Star Wars Battlefront: A Year(ish) Later

To commemorate the release of the Scarif expansion for Star Wars Battlefront, I thought I’d write up a little review of sorts concerning where the game is now versus where it was when it came out just over a year ago. Cards on the table, I hadn’t played the game for a very long time before I started logging more hours over the last week or so when I decided this would be a cool idea for a post. When the game came out, I enjoyed it, it was Star Wars and it was beautiful, how could I not? Unfortunately, after the initial excitement wore off, the game turned out to be lacking in content and overall underwhelming. So, what do I think now, a year later? I guess you’ll just have to click below to find out…(+1 clickbait)

Campaign in the ass

This game needs a campaign mode. Period. The game has come a long way in a year as far as content goes, but will suffer forever from the utter lack of any sort of story. When it comes down to brass tacks, Star Wars is all about story. Sure, there are spaceship battles, lightsabers, the Force, stormtroopers, etc., but Star Wars would just be a shitty Michael Bay movie that's all flash and no substance if it was only those things and no story...and that's sort of what Battlefront is:  it's all the action and excitement with nothing to back it up. The thing that doesn't make sense to me is that we have what would have been a compelling campaign mode in Twilight Company, but, instead of being included as part of the game, it was released separately as a novel, but "branded" with Battlefront in the title...what the hell is that? Add it to the game and release it as a novel, then you don't have to worry about those that don't enjoy video games feeling left out of a canon story while also making the video game that, frankly, gamers are expecting...c'mon, would that really have been so hard? (I really have no idea, maybe it would have been, but they did it for The Force Unleashed, so I don't see why they couldn't have with Battlefront.) Even if it had delayed the game's release until after The Force Awakens came out, it would have given fans and gamers alike a much, much better end product. I guess it's too late to change this iteration of the game, but, hopefully, when they release the followup game they don't make this same mistake again...

Content with Content

As I mentioned above, the game has come a long way from the barebones multiplayer game it was at launch; however, quite honestly, with no campaign mode, the game is just now where it should have been when they were asking $60 for it last year. If you strip away the Star Wars aspect of the game and just look at it as a multiplayer-only (because, let's be honest, the offline missions are pretty much total garbage; they're like a demo mode to get used to the controls before you play the "real" game), first person shooter, it may have been the most lackluster title ever released. I feel like we honestly got taken for a ride for being Star Wars fans. But, that was then, if you shelled out even more money to get the season pass (like I did...I'm such a sucker), then you now have a much more fleshed out game that I've actually been finding myself enjoying quite a bit, especially the Death Star DLC. Previously, Fighter Squadron was by far my favorite game mode, so I really like that they've added more dogfighting to the game. I also really like the multistage game modes. It makes it almost (that's a very generous almost) feel like there's a story going on instead of just one-off missions over and over. Had the game been like this for the start, I guarantee I would have stayed invested for much, much longer...eventually, I would have ended up in the same position of longing for a campaign that I was in anyway, however, it would be interesting to know what kinds of DLC they would come up with if the current game was the jumping off point instead of the nearly finished product...

Bring on the Hutts

Another addition to the game since release that I really like is the Hutt contracts. It's so much more satisfying to earn the pieces of your battle hand by finishing a set group of tasks rather than just getting to a certain level and buying them. Plus, it gives you more to play for than simply winning or KD (kill/death ratio...mine is awful). They had added the daily challenges back when I was still playing, but they really didn't add much to the game aside from maybe determining what mode you played first if, for example, the challenge was to destroy x amount of ships in Fighter Squadron. With the Hutt contracts, however, you're actually working toward a "prize," so to speak, which is much more motivating. I also like how the contracts have tiers so if you find something you like, like the healing aspect they added, you can continue playing the style of game you enjoy while working toward more difficult contracts with upgraded rewards. The Hutt contracts definitely give the game some of the added depth it desperately need.

So, what do you lot think? Are you way into Battlefront and can't figure out why I'd say anything negative about it? Or do you hate it and can't imagine why I haven't burned my copy in effigy? Do you think it's a much better game now, or has it barely changed? (I don't know how anyone can honestly say it's not lightyears better, even if you liked it from the start.) I'd be interested to hear what anyone has to say in the comments, as always, and if anyone plays on PS4 and wants to team up with a really bad player, add blivengo on PSN. Now I'm gonna skedaddle and go see what this Scarif DLC is all about; hopefully it's another step toward making Battlefront the game it always should have been (well, as close as it can be without a campaign mode, anyway)...