Ain’t nothin’ gonna save you from the love that’s blind, slip to the dark side and cross that line. On the dark side, oh yeah! Also, its a “Hated in the Nation” review!
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Year: 2017
Played on: PS4
Also on: Xbox ONE, PC
Developer: EA DICE
Publisher: EA
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You were the chosen one!
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Date posted: December 15, 2017
A
Review
PREMISE
The moment EA announced that all the DLC for Star Wars: Battlefront II would be free this at E3, red flags immediately went up for not only me, but for the thousands of considered fans as well.
I know it’s strange to open a review like this, but from the get go, I could sense a disturbance in the force. Who couldn’t, really? Everyone knew something odd was going on behind the scenes. We all knew what was coming- we just didn’t expect it to be like this.
The saddest part about this entire fiasco is the fact that Battlefront II 2017 is really not that bad of a game- it’s just that EA, in their finite wisdom, decided to follow the money, and now the game has suffered for it. BF II ’17 is a cautionary tale of what it’s really like to be overtaken by the dark side. “Yes, let the greed flow though you!”- Andrew Wilson
Okay, so what is Battlefront II anyway? Well, it’s simple- a cashgrab! After that, it’s actually a pretty solid FPS multiplayer game where you go to various famous Star Wars locales. The maps are huge, have multiple objectives, and look pretty nice! There’s even some singleplayer content- but it’s not as nearly as entertaining as multiplayer. And no, there is still no Galactic Conquest mode from the classic Battlefront II. Not only does EA want all your money, they won’t listen to you as well, it seems!
So, does Battlefront II 2017 get anything right?
PROS
First and foremost, the game actually looks great! It’s the one trait that actually blows BF 2005 out of the water! Don’t get me wrong- 2005 does not look bad, persay, but BF 2017 looks astounding- there is so much attention to detail in the environments in such. You can almost tell that someone on team actually liked Star Wars! Almost!
The gunplay is well done, in my opinion. You have have four main classes here- assault, heavy, officer, and specialist. Assault is your basic ground trooper, the one you’ll most likely use for most objectives. Then you have the heavy, which is better in my opinion for more close quarters combat, and has the ability to pull out a minigun- easily my most favorite class, and the one I do best with. You also have the officer class, which provides support in the way of giving temporary boosts to their teammates, as well as having the ability to lay down sentries or bubble shields. Lastly, we have the specialists, who is pretty much the sniper class- they have the ability to see any enemies on the battlefield using their binoculars, and can even mark them for teammates. I find this class to be the hardest to use- probably because other snipers seem to kill you quite easily!
So not only do you have these four classes, but you also have a myriad of different specialty troops that can be unlocked if you achieve enough battle points in a match. This includes various jet troopers, dark troopers, wookies, battle droids, and so on. Battle points is also how you get to play as heroes, like Luke, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Darth Vader, and Boosk. Yes Boosk is in the game! Vehicles are done the same- you can even take to the skies and take down enemy aircraft on most maps (though you can’t land your ship on the battlefield…)
There is an entire mode dedicated to space battles, and these are quite fun as well! You once again, have various objectives, and multiple ships to use. Gunning down enemy players is incredibly satisfying! It’s actually no wonder this mode is so good- Criterion, the minds behind Burnout, were mostly in charge for the space battles. Sweet!
There’s singleplayer stuff, like campaign and arcade mode, but, eh, I don’t know. The campaign was alright, I guess- writing this review, I have yet to play the new DLC they released that wraps up the story. It’s serviceable, but I found myself going back to the multiplayer and just ignoring the story.
The final good thing I’ll say about BF 2017 is that EA has actually kept their promise and released all the DLC so far for free! Don’t know if that it’ll stay that way in the future, but it better, or EA is f@#king toast!
CONS
I proabaly made this game out to be pretty good, right?
Well, that’s the thing- there’s something I failed to mention- a very big flaw that completely and totally ruins the flow of the game.
