First off, I'll start by being honest; I hated this game. The first couple of hours in I was basically cannon fodder. A mindless Imperial or Rebel sent to die on some blaster-scorched battlefield across the galaxy. Yes, this wasn't all that much fun. Sure, the game was visually stunning, the soundtracks was impressive, and the mechanics, even they felt pretty easy to use. I had jumped into a galaxy far, far away and I was being slaughtered.
Angrily turning my PS4 off, I decided this game wasn't for me. But it was Star Wars, I love the franchise, and here I was stuck with a game that left me angered and enraged I was constantly being bettered. So, I came back to it, calmer, and ready to fight again - this time I picked a more welcoming game mode (Drop Zone) and eased myself back in.
Soon, after a few hours my KDR went the right way and I had acclimatized. That's one of the decent aspects of this game, for noobs it's easy to get into, providing you can put up with being destroyed the first few times.
Despite the minimal maps (four planets with various maps for various modes) you do get a reasonable amount of content. There are enough game modes to keep you busy. Fancy a dogfight, head into Fighter Squadron, want to wage an all-out battle on a massive scale? Go for Supremacy. There's enough options here to keep anyone interested.
The main reason I would say for buying this, the one that separates this from any other shooters, is Star Wars. It's an okay shooter, but it's the IP that makes this the pull (for me). This game shows us the wars that happen in this universe, the conflicts skimmed over in the films. This throws us deep into the trenches and more. I found myself thinking sometimes as I watched my fellow Imperials gunned down that these are people on two sides of a war. There's not necessarily the Good or Evil factor in this, just two sides with different views.
Imagine being on a lava-filled conflict zone, Tie Fighters and X-Wings scream overhead in dogfights. A ship comes down, raining hellfire down from above, but they crash in front of you. This is what you can experience in this game. Full-on conflicts, played out against a galactic backdrop. It's enough to keep the heart pumping on overdrive.
This isn't a game I would say is fantastic playing solo, you need a partner or a team to get full potential out of it. The times i have played with my friends and we've been coordinating attacks by mic makes a massive difference to team results. Solo is fun, teams are better.
Can I recommend this game to someone seeking out just an FPS to start with? Yes. but be aware there are better shooters out there. It's easy to get into, easy to learn the controls. As a Star Wars fan will you like this game? In short - yes. It'll give you a kick to play as a Rebel or Imperial, I certainly do. Just a word of warning, the DLC is quite expensive and just be sure that you're prepared that you will need to invest fully to get the most out of this game. It's a kick, but the four base planets plus Jakku coming in December mean this is light on settings, but heavy on modes - a fair compromise.
Overall, enjoyable, fun, and I get to live out fanboy fantasies in a world I could only look at before.
Nice work, DICE.