When Electronic Arts acquired the rights to produce Star Wars games in 2013, the company prioritized the most obvious idea in the world: Battlefield’s developers making a multiplayer Star Wars game. Star Wars Battlefront launched a few years later, and more than anything else, DICE masterfully captured the Star Wars aesthetic. It was gorgeous to look at, a game that grabbed my attention for a while, despite a general disinterest in multiplayer games. I simply wanted to play in that world. I wasn’t alone, either; one of the biggest demands for the sequel was a story mode, which Battlefront II definitely has! Unfortunately, its good ideas are never given enough room to breathe.
It’s too damned condensed. One moment you’re an Imperial die hard, born and bred, and the next you’re tossing your entire belief system out the window, betraying family and allegiance, because of one event. Like Del (your buddy) mentions in game: This isn’t the first time your character has seen the Empire commit atrocities. Unlike Del, who seems to be struggling with it early on, Iden does a complete about-face in 5 minutes.
I think back to Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, and how Yun, one of the Dark Acolytes, slowly but surely is won over. It’s not an instantaneous event, but rather something that eats at him. Far more believable.
Maybe this is a misplaced sentiment… but reading this, I kept thinking, “These are the fruits of Walt Williams’s ode to crunch?”
I tried getting back into Star Wars novels after seeing (and loving) The Force Awakens, and for the most part they were disappointing. Claudia Gray’s Lost Stars was a major exception, and dealt with a similar time period and premise.
I wonder if anyone in a position of influence at Dice read it.
To be fair, this goes for WW2 as well. While I don’t doubt there’s some spectacle to both campaigns, they seem to follow the same story beats. Specifically, in WW2, Daniels is painted very early on as green as they come, yet a few missions later you’re working with the French resistance and infiltrating Paris undercover. Battlefront II seems to be like WW2, lots of good ideas that are smashed together.
I feel this is the way of most Star Wars games dealing with the Imperial side of things. Didn’t the Force Awakens do the same? You’re the bad ass secret apprentice of Darth Vader who inadvertently goes good and starts the rebellion. It’s like the best of both worlds. I’m pretty sure Force Commander did the same, you start off as an Imperial Officer and then deflect to the rebellion. The only game to really show the Imperial perspective through to the end was Tie Fighter but I don’t think we’re going to get a renaissance of those kinds of Star Wars games anytime soon. Which is tragic. I remain hopeful that Respawn’s game will be good, because those guys are super talented. But EA will probably ruin that one too.
I’m not going to bother with Battlefront 2. It’s not like the games have all dried up over here…