You see, in order to get stronger, you have to get these things called Star Cards- cards that grant your troops various abilities and buffs. How do you get these cards? Well, you can either craft them using crafting parts, or you can find them in lootboxes. Yep, it’s time to discuss why this game falls apart.
You see, lootboxes would not be a problem, except for a few things. One- At launch, you could buy these lootboxes for real money- which a lot of people did, apparently, as I started playing a week or so after launch and saw people already with purple cards (the highest in the game). Thankfully, EA removed the ability to buy lootboxes with real money, but the damage has already been done. Who’s to say they won’t bring in back anyway?
Two- you hardly get anything from actually playing the game. You pretty much have to complete grindy milestones if you want anything worth while. It was estimated that you had to play, what, 2 or 3 hours to get one trooper lootbox. Oh, and the contents is randomized- you could easily get duplicates, which you get a pitiful refund of 200 credits for. Thanks, I guess! You get daily lootboxes, but these are beyond pathetic. As I am writing this, you get 75 credits and 15 crafting parts. It takes 40 crafting parts to make one starcard, and it takes about 2200 to unlock a hero lootbox. That means you would have to play 3 days in a row to unlock one card, and an abysmal 29 days to unlock a hero card (if you did nothing but log in everyday. You could unlock hero crate in like 5 online matches) My point being that EA throttles you by making the game an unfun grind.
Hell, lets compare Battlefront II 2017’s daily lootboxes to a f2p phone game…. how about that South Park card game that came out. Let’s see… You get to open a pack of cards every 4 hours in south park, and they like to give out rares in these. So 4 or 5 times a day, you can pretty much get a deck of cards! Lets go back to BF II 2017, a $60 game. One log in bonus a day- 75 credits and 15 crafting parts, and if your lucky, a starcard. Hooray. It is a pathetic state of affairs when your progression system is f@#king outclassed by a game I can play for free on my phone!
This is what I hate about this game and EA- they CANNOT be trusted. It is truly a sad state of affairs- they pretty much ruined any fun who could of had in the game with these lootboxes. Why not have a thing where you can buy whatever cards you wanted with in-game currency- more powerful ones being locked to higher levels? What if you had daily objectives you could do each day that would unlock a trooper lootbox? There is so many things they could have done not to f@#k it up, and they f@#ked it up spectacularly.
So how bad did EA f@#k things up, you ask? Well, like I just said- spectaculary! It takes a special kind of idocy to do what EA has done. Let’s look at the damage report. First, BF II only sold 20% of copies compared to Call of Duty WWII- a series that is actually (supposdely) not doing as well as it once did. Next, we have the now infamous Reddit post, where EA, in a furious desperation, tried to defend the high cost of heroes like Darth Vader and Luke being 40,000 credits (about 40 hours of grinding each!). This was met with instant backlash- their comment is now the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. A truly spectacular f@#k-up!
Finally, the government and Disney had to step in. Disney is said to have lambasted EA’s business practices over their IP, and even threatened to take the Star Wars ip away from them (which they probably should). Of course, the biggest and most notable backlash came from various governments around the world, namely hawaii, who said that they are pretty much going to try and outlaw lootboxes, and called BF II 2017 a “Star Wars themed casino”. When you upset Hawaii, you know you have done and f@#ked up!
FINAL VERDICT
Star Wars Battlefront II 2017 is actually not a bad game, gameplay wise. However, peering behind the scenes and seeing the dastardly work of EA trying to get money kills any and all hope I have for the video game industry. Vote with your wallet- if you really want to play this game, buy it used when it goes for dirt cheap, or on sale. Better yet, just buy the Battlefront 2005 instead (it’s still on sale as I am writing this!) Hell, BF II 2005 has everything unlocked from the start- no starcards or lootboxes- and recently had its online capabilities reinstated.
Whatever you do, just don’t give your money to EA.
As a game, Battlefront II gets-
However, I give the business practices behind the game a-
Agree? Disagree? Good! Leave a comment about how terrible my taste is in the comments below!
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