STAR WARS™ Battlefront

I've spent time with enough Battlefield titles to know exactly what DICE does when they're firing on all cylinders, and the first time a Walker Assault match kicks off on Hoth, you feel it. AT-ATs bearing down, Y-Wings screaming overhead, blasters popping with that authentic pew-pew that sounds ripped straight off the original trilogy's sound stage. The presentation is genuinely hard to argue with. DICE used photogrammetry on actual Lucasfilm props to build these environments, and it shows in every weathered texture and piece of Imperial hardware. As a visual and audio showcase, this 2015 reboot is still impressive. Then you play it for eight hours and start asking uncomfortable questions. The TTK is generous to a fault, blaster combat lacks the mechanical ceiling you want in a shooter, and there are no iron sights on most weapons. The card-based ability loadout (thermal detonators, Smart Rockets, jump packs) keeps matches from feeling completely brainless, but it does not create the kind of build variety that gets you theorycrafting between sessions. The hero token system, where you pick up a power-up on the map to temporarily play as Vader or Luke, is fun chaos the first dozen times. After that it just feels like a random power spike that interrupts the match flow more than it elevates it. The mode list is the real sore spot. Walker Assault and Supremacy are the two modes that actually use the map scale properly, and they only had four maps each at launch. Blast is standard team deathmatch, Drop Zone is a zone-control variant, Fighter Squadron puts you in X-Wings and TIE Fighters for dogfights, and Cargo is a capture-the-flag riff. They all work, but the rotation gets repetitive fast. Post-launch DLC added Cloud City on Bespin, the Death Star, and Scarif, which meaningfully expanded things, and the Ultimate Edition bundles all four season pass packs. Still, if you are coming in cold today without a full lobby of friends, expect to be funneling into the two or three modes with active matchmaking and hoping the rotation cooperates. The lack of a campaign was a loud complaint at launch and it holds up as a valid one. What you get instead is a Survival mode (wave-based against Imperials and AT-STs), a handful of co-op Battle Missions, and a Skirmish option added post-launch that lets you run Walker Assault and Fighter Squadron against bots offline. It is better than nothing, but it underlines that this was built as a multiplayer-first experience cut down to hit a release window. EA confirmed as much at the time. The arcade-tuned gunplay is approachable on a controller and welcoming to players who do not normally play shooters, but anyone coming from a competitive background will find the skill ceiling low and the ranked infrastructure nonexistent. There is no ladder here, no competitive mode, no real reason to grind past unlocking your preferred card loadout. What Battlefront 2015 does well, it does exceptionally well. The sense of being inside the original trilogy is unmatched at this scale. If you want to feel like a trooper in an actual Star Wars battle, blaster fire cracking between AT-AT legs while John Williams sells the whole fantasy, this still delivers that. If you want a shooter with depth, weapon meta, and long-term progression that keeps competitive players invested, you are going to exhaust this one in a weekend and move on. The Ultimate Edition with all DLC is the only version worth considering.

Fred · Scout Team

Shooters

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