The original Star Wars Battlefront game launched back in 2004 for the original XBox, PlayStation 2 and PC and the two original games still remain as the top games in the Star Wars franchise. DICE and EA in 2015 take up the Star Wars License after Disney acquired the rights to work on the next Star Wars films and what we get is a reboot of the Star Wars Battlefront games which heavily focuses on the Online Multiplayer rather than Single Player. Star Wars Battlefront was well known for the multiplayer allowing everyone to take the legendary battles of the Stars Wars universe offline and online with friends. What you are getting with this reboot is a multiplayer focused game that feels mostly lacking in the content department but with gameplay and presentation that does the franchise justice.
The first thing that you see when you boot up the game for the first time and play a tutorial mission as the game is installing on your hard drive is how absolutely fantastic and gorgeous the game looks. The game does a brilliant job recreating the various locations from the films with the Frostbite 3 engine, from the Forest Moon of Endor, the Snowy Planet of Hoth and also the Dessert Sands of Tatooine the attention to detail is superb and has plenty of small props and areas that many will recognise, the quality is stunning even upclose and the uniforms on both the Rebels and Imperial Storm Troopers look accurate and are incredibly well detailed. The lights, explosions and other visual effects are beautiful and the blasters like standard Storm Trooper blasters and vehicles in the game like X-Wings and Tie Fighters to AT-STs and Airspeeders are very faithful to the material in every way possible. It is an incredibly well detailed game that looks and sounds like the films and has the feeling that you are taking part in each of the Star Wars franchise's iconic battles so the developers have done a fantastic job with the source material. It is also very well optimised and runs very well and smooth especially on the consoles despite how much chaos is going on the battlefield.
The one thing I don't like is the decision to only focus on the original trilogy era and leave out the clone wars era. Sure, the prequel movies were not all that great but it makes the game incomplete without them since the old Battlefront games had both the prequel and original trilogy eras so to not include it was really not a great decision on the designer's part.
Now the game itself doesn't feature any kind of single player story campaign to follow instead there are a bunch of different online game modes and single player battle scenarios played on your own or with a partner locally or online via friend invites. For Single Player games there is the Battle Missions where you have to defeat enemies to take their tokens for points while also ensuring that the enemy doesn't do the same to you and your buddies' kind of like Call of Duty's Kill Confirmed. Also, there is Training Missions which allow you to practice how to use the Vehicles and also the Hero characters as well which is a good way to introduce the game mechanics. Lastly there is Survival Mode where you endure waves of incoming Storm Troopers, Tie Fighters and AT-ST enemies alone or with a friend. While they are decent enough to play but the intensity is different to playing online with real players because the AI is either good at easily taking you down or just being an easy target to shoot at. Also, the spawn points are utterly stupid at times where you can spawn in a dangerous area with Tie Fighters and other enemies in front of you shooting you down without much time to react.
The online game modes are where you are going to be spending the majority of the time playing, these are Walker Assault, Supremacy, Fighter Squadron, Blast, Cargo, Droid Run, Hero Hunt and Heroes VS Villains. The stand out mode out of the whole game is Walker Assault, in this mode you are either escorting the AT-AT Walkers as the Imperials or trying to destroy them as the Rebels. This is done by setting up uplink stations indicated on the map to be able to call in Y-Wings to be able to damage the walkers, if the walkers survive the number of attacks the Imperials win. This mode recreates the iconic Battle of Hoth scene from The Empire Strikes Back with various troopers on both sides blasting each other, plus also to even the playing field there are vehicle power ups that let you control a Tie Fighter or an X-Wing to give their teams air support and also tow cable a AT-AT Walker like in the movie. There is lastly a Hero pickup that lets a lucky player who's able to find it control a Hero character and it is enjoyable to engage in ground combat, having several vehicles fight it out in the air and then having Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker enter the battle to lend their ground units a hand. Combine these with a high player count make for some chaotic but really enjoyable battles. Other Heroes include Emperor Palpatine, Boba Fett, Han Solo and Princess Leia and each of these have higher Health than regular troopers and also have unique abilities. If you are able to find a Hero pickup item that is well hidden in the map you can play as one of those characters to really unleash some massive damage on the opposing team and I was able to play as a Hero in these matches a couple of times and had fun unleashing havoc as Emperor Palpatine on the Imperial Side or tearing Rebels to pieces as Darth Vader.
