui, I have mixed but mostly positive feelings on the game. The content on offer gets tiring pretty fast, so it’s lucky that the full game supposedly has a whole heap of different maps and customisation waiting. Apart from the restrictions imposed by the beta, however, there were some other things about Battlefront 2 that left me with a raised eyebrow.

 

1. Sniping

Sniping in Battlefront 2, while just about passable, never feels really satisfying enough to make the Specialist your go-to. Just like its predecessor, sniping is very lightweight and somewhat arcade-y: aim down the scope and shoot. There’s no weapon sway or anything, just a shooting gallery.

It also doesn’t help that the sniper rifles provided in the beta feel severely underpowered and that the action is a bit too quick to justify going for a more reserved and patient approach. At least four shots are needed to dispatch of an opponent (unless you can rack up headshots with the meager scope) and considering other weapons are fairly robust on their own from distance, it’s hard to recommend picking up a sniper rifle. Definitely needs some work before the full release.

 

2. Squads

In the midst of a firefight, it’s nigh on impossible to keep track of your squad because there’s no yellow outline on them, unlike the original reboot. While this must be a bug rather than a misjudged change, being in a squad overall just feels a little limp, like it was added in for the sake of an ever so slight gameplay twist.

Battlefront 2 looks like it’s aping Battlefield more than its predecessor and while that might split opinions, it should certainly look at Battlefield’s far better squad mechanics and take a few inspirations. A command wheel wouldn’t go amiss (as liable as they are to get spammed to death by terrible people) so that you can nudge your teammates to your position or that they should just get on the objective. If they could get anywhere close to the kind of mechanics found in Republic Commando, I would be a happy boy indeed.

 

3. Strike

Based on the beta, Strike needs quite a lot of balancing before launch. While the core of it is great, asking you to capture an artifact and return it to an extraction point or to stop the opposition from doing so, the final stretch turns into a nasty mess of explosions and attrition.

As the attacking team progresses, they get alarmingly close to spawn points for the opposition so the odds are seriously stacked against them to make ground. Once the artifact is dropped, defenders can effectively set up shop on the objective and wait for the disjointed attackers to try and claim it back. After a while, the artifact will be returned to the starting point and the painful process starts over again. With some tweaks, Strike could be a twitchy, chaotic joy rather than the wall of death and frustration it is now.

 

4. Crates

The most contentious gameplay facet of Battlefront 2 by far, crates have been prominently creeping their way into full-price AAA games for the past year. While it’s difficult to tell exactly how hard the grind will be in the main game, crates in the beta seem relatively well-balanced. That being said, they certainly favour those who have been playing longer – newbies may be in for a very rough ride a few months after launch.

There’s a staggering amount of different crates in the beta with the loot within them being randomised. The more progress you make, the better Star Cards you get with some even buffing your skills in terms of recharge rates and so on. This might not sound like a lot, but in a 1v1 situation with a guy who’s been playing for ten hours versus someone who’s only just loaded the game up, the odds are only tilted one way.

The crates in Battlefront 2 make me a little nervous and easily raise the biggest question mark, especially as they can be tied to microtransactions. Pitting bought progress against earnt progress is a dangerous tactic from EA and might endanger Battlefront 2’s longevity. With all post-launch DLC being free, the new tack they’re going for is clear, but if crates cause a serious imbalance as is the concern, there might not be enough players around to play the Greedo spin-off single-player campaign we all so desperately desire.

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