How EA can atone for their
Battlefront sins
To stay Star Wars Battlefront 2015 was a disappointment is an
understatement. The game itself was a pretty boring multiplayer shooter, and it
didn’t help that there was basically no content at launch whatsoever. You
basically had to buy this lackluster game twice just to get all the stuff that
actually made it feel complete.
So now Battlefront II is on the horizon, and one of the biggest pushes EA
has been doing in the marketing of the game is apologizing for the greed that
plagued the original and promising fixes for all the stuff people didn’t like
in the first game. One of the big selling points is that EA is attempting to
pull a Splatoon-style content release
system for the game, adding in more content later for free. The inclusion of an
actual campaign this time instead of the first game’s awful solo missions is a
very welcome change.
As a huge Star Wars fan, today I’d like to go over some of the other stuff
I’d like to see Battlefront II improve
on over the original to create a game similar to EA’s own Titanfall 2.
First of all, the maps need serious
fixing. While Hoth was their big map that was advertised everywhere for Battlefront 2015 (it was even the box
art), playing on it was just atrocious. The map was ludicrously huge, with so
many pathways that took you away from the action and went absolutely nowhere,
leading to long stretches of time with nothing happening and your character
just wandering aimlessly until you either died or found where you needed to be.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you could also find enemy spawn camps and
mow down unsuspecting hordes of Stormtroopers for easy points and little
effort. The maps need to be made more compact, with set areas for respawning
that the enemy team can’t get into. No big wide empty spaces that nobody goes
into. Instead put your effort into making smaller maps with more stuff in them
and more opportunity to find something to do.
The other thing that people really
didn’t enjoy about the first game was the flying. You didn’t feel so much like
you were piloting the Millennium Falcon.
Instead flying stages were more like aerial bumper cars, and they moved about
as quickly as a sloth late for work. While the reintroduction of space battles
(a staple of the original Battlefront games
from back in the day) is very much welcome, I can’t say I’ll be enjoying them
if they control exactly the same. All they have to do to make the flying more
bearable is give you more control over the speed of the ships. Go fast when
trying to locate enemy fighters or escape a bogey, and slow down to take out
opponents. When everyone is constantly going the same speed, finding enemies
ends up harder than actually fighting them.
It’s also nice to hear that the
much-hated “card” battle system from the first game won’t be making a return,
instead being replaced by a much more conventional class system. This is all
fine and dandy, but as this is an EA shooter I’m expecting each class to have
an array of weapons they can use to customize their character instead of one
build per character like Overwatch.
Again, nothing wrong with that. What I’m worried about is that, knowing EA,
they’ll pull some pre-order shtick like they did last time and give those
people a completely broken weapon that will plague the game for the first week
or so. Remember how the people who pre-ordered the season pass got the Han Solo
blaster that could one-shot basically everyone early on in the game? The stupid
thing was one of the main reasons people dropped the game days after release.
For Battlefront II everyone should be
on a level-playing field from Day 1, regardless if they paid extra for the game
or not. If you absolutely must have a pre-order bonus, EA, make it cosmetic.
Speaking of cosmetics, don’t make me
play the game for a billion hours just so I can unlock Shadowtrooper armor or a
Rodian costume. Give me those options earlier.
That’s just a few ways I really want
this game to improve on where the original failed. I honestly want nothing more
than for EA to truly prove they’re worthy of this massive license. With the
amount of Star Wars projects they’ve
apparently got brewing and their first impression not exactly great, they need
a comeback on this one.
Song of the Week
Alderaan, The Throne – Star Wars: The Old Republic
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