Star Wars Battlefront Review - A Different Interpretation.

By Sam Coles:

The new Star Wars Battlefront has been getting lots flak lately and I do get it, however I look at it from a different angle I look at it as a different interpretation from a different developer. This is DICE’s Battlefront and yes from the day it was announced I knew it wasn’t going to be as good as Pandemic Studios Battlefront but what DICE has produced is enjoyable.

The singleplayer is lacking as it is only tutorial missions to help you get use to the different mechanics whether it be using the heroes or controlling the vehicles, they serve their purpose. You have the AI battles that let get a feel for the environment that you’ll get yourself into with the multiplayer. Lastly you have the survival missions where you go through 15 waves of imperial assault on 4 different maps, a bit uninspired but they’re fun with a friend. Yes there is no singleplayer but you the gamer made it very clear that DICE are not good at making campaigns that being the Battlefield games and DICE listened and now you’re kicking up a fuss.

The presentation is absolutely beautiful and it hits you as soon as you get into a game, you can’t deny what DICE has achieved with the visual fidelity is nothing short of amazing with a new technique called photogrammetry. How this technique works is that they take photos of the locations and props to then render them in engine to give them that authentic look. The shining glaciers of Hoth to the lush green forests of the Ewok’s homeworld of Endor, the presentation has been nailed.

Once again DICE and sound design never fail it’s a mixture of the beefy and meaty sounds of Battlefield mixed with the classics sounds of Star Wars. The basters don’t just make a *pew* *pew* sound they have that with the added bass and sonic boom every time you pull the trigger. The shouts of team mates make the battle feel alive coupled with the screams as they get shot or slashed by a light sabre.

You have a variety of game modes to get that will keep you occupied for a while the main attraction is the Walker Assault mode which I did criticise a lot when it was in its beta because it was terribly unbalanced because the Imperials would win for the most part. Fortunately it has been tweaked so the Rebels have more a chance to win so the Walkers don’t take as long to destroy like in the beta but they do put up a fight. This mode is fantastic and tense especially when an AT-AT sees you and starts firing and you’re running for your life. There are generally 1-2 AT-AT’s it depends on the size and density of the map so on Endor there is only 1 because there are trees everywhere and having two might of cluttered the level and caused frame drops if they did.

Hero hunt is an interesting mode where one player takes control of a famous Star Wars character and everyone is trying to kill them and the player to land the last hit becomes the hero, it’s like shooter version of tag. Besides that the game has your usual multiplayer shooter game modes with a Star Wars flavour so you have Team Deathmatch modes and Domination.

The negative I have is that the voice acting is absolutely awful with the hero characters I don’t understand why they didn’t just pull lines from the movies, it’s odd considering the voices for the infantry is very good.

Star Wars Battlefront is a good interpretation from DICE, yes it’s not as good as Pandemic’s Battlefront but it is enjoyable because it looks like Star Wars and sounds like Star Wars.