If you felt like the Easter weekend was taken over by drama from a galaxy far far away, it’s completely understandable because it’s also the weekend that Disney held its Star Wars Celebration in Orlando Florida and the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 release was a very big part of it. Obviously the arrival of the Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer took most of the headlines, but with a leaked teaser earlier in the week, SW:BII wasn’t too far behind it.
The full length trailer that went on to feature at the EA DICE presentation confirmed everything that we’d seen in the leaked video, but it also went on to clarify the details a little. It’s set to be an era spanning sequel to the 2015 Battlefront reboot, with a story campaign and characters from all of the films, including Yoda, Darth Maul and Rey. It also comes with online multiplayer space battles in Starfighter Assault, so the developers have clearly thrown everything into the game. Check out the trailer below to see it for yourself and you can see some of the gameplay in out tips video at the bottom of the page.
Release date
The presentation also announced the worldwide release date for Star Wars Battlefront 2 and the game will be out in the UK on the 17th November 2017, just in time for Christmas. It’ll be available for Xbox ONE, PS4 and PC gaming with a standard edition release and an Elite Trooper Standard Edition release, which gives you more powerful trooper classes to start off with and a number of bonuses, including an earlier release date of the 14th November, ability upgrades and weapon unlocks.
Story campaign
The story campaign is set to introduce a new plot into the Star Wars universe, and this time you’ll be expected to be on the darker side of the Force divide as Iden Verso, an Imperial special forces commander. She controls a group of elite soldiers called Inferno Squad, which was on the ground on the Forest Moon of Endor when the Death Star was destroyed, resulting in a bid to avenge the death of the emperor.
However, with talk of revenge, betrayal and redemption from EA DICE, in a story campaign that spans thirty years it’s clearly going to be a complex plot with a number of twists, turns and starfighter 180s along the way. You’ll also come face-to-face with some of the biggest characters from the series with a fair few battles to take on as you start out on the side of the decimated Empire.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 trailer:
Gameplay
The Star Wars Battlefront 2 gameplay is an interchangeable first person / third person shooter set within the the Star Wars series. In the 2015 reboot, the action was entirely online multi-player, but this time around you’ll have the story campaign to blast your way through. It also comes with split-screen coop for the campaign (PS4 and Xbox ONE only), so you don’t have to take it all on alone.
Any rewards that you earn while playing the campaign will be carried into your online multiplayer, along with customisation, skills and upgrades you get for your troopers and heroes. This will help to link together the two branches of the game and provide an element of continuation from one to the other.
You’ll be taking part in the online multiplayer with up to forty players at a time, so the scale of the battles is going to be pretty significant. Maps will be based on locations from key sections of the movie franchise, spanning all eras, so you might be on the Ice Planet of Hoth one moment and then potentially on Takodana the next, and we’ll be very surprised if there isn’t either a movie tie-in with The Last Jedi locations or a DLC to add them in later.
Vehicle combat is going to be a big focus for the game, building on what was included on SWB1 and adding in the excitement of space battles, which fans of the series have been crying out for. The final point is a big part of the gameplay impact for the release, especially with confirmation that you’ll be able to fly the Millennium Falcon and Luke’s X-Wing.
Gamers had their first taste of the epic space battles during the Star Wars Battlefront II Open Beta in early October 2017 and you can check out some of the action below tips. Starfighter Assault is essentially a 25 vs 25 Dark/Light split battle, where you’ll compete online in a number of the different scenarios piloting iconic ships from both sides of the force.
If that isn’t enough Star Wars simulation for you, the fact that you will also be able to play as and fight against characters from all of the films should be a big draw. You can see a few of them in the reveal trailer above, with Yoda, Darth Maul and Rey getting the attention, but a hole host of others have been confirmed, including Boba Fett and Han Solo.
Graphics
The graphics for Star Wars: Battlefront were decent enough, but not exactly mind blowing and from the looks of the game engine footage in the teaser trailer, it could well be a similar story here too. It’s going to be interesting seeing how the game looks on the more powerful Xbox ONE S and PS4 Pro, but with no actual gameplay footage as of yet, there’s little to go on.
While the ground shooter element of the game is decent enough visually, it’s the space battle modes that really come alive in terms of the graphics. You will undoubtedly feel like you’re right there in the action when you play Starfighter Assault, so if you haven’t already tried it out in the Open Beta then you should prepare yourself for something special. You see more visuals on the EA Star Wars Twitter page.
First impressions
The previous game in the series did well enough in providing a good amount of Star Wars action, but it had its limitations with the lack of a story campaign and space battles. However, EA DICE has clearly listened to the feedback and built them into Star Wars Battlefront 2, which is a solid progression. If these deliver on their promise then it could be a big-hitting release in November, just ahead of Star Wars mania with The Last Jedi out just after it in December.
Tips
Thanks to the arrival of the Open Beta in September 2017, we got a chance to try out the gameplay for ourselves, including the space battle sim element of the game. It’s a relentless dogfight setup and it’s a lot of fun when you get to grips with the game. Check out our Starfighter Assault tips page for more details or check out the video below to see it in action.
