Star Wars Battlefront 2 Gameplay Impressions: Hands-On With Arcade, Strike, Galactic Assault Modes, And More

Star Wars Battlefront II is out soon on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and the beta starts even sooner. We've already played some of what's on offer in the public beta, and so far we're impressed.

A number of modes are included in the beta, the first of which is called Arcade Mode. This can be played solo or in split-screen on consoles, offering a variety of challenges while also serving as a training ground to hone your skills and practice with new weapons or loadouts before jumping into online matches. Check out some gameplay of the split-screen portion below.

Strike is a smaller, objective-based mode with two teams of eight players. It focuses more on infantry (and less on vehicles or heroes) than the other modes seen in the game but still gives players their own powerful trooper loadouts to be earned by gunning down the enemy. We played a mission from the Star Wars: Force Awakens/The Last Jedi era in which the Rebels had to hold Maz's castle and prevent The First Order from retrieving an artifact and delivering it to their transport.

Galactic Assault, meanwhile, is a huge 20v20 mode. Objectives and maps evolve as the match progresses, with players earning points that can be redeemed to call in iconic vehicles, classes, and heroes. The map we played was based on Naboo, tasking Clone Troopers with defending the palace from waves of Separatist droids. Our mission was to take out the troop transport vehicle and hold the palace until the end of the game. Take a look at some galactic assault gameplay below.

Finally, in Starfighter Assault, squadrons of Rebel and Imperial fighters, bombers, interceptors, and hero ships battle among the twinkling stars of space. Matches are, once again, objective-based--the mission we played had the Rebels trying to break through Imperial blockades to destroy a docked Star Destroyer, with The Empire defending by shooting down waves of Y-wing bombers.

We have gameplay of all four modes in the video at the top of this article, so check it out and let us know what you think of Star Wars Battlefront II--which launches on November 17--in the comments below.