Supermacy has two teams trying to capture the enemies control point on the map while defending their own, this game mode is also rather enjoyable when players are in the control point fighting to take it with heroes and vehicles helping out. Fore less chaotic game types you also have Blast Mode which is Team Deathmatch mode and Cargo which is Capture the Flag and those modes are standard multiplayer gamemodes. Droid Run has players capturing Droids on the map and holding them for a set time against the enemy and Drop Zone has players capturing a Drop Pod that spawns on the map and making sure the enemy team doesn't get their hands on it. These modes are fun enough allowing to focus on less chaotic gunfights especially with a lower player requirement count. Lastly there are Hero Hunt and Heroes VS Villains which are Hero based game modes where in Hero Hunt one player controls a Hero character has to get as many kills possible while everyone has to defeat that player to become the next Hero and Heroes VS Villains has up to three characters from the Light and Dark Sides fighting each other in round-based matches. The Hero game modes are enjoyable when you do get a chance to play as a Hero character whenever if it is either Luke Skywalker allowing you to blow Storm Troopers away with his Lightsaber and Jedi Powers, or blasting Rebel Scum away while in the air as Boba Fett. Lastly there is Turning Point where you are either attacking or defending points on the map to hold off the enemy's advancement and this is also a half decent mode to play.
The gameplay and control on the other hand is what sets this game apart from the classic Battlefront games. It uses the gameplay mechanics and controls of the Call of Duty and Battlefield games from Health Regeneration when playing as a standard Trooper, to zooming and shooting but with the ability to play in either First Person or Third Person view modes as well as being able to switch view sides which helps when aiming and also being able to roll to the side to avoid enemy fire if used effectively. Only thing I don't get is that when you get to play as a Hero character who uses a blaster you never get to use them in First Person which is kind of odd considering the old Battlefront II allowed First Person with the blaster heroes. Each of the Blasters handle differently from firing rate to damage output and they range from pistols, standard blaster rifles and heavy rifles, a shock blaster which works like a shotgun and also a sniper rifle. Instead of having an ammo counter instead every blaster has unlimited ammo but it operates on a Heat System where if a blaster is fired for too long it will overheat and you have to wait for it to cool off unless you press the action button at the right time to instantly cool your blaster off and keep firing. This gives the combat a more run and gun feel as you don't need to worry about ammo when fighting plus, I noticed that the accuracy of hitting a target is the same whenever you are firing from the hip or aiming down the sights. The only differences in blasters that you are going to notice when playing is what blasters shoots faster, what blaster has a scope and what blaster has a burst fire function. You also have different star cards which give you different abilities that operate on a cooldown and you unlock these alongside new blasters by increasing your rank and earning credits through matches. These abilities include using a terminal detonator which acts as a grenade, a charged-up sniper rifle, barrages which shoots 3 mini grenades, a bowcaster, to also charge cards like cooling cells that let your blaster fire for longer and explosive shots which deals more damage at the expense of overheating faster and they last for a set time plus and lastly a jetpack that allows you to fly up and get onto the high ground. All of these abilities operate on a cool down as I mentioned before which tries to stop people from spamming grenades but just because one person has thrown one grenade doesn't mean that another person next is going to throw a grenade to flush you out. You can also equip traits which offer passive skills like being able to do more damage firing from the hip, taking less damage from enemies, having faster health regeneration and so on. You also do find power ups in the map from Thermal Imploders which have a high blast radius, gun turrets, one shot rocket launchers and also droids which attack an enemy within their vicinity.
