Gamers got a chance to play Electronic Arts’ next big title, Star Wars: Battlefront, while the beta was available between Oct. 8 and Oct. 13. The release was EA’s biggest beta yet, with a reported 9 million players worldwide.
With numbers like that, Battlefront is set to be one of the biggest games of 2015. Whether the game will live up to its full potential still remains to be seen.
During the beta’s six-day window, play was generally well-received by fans, with some of the biggest praise for its stunning visuals, and incredible sounds and music. It felt, looked and sounded like a Star Wars game.
Another positive for the game is that DICE, the game’s developer, will be introducing “Star Cards” for the special weapons, power-ups and hero characters that made the original Battlefront games so iconic and fun. But there were still some bugs and that held the game back.
A major critique about the beta was its spawning system, as most of the time, the spawns were random and nonsensical. Players had the ability to “spawn-camp” the enemy team for extended periods of time and dominate the game. There were also complaints about the fact that a player could get kills in rapid succession when as few as two and as many as five people randomly spawned in front of them.
Further issue was taken with unbalancing issues in the mode “Walker Assault”. The Empire faction dominated the Rebels just by having vehicle control, which is an issue for enjoyable game-play and replay value. As this was a beta, and merely a test for the game, DICE plans to address this problem, according to a tweet from lead multiplayer designer Dennis Brannvall.
There are also some who feel the game is too simplistic with its non-traditional style of weapon loadouts and a lack of customization options.
The most foreseeable problem with Battlefront isn’t based on the gameplay perspective, but rather the huge amounts of outside competition. Battlefront will release rather late in the year compared to other big games such as Halo 5, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Fallout 4.
With the four biggest and most-hyped games of the fall and winter of 2015 releasing back-to-back, gamers may not have the time or money to spend on Battlefront when it is released. But, with the Star Wars name behind it — a sure-fire way to sell almost anything — and 10 years of anticipation building up since the last Battlefront installment, Star Wars: Battlefront may live up to its hype.
Star Wars: Battlefront will be released for Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC on Nov. 17.
Contact CU Independent News Staff Writer Nick Sanchez at Nicolas.Sanchez-1@colorado.edu
