Team PC experienced the light and dark sides of the Star Wars: Battlefront beta. This is a conversation between our two game reviewers.
Fortunately (or unfortunately?) no Bothans were harmed during our participation in the recent Star Wars: Battlefront open beta on PC and PS4. Matt bravely dodged blaster fire on the PC, while Rul marched along with Lord Vader on the PS4. Developed by DICE, the same guys behind Battlefield 4 and Mirror’s Edge, is Battlefront the game that every Star Wars fan was waiting for?
Rul: Well… since it’s just the beta, only three modes were made available: A co-op campaign mission, and two multiplayer missions. The latter contains Drop Zone – a control point based 16-player map, and Walker Assault – a massive and chaotic objective based 40-player map, with vehicles.
Matt: I gave survival mode (in the co-op campaign) a go and felt it was too easy. It’s not hard to win at all, even solo if you want to. Just play smart and you’ll be fine. Even the AT-STs that appear aren’t a problem if you kite them. If DICE wants this mode to have some modicum of attention, then they should look into improving the AI and making it a lot more challenging.
Rul: Player participation for the game was quite positive for the open beta. On the PS4, there were moments that some had to wait for a server to open up due to the huge amount of players trying out the game.
Matt: Playing it on the PC wasn’t really all that different compared to the PS4, other than controls of course. The expected lag was present since so many people were scrambling to play, which would really help DICE gauge the server requirements they’ll need when the game is launched. The people in charge had better make sure there’s enough servers for everyone! This beta also managed to get a lot of feedback from players, so we can expect a more polished game when it’s out.
Rul: Lag was present during my playthrough, but then again, it’s something to be expected for hyped up multiplayer game. Matchmaking was surprisingly good, and most of the time, I was grouped into the Asian region to balance out the latency. Pity that Battlefront lacked a team microphone chat feature.
Rul: The loadout customisation was interesting, but lacking in terms of variety. Although, I’m sure we’ll be getting a lot more, including character customisation in the actual release of Battlefront. Personally, I kind of like the feature of being given a randomised character regardless of race or gender after every round.
Matt: I’m quite disappointed with the lack of a proper campaign mode. Sure, the game is intended for PvP, but does it have to exclude a unique campaign mode? And honestly, I don’t believe DICE when they say that very little people would want to play it. Although it might not have high replay value, I think many would still play it at least once. If it’s just a game where people shoot at each other, a price tag of 69.90 SGD (about RM210) is highway robbery! They even have a Season Pass for DLCs (56.90 SGD or RM171) before the game is even launched. That’s just no-no in my book.
Rul: I spent most of my time with Battlefront in the multiplayer, and I have to say that I enjoyed both missions provided in the beta. Drop Zone was fast and furious, where both teams clash to see who’ll obtain the most escape pods dropped during battle. Walker Assault felt like a great re-enactment of the Hoth battle in Empire Strikes Back. I’ve seen some players complained that the latter was imbalanced as it gave the Imperials more advantages, but I had no problem with it. As long the Alliance team stick to the objectives, they can definitely win.
Matt: Personally, I felt that the game needs to be better balanced, regardless if players have the right mentality and teamwork. What they can do is maybe make the power-ups for the Rebels stack up or synergise somehow, which would hopefully increase the faction’s win rate. That said, DICE should definitely consider a way to keep people on track and not just play the game like intergalactic Call of Duty.
