STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT II - Review

I can not face the troubled story of Star Wars: Battlefront II so far without a dose of regret. I do not feel sorry for the EA, far from me, nor does it afflict me with the fear that Disney felt when the hashtag # boycottswbf2 began to spread through the intricacies of the Internet. My thoughts are with a development team, you know, the heroes, your goal, your choice, the language, the franchise, what is drawn and the program for content that we can now appreciate, and everything about creation of monetization schemes.

I am sensitive to the adaptation of companies to the needs of the market, but of course, there are limits. Battlefront II is far from being a pioneer in abuse of the progress curve as an incentive to pull the wallet, but the original iteration was abusive, stupid even, cutting off access to fundamental content on license that moves with various sensitivities. Worse still, an iteration promoting a power purchase, through Star Cards, whose procurement was most efficient with a wallet. It reminded me of an original iteration of Diablo 3, when it was smarter to play at home from the auctions than to play. But I buy games for what? The act of playing has always ALWAYS to be the most rewarding action of a videogame, does not have time, I can compensate with an extra euros, the money is mine, but playing, I can not feel at a clear disadvantage on my peers, just because they spent money.

But let's go in parts. The heroes of a galaxy far away, new and old, things that in our minds, deserved the 70 euros orders to the head, creating locked behind a lot of hours of content. I want soap there if the pink light saber costs thousands of credits, do not tell me that I can only enjoy Luke, Rey or Han, which led me to buy the game after a week from being locked individually behind an exaggerated wall of progression. EA ended up, at cost, by Listen to the fans, and decided to lower the amount requested by heroes, it continues to be required a major grind to unlock each of them, but the value is within the acceptable level, after all, a choice and a compromise and we are perfectly capable of taking on the Responsibilities.

One advantage of being able to make conscious investment decisions is that we can test the characters, starting with the campaign mode. It is true! Unlike the issue we received in 2015, Battlefront II comes with a campaign mode that links loose ends between the end of The Return of the Jedi and the current trilogy. The story revolves around the official Iden Versio, daughter of the Admiral of the Empire Garrick Versio, responsible for conducting the Emperor's post-mortem will (Operation Cinder) and therefore for taking retaliation against the Rebels.

We are already in the game when Iden, in the middle of a mission, witness the explosion that distributed the pieces of the second Death Star through the galaxy. There is even a mission shortly after, which puts us in a TIE Fighter flying through the wreckage field, fortunately without the grotesque that would certainly accompany such a scenario. Coming from a family that grew up with the Empire, the game promised us a different approach on the actual functioning of the Empire, from someone who like Iden believes he is fighting on the right side. It was enough for us to hear the voice of Sidious, the great leader, to realize that perhaps we were wrong.

This is to say that the campaign deserved more fraternity, is short and the drama is over the levels that have promised us. Everything ends too quickly, soon we jump from the missions with Iden to the skies controlling X-Wings, TIE Fighters or the Millennium Falcon !, there are missions with Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Lando Calrissian, and still a temporary leap that has two objectives, the first is to give us to prove the content of the current trilogy, which we will later have "available" in competitive modes, the second is a reference that could be the biggest spoiler ever to move from a video game to the cinema, but the more likely it really is to be the work of a 'Troll'.

There is no way not to end the campaign with a bittersweet feeling, crying a bit more for the cancellation of Visceral's Star Wars. As competent as Arcade modes are, and already there, it's hard to justify buying Star Wars: Battlefront II just for the campaign. No matter how much nerdgasms it gives us.

Visually the game is dazzling, from the familiar buildings of the late Naboo, the arid Jakku environments, the lush greens of Takodana or the alien caves of Pillio, the same place where Luke Skywalker gives a Jedi character lesson to Agent Del Meeko, who ends up assisting him in obtaining a mysterious compass hidden in the Emperor's observatory. And it's these canonical references that make Star Wars: Battlefront II irresistible in the eyes of the most fanatical fans, who can not resist seeing the Battle of Jakku firsthand, you know, the same where Star Destroyers from the skies rained down to the sand of Jakku (which were worth many servings to Rey), or to better understand where that half of the map came to Skywalker.

