Last year’s Star Wars Battlefront may not have been everything fans hoped for, but it still makes a great foundation to build on for the upcoming sequel.
First of all, the developers managed to nail the look and feel of the Star Wars universe beautifully. The graphics, sound, and atmospherics were top-notch … but there were definitely some things missing. For all of its technical achievements, Star Wars Battlefront felt much smaller than the previous major game in the franchise.
That title, 2005’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2, was a terrific achievement, filled with plenty of maps, a deep single-player campaign, and a huge amount of characters to play as (remember the heroes-versus-villains Assault Mode on Mos Eisley?!).
EA and DICE are promising to incorporate player-feedback into their new game, and we’re expecting a bigger, better experience.
So, with that in mind, what do we really want to see in Star Wars Battlefront 2?
Spawning Vehicles You Can Jump Right Into
This really was missed in Star Wars Battlefront. Having to collect tokens to call in vehicles might have been a novel approach, but it did take away some of the authenticity.
In previous Battlefront games, vehicles spawned in specific areas on maps, allowing you to dive straight in. Seeing other troopers climb into an AT-ST or Snowspeeder really added to the experience, and gave you much more freedom to fight your way.
We want to see this in Star Wars Battlefront 2, just as it was before.
More Characters From Across the Saga
Star Wars Battlefront may have more playable heroes and villains now than at launch, but it still doesn’t quite offer the diversity of 2005’s game. The ones we actually do get to control are brilliantly-realised and handle smoothly, yet there’s no reason we can’t have these familiar faces alongside new ones.
For a start, we want to see the likes of Darth Maul, General Greivous, Admiral Thrawn, Ahsoka Tano, and more. We also want to see Rey, Finn, Poe Dameron, Kylo Ren, and others from the new movies.
This is probably a no-brainer, and we’re sure the key heroes and villains from The Force Awakens will appear – but there’s still plenty of others who deserve to be added.
Seamless Ground-to-Space Battles
We all know that the cancelled third Star Wars game was to feature transitions from ground to space, but we actually got it in a much smaller form, thanks to the PSP’s Elite Squadron. This was a great little game, and while it was stripped-down in certain areas, this open level-design was an absolute blast.
Being able to start a battle on Coruscant or Mos Eisley, before jumping into a starfighter and taking to the skies really added weight to the in-game world. You felt as if you had free reign over maps, and as if there really was a monumental conflict raging all around you.
While it’s obviously much more difficult to pull this off on today’s hardware, it’s doable, even if a few visual compromises have to be made. It also opens up campaign missions too, giving players a more active role in bringing down enemy forces: just imagine capturing an imperial base before heading off-world to take out an unshielded Star Destroyer!
Star Wars Battlefront’s Death Star DLC was beautiful to behold, but the previous three Battlefront games managed to make space battles feel pretty epic, even on the PSP. Okay, so those handheld consoles might not have managed to make the explosions, laser blasts, and ships look quite as gorgeous as they should, but you really felt as if you were taking part in something big.
Today’s hardware gives developers the freedom to make the Star Wars gaming experience as immersive as we’ve always wanted it to be, and space combat on a grand scale would really help us get there.
Again, this is a big ask, but how amazing would it be to have our pick of space-based maps to explore?
A Branching Solo Campaign
Single-player campaigns may not mean much to gamers focused on multiplayer, but it’s nevertheless a crucial part of the Star Wars Battlefront experience. With so much narrative potential in the saga, and so many awesome moments to recreate, it makes sense to build a deep, rich campaign mode.
2005’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2 had a story-based campaign, featuring narration from the voice of Jango Fett / all the clones himself (Temuera Morrison), chronicling the Republic’s evolution into the Empire. It let us play across all six films, and did a terrific job making you feel like a key part of the story.
Renegade Squadron and Elite Squadron on the PSP also featured decent campaign modes too. Still, we’d love to see this taken further in the future. Why not give us a branching storyline with multiple choices?
For example, killing civilians on certain maps could lead you into darker areas, perhaps gaining a promotion in the Empire’s service. Likewise, saving innocents should bring you to greater Rebel attention, and have you regarded as something of a hero.
Alternatively, we could have the option to change critical moments from the saga and play out ‘what-if’ scenarios.
Imagine being given the chance to play as a Stormtrooper aboard the Death Star during A New Hope’s rescue mission. Killing Luke, Han, Chewie, and destroying the Millennium Falcon would open up fresh possibilities and let you experiment with the plotlines we all know so well.
More Launch Content
EA didn’t give us so much to play around with at Star Wars Battlefront’s launch, and they’re bound to rectify that next time around. We’d love to see a little more packed into the game itself when it hits the market, giving players a wider range of features, modes, and characters to enjoy as soon as they load it up.
The total lack of prequel content was also odd. Even for fans who’d only play with the Galactic Civil War portion of the game anyway, at least having the option to play as clone troopers or Separatist droids would add more to the experience.
While the DLC model makes sense, gamers want more for their money. EA have to take that into account next time.
A Level-Editor to Build Custom Maps
Yup, this is definitely a longshot – but there’s no denying how much more depth it’d bring to Star Wars Battlefront 2.
Sounds too unlikely? The TimeSplitters games let us build our own levels on the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube back in the early 2000s, so it could still be introduced into Battlefront 2, even at a basic level.
Being able to even just edit existing maps to add new defensive structures or vehicles would expand the gaming experience and give players more to come back for.
At a deeper level, though, the power to build maps from scratch and even add objectives could lead to a huge community of budding designers, especially if maps could be shared. Star Wars: Battlefront 2’s modding scene is still thriving, after all.
Again, it’s a longshot, but it really would take the Star Wars Battlefront sequel into bold new territory.
More Locations, Please!
Speaking of maps, we’d love to see more areas to fight in. If we don’t get a map-editor (which we’re pretty sure we won’t!), we should at least have a hearty selection of levels to choose from instead.
The range of maps in the first game was somewhat underwhelming, especially when there are so many great locations out there. With The Force Awakens and Rogue One introducing multiple new locations too (Takodana, Starkiller Base, Jedha), there’s even less excuse to stick to those same old stages again and again.
Not that we don’t still want to see Hoth, Endor, and the like, but come on, mix it up a little!
The Return of Hunt Mode
All right, so this is a small point, but we’d love to see Hunt mode come back from 2005’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2.
This was an optional mode on a few maps, and let you play as well-known indigenous species. On Endor, you could control Ewoks and take down scout troopers, or vice versa. On Hoth, you could live out your Wampa-based fantasies and slay soldiers by the dozen. Down in Mos Eisley, you had the chance to pit Jawas against Tusken Raiders. There were even Gungans up for grabs on Naboo.
It made a nice change, and let you play around with aspects of the universe we don’t usually touch in games.
What do you want to see in Star Wars Battlefront 2? Let us know!