The control and the combat work fine, the blasters are fine and feel great to use and the ability to customize different loadouts allows you to have different setups for multiplayer matches ignoring preset class-based abilities and loadouts from the old games. You can either have a loadout for standard ground combat and being able to jetpack out of the way in the heat of the moment or have a loadout that makes you more effective against vehicles. It's a game that allows for deep customization allowing you to have variety and strategy before entering a match.
Now the online gameplay isn't perfect the spawning can be stupid at times, either spawning you far away from the map or right in front of an enemy that is about to shoot you from behind before you had any chance to react which in some matches people might up spawn camping. The online servers work great, I had no problems getting into most servers as of 2021 in the time I am currently reviewing this game and I have a very stable connection for more than 95% of my time I spent online without any kind of lag spike or latency issues. I had only issues with finding matches in game modes that I needed to do and this is where Battlefront (2015)'s biggest problem lies.
The biggest issue is that this game is very bare bones in its content. There are nine game modes in the base game with only five locations from the movies to choose from. After only a few hours of playing the online modes you pretty much seen what this game has on offer and the amount of time you are going to spend online extends to unlocking new blasters, abilities and skins for your characters which for appearances it is not the best reason to stick around longer especially if you reached the rank cap. The number of maps and locations is lackluster at best for an online focused multiplayer and the offline modes barely add any extra play time to it unless you are aiming to work on unlocking the Trophies which is the only reason to keep playing. Now as of the most recent patches made for the game DICE and EA did release DLC which adds more locations like Jabba's Palace, the Death Star, the Cloud City of Bespin and lastly Scarif. They also added new gametypes and these are Sabotage where you have to destroy an objective as the Rebels or defending the objective and stopping the Rebels from escaping as the Imperials. There is Extraction where Rebels have to escort a cargo to the extraction point while Imperials have to stop the Rebels from escorting it, Battlestation combines on ground combat and space combat in the Death Star before the Rebels get to blow up the Death Star just like in A New Hope. Lastly there is Infiltration where Rebels have to escort U-Wings to the Shield Gate Map so that they can land down, plant a bomb and then steal Data Tapes while as the Imperials they have to hold the Rebels off. These new modes do allow the Hero characters to be played, they are okay to play and the DLC adds more characters to play around like Chewbacca, Bossk, Lando, Dengar and also Director Krennic and Jyn Erso from Rouge One and they are pretty decent enough to play as. Only real issue with the DLC is that they are incredibly difficult to get a match going and it is common that you will be sitting in an empty lobby, that's because there are less and less people playing the game in the current year and those who still remain playing are only playing Walker Assault, Blast or Cargo Modes. Some of the new maps that they added in through DLC honestly aren't even worth the money and they should have been with the actual base game to begin with considering the lack of available maps this game offers. The DLC does add a few new blasters and abilities like Bacta Bombs which are a nice addition but however the EE-4 remains as one of the most overpowered blasters in the game it's common that you'll find a player that spams that weapon and get a ton of kills with it. There is also the Slugthrower Scatter Gun which I always heard that it is one of the most overpowered weapons in the game and you'd often hear most people spam it which can ruin someone's time online. Yes, I'm aware that it is overpowered as it can easily kill anyone in one shot and easily take out anyone even in shields.
