My Time With the Battlefront Beta

It’s a great time to be a Star Wars fan.

Think about the fact that this winter we will have a new movie, multiple new books, and the long-awaited Star Wars Battlefront. After former Battlefront developers Pandemic—creators of the amazing Saboteur—went under, fans began craving a new Battlefront experience. The longing increased as Dice released more and more Battlefield games to positive reception.

Well, after a decade of sadness, Star Wars fans are finally getting a proper Battlefront that isn’t confined to a handheld system. I recently played the Beta and sampled the three available modes. Will the game be worth the wait?

There are three modes available in the Battlefront beta—Survival, Drop Zone, and Walker Assault. Survival is either a single player or cooperative battle in which you must outlast six waves of enemies. The majority of enemies are standard Stormtroopers, but there are occasional AT-ST’s and special soldiers to contend with. This mode is more difficult in single player, but it’s still possible to complete on your own. The hardest part is figuring out when to use the power-ups that come in escape pods. You are given two different escape pods to capture during the mission, one in wave three and one in wave six. Both pods have three power-ups each, all of which should be used against the AT-ST’s. My personal favorite power-up from the Survival mode is the orbital strike. This little device lets you mark an enemy with your binoculars and watch as death just rains from the sky. It’s so great if you can hit both Stormtroopers and and the AT-ST in the same strike.

Killing Stormtroopers in Survival Mode

Drop Zone is similar to older Battlefront Conquest modes in that you are running around a smaller map trying to capture control points. However, these points are actually escape pods that crash to the ground after each one is captured. Once a pod hits the ground, the level becomes a race to claim it for the Rebels or Empire. The beta map, Sullust, is very well designed because you are surrounded by massive rocks so visibility is limited. You will constantly run headfirst into enemies while trying to navigate the terrain. Fastest person to the trigger generally wins, but you can swing the confrontation in your favor by dropping a nice little remote explosive just out of sight. There isn’t much funnier than watching some Rebel scum run around a corner, guns blazing, only to explode and fly into the air.

The Drop Zone is a fun mode that relies on small maps and itchy trigger fingers. Of course, the small maps still pit eight players against each other in hectic battle. This mode will be a lot of fun once the game hits shelves and more maps are unlocked.

Trying to Claim a Drop Pod

Walker Assault is the mode for every Star Wars fan. This large-scale battle splits 40 players into two teams and throws in some vehicles for fun. The beta put the battle on Hoth, which at first seems a little on-the-nose; however, the classic Star Wars map is the perfect testing ground for the large battles. There is a lot going on with 40 players, multiple vehicles, and explosions everywhere, but Battlefront runs like a champ.

Flying an A-Wing in Battlefront’s Walker Assault

I only found two issues during my time with Star Wars Battlefront, one of which may be my fault. The first issue is balancing in Walker Assault. I played this mode multiple times, but not once did I see the Rebels win. Sure, Luke Skywalker’s favorite team put up a fight using X-Wings, A-Wings, and turrets, but the Imperials simply had too much firepower. The Empire has access to AT-AT’s, AT-ST’s, and Tie Fighters all which can be used at once. I can’t even begin to guess how many times I spawned only to be immediately killed by a large Imperial death machine. Granted, I did even up the battle by hopping in an A-Wing and flying around, but even these moments were generally short-lived. Tie Fighters are faster and more nimble than the Rebel ships, so the Imperials had a sizable advantage in air combat. I hope that the other large-scale levels are more evenly matched. If not, the Star Wars effect may wear off and make the game frustrating to play.

The other issue I found was a lot of lag in the multiplayer matches. Now, this lag may have been caused by overworked servers, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the actual problem was my “blazing” 3Mbps internet connection. Most online games recommend much faster internet, so I may be the only person dealing with this issue. We will know for certain once the game goes live in November.

So far, Star Wars Battlefront is pretty awesome. The game is gorgeous, and there is so much going on in the background that it’s easy to get distracted.

Playing a massive Star Wars game is endlessly entertaining, and it just takes me back to my high school LAN parties. Battlefront’s beta was so fun that I never cared that my kill-death ratio was atrocious. I was having way too much fun to care. If the beta is any indication, the full product should be worth purchasing day one.

Well, as long as the servers don’t explode from too many players being online at once. Fingers crossed.