Star Wars: Battlefront’s Greatest Strength Is Also Its Greatest Weakness

Standing among a handful of high-profile video game releases this year is Star Wars: Battlefront, a game that is expected to sell over 12 million units and produce a frenzy during the most sales-heavy season of the year. You could argue that the primary goal of Star Wars: Battlefront is to satisfy the craving for Star Wars that will engulf the globe in two short months, for better or worse.

Now that gamers have been able to play an early version of Star Wars: Battlefront over the course of a weekend, they've been able to personally experience what the results are of its sales-focused design. These results are both good and bad.

 

Realizing the Universe

The roaring battle between Imperials and Rebels on Hoth has never looked this good. Blasters and jet packs can be heard across the battlefield as AT-ATs march through defenses. Stormtroopers blitz objectives in their iconic armor in an effort to gain ground. Grenade explosions leave nearby soldiers nearly deafened as sniper fire takes out those not defended by sufficient cover.

Hoth is just one of many great examples of how much attention has gone into visual design. The spectacle goes well beyond what Star Wars games have done before.

Then, as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader enter the scene the sounds of lightsabers being swung echo through the frigid chambers carved into the mountainside. As the tempo of battle increases and the time comes to decide a victor, classic Star Wars music hits the eardrums. A sense of nostalgia drowns the senses.

To put it simply, Star Wars: Battlefront has by far the best presentation of any Star Wars game in history. It's a perfect example of how far hardware has come over the past decade as the difference between this 2015 release and the last time gamers saw Battlefront is remarkable. It's exactly the sort of thing that someone walking out of the theater after seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakened will be vulnerable to.

Time is Running Out

Star Wars: Battlefront is a game that was pitched specifically to take advantage of the demand for Star Wars product this holiday season. Analysts have estimated that a total of over $5 billion of merchandise will be sold, and EA wants to be at the forefront of video game sales.

In order for the plan to work, Star Wars: Battlefront must hit store shelves before the end of the year. There's a marketing push already scheduled, PS4 bundles being pre-ordered that depend upon the game, and retailers that plan to receive massive quantities of the title before Black Friday. So, the game's November 17th release date is a hard deadline with no alternative. There is no alternate universe where the game is delayed to 2016.

The Compromise

Although Star Wars: Battlefront has the luxury of releasing alongside the biggest film of the year, it's had to make compromises to meet its strict deadline.

As beta testers have noted, the game has suffered from its rush to market in a variety of ways. For one, the game doesn't provide many gameplay options. The number of weapons and equipment is far below the industry standard for the FPS genre. Not only does this result in there not being much to look forward to through progression, but many players feel burned out of the gameplay within just a couple hours after using the same weapon over and over again, and facing diversity-averse rivals.

With so few weapon options it's common to see everyone in a game lobby using the same loadout, an issue that's rarely encountered in today's FPS climate.

Star Wars: Battlefront's single-player/co-op solution is very underwhelming. Survival Missions are simple wave-based scenarios that make no effort to go beyond what Gears of War introduced with Horde mode in 2008. It doesn't even come close to making up for a lack of a proper campaign, a sore topic for fans of the Battlefront franchise.

 

Game balance is a major concern among players at the moment. The Walker Assault game mode has remained extremely imbalanced between both factions since press first got its hands on it earlier in the year. Perhaps even more worrying are the spawn points. It's common for players to spawn in random areas of the map that appear to defy logic, resulting in quick deaths, easy flanks, and more. It's equally frustrating and broken.

It'll Sell Anyway

Many gamers, including myself, have canceled their Star Wars: Battlefront pre-order. Although we're saving ourselves from the inevitable disappointment that will come with its arrival, there are millions of consumers who are going to be swayed by the massive marketing push this holiday season, and will—maybe mistakenly—pay $60 for what feels like an unfinished product.

Disregarding its faults, DICE has succeeded in making the most beautiful and true-to-spirit Star Wars game in history. This alone will make it attractive to many people who don't just want to watch Star Wars, they want to play it. It's going to sell a lot of units due to its Star Wars tie-in, but could have been something much more if given adequate development time.

Star Wars Battlefront Beta Screenshots