Star Wars Battlefront 2 Has A Compelling Story And That's It

Star Wars Battlefront 2 takes a truly compelling and interesting story, and gives fans little reason to bother with it. While the visuals, sound effects and even core gameplay of Star Wars Battlefront 2 range from good to outstanding, decisions about how multiplayer gameplay, along with bizarre and terrible microtransactions, bog down the overall package to make it barely worth checking out.

After Star Wars Battlefront released in 2015, the feature most desired by fans for the sequel was a single-player campaign. Developer DICE made sure to include one, and the results are spectacular. The story of Iden Versio spans events that happen between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, showing the final moments of the Empire once Emperor Palpatine had been killed.

Like any good Star Wars story, the campaign features tense action scenes, memorable characters (both new and old), just the right touch of comedy and a kiss to seal the deal. Players control both Versio and a number of Hero characters, like Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and Lando Calrissian, and fight both on foot and in a number of different space ships.

Ultimately, Battlefront 2 is a multiplayer game. Yet the campaign does a nice job introducing different weapons, letting players explore many of the same maps they will play in multiplayer and giving them opportunities to play as Hero characters without the pressure of playing against human opponents. There are even a few stealth segments, mixing up the gameplay from what you’d normally experience when playing online.

I will say, though, the ending of the campaign is kind of a head scratcher. I don’t want to spoil anything here, but there’s a perfect ending players get to, then another level loads after that. This final level seems like it starts a new story, but abruptly comes to a close when the credits start rolling. If this means there’s going to be story-based DLC, that’s all fine and good, but it felt like I was given the first chapter to a new book, compared to a post-credits cliffhanger or tease.

The campaign takes roughly 10 hours to complete, then it’s on to multiplayer. Here’s where the major issues start. The biggest problem is that Battlefront 2 is a good game, and generally fun to play, but EA is doing its money-loving best to make it the opposite. As of the writing of this review, the company is still scrambling to figure out how to best gouge customers while maintaining an appearance of being fair. Give it two more days, and things will probably look even more different than they do right now.

One of the big issues is the reinforcements system. Players earn points by getting kills, scoring team points or doing anything else productive on the battlefield. Build up enough points, and you can cash them in to play as a Hero/Villain character or spawn as a ship pilot or other special role. If you are like me, and you aren’t that skilled, you’re not going to get many opportunities to play as one of these special characters.

For example, I played a round and did much better than normal, ending up with somewhere in the 3,000 points range. While that would have allowed me to respawn as a Wookiee or a specialty soldier, it wouldn’t be enough points to play as someone like Rey or Yoda (who, as of right now, cost 6,000 points each). In Battlefront 1, it felt like all the special opportunities were going to those who camped on the special icons. In Battlefront 2, special opportunities are given to the best players. I don’t know which system is less fair, but neither are especially great.

Also, every time you die in battle, you’re brought out to a screen where you pick your class again. This is also where you can cash in your points for a better character spawn. This flow takes you out of the game with each death. Once you select your class, you’ll have to wait for a group to spawn with, which can also take longer than you’d like.

While more modes and maps are coming, there are also only five multiplayer modes available at launch. It also seems like you can’t pick which map you want to play on, or create your own game to play with friends. More modes will come with the planned additional maps, so that’s at least not going to be a major issue forever.

On top of that, I also have had issues getting into certain game modes, and experienced some freezing when playing online. While these are all issues right now, they will likely be smoothed over in the coming weeks thanks to patches and updates. It still sucks, but these are common launch issues with online games.

Ultimately, I don’t have any reason to return to Battlefront 2. The campaign, while fun, is somewhat short and doesn’t offer much reason to replay it once you’ve seen the story. The multiplayer feels like there’s too much going on, and too many cool features locked away that I’ll never be good enough to use or play long enough to grind out. Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a fun game, but its joy has been sucked out by terrible business decisions.

So what do you think? Are you interested in seeing the missing piece of the Star Wars story? Will you wait until this is on EA Access or something similar to play it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.