My 1-month Star Wars Battlefront Review (and Why I Wished I'd sprung for the Deluxe Edition)

I stopped PC gaming sometime back in 2009. I was working a lot and life just got in the way. I still had my gaming machine but I just used it for Hulu and general web browsing. Then my PC died. I was left to my iPhone and my wife's little netbook. When I heard the rumor of EA and Dice bringing back Star Wars Battlefront, all of that changed.

I had spent countless hours playing the original two that came out in the early-to-mid 2000s. This new Battlefront game was the reason I built a new computer and it's very much worth it. 

What about the game? If you're even remotely a fan of anything Star Wars, you've already heard about the game. It can be had on PC, Xbox One and PS4. You get to play a variety of match types on 4 different planets in the Star Wars universe (Hoth, Tatooine, Endor, and Sullust) in amazing detail. You can choose to play multiplayer online with a partner (or in a party of up to 8 friends) or you can play single-player game types by yourself or with a friend via online co-op. 

What I love about the game

It's Star Wars. They had me at that. Outside of my bias, the maps are incredibly detailed and the graphics are some of the best we've seen in a video game to date. The sounds are spot-on so it's a very immersive experience. I also love that they made the game very fun to play. When you play other shooters online (like the Battlefield or Call Of Duty franchises) there's a period of time between the point you start playing and the point where you're actually competitive enough to have fun. During that period, playing online is so frustrating that it's just not fun. With Star Wars Battlefront, I had that period of time but somehow it was still fun. Even when I only got 2 kills and 42 deaths in a single 10 minute match (that's right. I was THAT bad) I still had fun and enjoyed the game. I don't know if it's just because it's Star Wars or because of something the developers did but I really appreciate that this is more of a casual game that most people can jump into and enjoy. The fun wouldn't last if this was a game that only rewarded the unemployed or whomever else can put 80 hours a week into a game.

What I dislike about the game

Notice I didn't say hate, but merely dislike.

• There's been a lot of complaints from other players of the game about the lack of maps and I agree to an extent. There's only 4 maps at launch and the first DLC map (Jakku) came out 2-3 weeks after launch. So, a month in and there's only 5 maps. That's a lot less than the previous Battlefront games had. However, playing devil's advocate here, the maps you do get look insanely good. The details are immaculate and the development team really captures what it's like to be on those planets. 
• Some of the game modes feel like after-thoughts. Game modes like Supremacy and Walker Assault are favorites but some of the other modes such as Blast (basically team death-match) or Drop-Zone (capture the flag) feel a bit too basic. Some of the game modes are not only basic but with objectives that feel very tacked on. Like the back seats in a Mustang, some parts are executed perfectly while other details feel like afterthoughts. 
• There's no campaign mode in the single player. Even in the original Battlefront games, there was a campaign mode (which were really just a short cut-scene between the maps which you'd play against bots). A lot of people really were hoping there'd be even a basic idea of a campaign and I agree. I would've played the hell out of the campaign if it existed. For Single player modes in this new game, you get Survival (you vs waves of enemies), Battles (you + bots vs other bots) and Training (you doing basic maneuvers, or even riding the speeders on Endor). 
• There's no space battles. You can pilot your favorite ships such as X-Wings, TIE Fighters, Slave 1 or even the Millennium Falcon, but only on various planets. Piloting these ships is very difficult with a mouse/keyboard, so I'm not super into the flying missions anyway. I end up kamakazi'ing into a mountain or getting shot down very quickly. If you're playing on PC and have a mouse that allows you to adjust the DPI on the fly (like the Logitech G5 for example) then perhaps it'd be less wonky if you turned the DPI all the way down (making your mouse movements less sensitive).
• The thing that pisses me off about the game is that EA gave away a very high level gun unlocked for those who sprung for the Deluxe Edition. Each gun in the game has different levels of range, damage, rate of fire, etc. You start off at a low level, the Star Wars equivalent of a Derringer and have to level up to unlock the better guns. However, for a mere $10 more, you can forgo all of the grinding with the Deluxe Edition, you'll get the DL44, the Star Wars equivalent to a Desert Eagle or some other ridiculously high powered handgun. So, while I bought the standard edition and had to grind my way up to a higher level to get the SE14c (I'm still not up to level 25 to get the DL44), many others basically bought a better gun from the start which seems a bit unfair to me. It might just be me being salty about still not having a positive Kill/Death ratio for any of my matches but there's something about a player in any game that just bought their way to the top instead of putting the time in. Which leads me to my next thing. 
• There's no matching based on rank. From day 1, if you play online, you're getting wrecked by level 50 players who've put in way more time than you and it's obvious when you run out and hit them with 10 dead on shots only for them to shoot you once and you die. This repeats almost endlessly aside from the rare moments where you do manage to get a good head-shot in When I played other games online, you could either join specific servers, or you were matched to a game based on rank. If you were a noob, you were matched with other noobs. Not so anymore. 

Conclusion

Despite some gripes, it's still an awesome game and I enjoy playing. I enjoy it more now that I've leveled up enough to get a decent blaster and better power-ups but even while I really sucked, I still had a blast.