The solo content does not end with the campaign, DICE struggled to bridge the various experiences, which then culminate in the multiplayer. Of course, when the adventure is over, we are directed to the opening of our first loot boxes, explaining the different rarities of Star Cards, how we can equip them, how to improve them and how to use them, which are divided between active and passive bonuses. the respective class or hero / villain to which they associate.

It is important to know in detail the three different abilities, available on the shoulder buttons, that each class (Assault, Heavy, Officer, Specialist) and hero have available. In the case of the latter, these represent abilities with strength, it contains Sidious abusing Force Lightning, and the game may well have unleashed an unprecedented power of Luke Skywalker, a Stomp AOE with strength, which strikes all opponents in surrounding areas. Maybe we can see it in The Last Jedi.
Before entering into the merits of the multiplayer, a quick explanation on the Star Cards (yes, again), the element EA chose to set the game progression. These have the advantage of simultaneously serving as equipment and enhancement to the abilities, some improve a specific passive ability, making a more powerful attack or adding an additional effect, while others give us access to new tools to use in matches. All come in four different rarities (common, unusual, rare, epic), being the same letter, but with incremental increases in effect or efficacy, by its rarity.

Of course, all this is based on a random system, supported by the ability to craft, itself dependent on the overall level of the profile and allows jumping a rarity level of a Star Card. The truth is that the vast majority of the cards are acquired in the Crates, aka loot boxes, every day the game gives us one for being friendly enough to log in, but the dozens of pre-determined career goals also include rewards Crates, and finally, we can acquire them with the monetary unit of the game, the Credits.

Turning to the multiplayer core of Star Wars: Battlefront II, we have more options than ever before, enriched by the fact that the iteration is [temporarily] resolved: Whoever plays the most (or is more fortunate) has more options, plays better, and has more power. For a faster experience we have two chances, the Strike mode, team confrontations of 8 players, in goal-oriented maps. And Blast, the fastest game mode, indoors, and where third-degree encounters become inevitable.
The highlight however is for the remaining three, Starfighter Assault, which puts us in the middle of space battles, with goals played by players to command fighters, bombers, interceptors, etc. The initial habituation to the control of the aircraft is not easy, but fortunately I have discovered that it is full of competitors as bad or worse than I (analogue ...). The Heroes Vs. Villains is the wet dream of anyone born between 1970 and 1990, controlling our heroes and childhood villains with this level of competence was accessible only to the most dashing of imaginations (this will be the closest I'll ever be to owning a lightsaber) .

Finally the flag mode, the Galactic Assault, the giant 20v 20 battles that begin with groups of Droids and Stormtroopers exchanging shots, to soon turn into a delicious chaos, with MT's and AT-RT's firing in all directions, figures iconic series to exterminate squads, Specialists controlling the roofs, grenades flying all over, and the endless "cannon fodder" provided by the high number of players and the short wait time between respawns. The only problem this way, my favorite pair of Heroes Vs. Villains, is that teams are hardly able to recover from disadvantage situations, players become unmotivated with repeated deaths and this ends up having a "snowball" effect.


VERDICT

Battlefront II is a more complete offering than the original 2015, a Star Wars title full of canonical traps designed to lure us into a short but well-designed campaign but with enough variety to please any fan of the Lucasfilm saga. These moments still remain glued to a model of commitment, which requires immense of us, even if it does not already have the current microtransactions active. The multiplayer is quite varied and will appeal to all who came here for this reason (the main taste I think), prepare to see new content to be introduced at least over the next year, and unfortunately are also prepared to the reactivation of microtransactions, hopefully with better iteration, as soon as The Last Jedi cross the 2 billion line.

GOOD
Star Wars: Battlefront is a dichotomous title at all levels, capable of the best and the worst
+ Variety of MP modes
+ Incredible looks
+ Plot Pieces Link Loose Tips From Movies
- Disastrous and greedy initial rehearsal
- Several parts do not form a coherent whole