Speaking of players while I do like the customization where you can edit your loadouts before a match adding depth and strategy but however it is common to get grenade spammers as I mentioned before. You also get players online who also spam Jetpacks, zig-zag and roll patterns that you can't do much about plus also use EE-3 and EE-4 which are the most overpowered weapons so if you are going to try out the online multiplayer let me warn you, you are doing to drop like a bag of dirt a lot. It's not because you are playing against people who legit are way better than you it's more that you are fighting people who uses exploits to get their wins alongside them having all of the Blasters and abilities than you do. It's impossible to now play the game in a casual fashion and instead have to resort to tactics, try to stick with teammates and hope for the best that you can get some kills before someone shoots you down first. Combine these issues with players spamming Scatter Guns and Jetpacks then you are in for an Online Multiplayer experience ruined by players who have all abilities than you and also spam those against you without you being able to do anything making a lot of matches unfair for the wrong reasons. You're not losing matches because you are playing against people who legit are better than you, you are losing matches because people spam this ability and spam this one weapon to be a total nuisance to everybody online and ruin their fun. This is why Star Wars Battlefront (2015) is not the multiplayer game to return to in the current year to due to ridiculousness of overpowered weapons, abilities and cheap exploits that do not make the game fun to play anymore.
If you ask me what my favourite game mode is in the whole package it's Walker Assault, this is because of the higher playcount plus also it manages to recreate the scenes of the Star Wars Empire Strikes Back into the game faithfully. I enjoyed the game modes when playing on the Imperial side where I relentlessly attacked rebel scum away either on foot with my squad, using Bacta Bombs to heal when needed or on an AT-ST where I just blasted the helpless rebels away and it feels so good doing it. The weakest game mode by far is Fighter Squadron, don't get me wrong it is good fun when Han Solo's Millennium Falcon and Boba Fett's Slave 1 join the fray and it does give you plenty of AI enemies to shoot it but however the lock on is very temperamental. I say this because after you lock on target and shoot you have to wait a while to be able to lock on again which is kind of annoying with dozens of people all over the map about to shoot at you.
Thankfully the updates added a Skirmish Mode where you can play the Walker Assault and Fighter Squadron offline against bots and while the intensity is different to playing against actual players online it does help you to chill while also helping to get better at the game. Only thing is that for your records and achievements to actually matter you need to play the online matches which this game does keep track of your current records alongside the Star Wars Companion App for iOS and Android devices. Again, the number of maps and modes available to play is lacking just like the online mode and it is also a shame that you can't play the DLC maps and other game modes offline against AI bots.
While the gameplay of Star Wars Battlefront has it high points that makes the game faithful to the material but the content on offers even with the DLC that you need to pay additional money for after paying full price for make the overall package full flat. It doesn't have the Clone Wars Era which is a shame, there is no real single player campaign or story to follow and the maps on offer are just bare bones and will become boring after a few hours of playing. It has a lot of effort put into the presentation and it does look like you are playing a part of the Star Wars movies but once you see what the game has on offer, you'd properly want to go back to the 2005 classic Star Wars Battlefront II. It's not worth getting at full price but at a discount sale or second-hand deal for like under £5 unless the price for the DLC reduces considerably. Also compared to the later released 2017 version of Star Wars Battlefront II which I'll review soon this game feels incomplete and is for the most part just a Battlefield game reskin with a Star Wars look to it that concentrated too much on the Multiplayer and nothing else. It is a difficult game to go back to compared to the 2017 Battlefront II game which improves and changes things in both positive and negative ways and it is also lackluster and ultimately devoid compared to the original Star Wars Battlefront games which were so good. What you are getting your money's worth at the end of the day is a tech demo and nothing else but at least it's a functional multiplayer game that didn't come out as a broken and buggy mess like what DICE and EA did with Battlefield 4. There is enjoyment to be had with the reboot of the Star Wars Battlefront (2015) just that you don't want to spend a lot of money on this when there are other games around the same year that are more worth the time and money.
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Game Score: 6.8/10
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Game Title: Star Wars Battlefront
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developer: DICE/EA
Genre: First Person/Third Person Shooter
Age Rating: PEGI: 16+
Release Date: November 19th 2015 (Europe)
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The Good Points:
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Looks absolutely gorgeous, runs well and looks like the films
Excellent and enjoyable online game modes
New gameplay style that is great and also allows for customizing different loadouts
The Bad Points:
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Does not have the Clone Wars era sides
Lackluster Multiplayer and Single Player Content and Maps
Awful Spawning System
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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