5 Ways Battlefront II Improves the Series (And 1 Big Way it Doesn’t)

Gameplay Improvements

Battlefront 2 feels a lot tighter and more focused than the first did, both in terms of how it plays and how it’s designed. Shooting mechanics are essentially the same, but have definitely been improved just a bit, and quality of life additions like the dodge roll give you much more mobility on the battlefield. It seems like a small change, but the roll really does impact the overall gameplay experience significantly. Starfighter Assault is where gameplay changes make the biggest impact though, as the fighters control much tighter this time, turning and rolling responsively. Abilities are more varied between the different classes of Starfighters and being able to customize their Star Cards gives some important variation and customization to the mode that the first Battlefront just didn’t have. If anything, Battlefront II’s Starfighter Assault feels like the fully realized version of Battlefront’s Fighter Squadron.

At the same time the new Battle Point system works much better for getting heroes or vehicles, instead of the random pickups of the first game. This ensures that every player will get the chance to at least play as a special class, if not a hero or vehicle as well. Earning Battle Points for almost everything you do feels rewarding, whereas if you wanted to play as a hero in the first game, you kind of just had to camp where the emblem spawned.

Classes

There are four classes to choose from in Battlefront 2: Assault, Heavy, Officer, and Specialist. Each one functions differently and has different weapons and loadouts, but none feel like they’re necessarily at a disadvantage against other classes. It just comes down to how you want to play them.

The classes in Battlefront 2 mean that every game you can focus on fulfilling a role for your team, whether that’s staying back and using long range and sniping, or rushing straight into a base and trying to take out enemies. Each class has preset Star Cards as well, and everything is on a cooldown, so there’s no limited number of anything. You can customize each class’s Star Cards to alter abilities slightly or buff them, but each class still has their specific function. Assault is for rushing right into the fray, Heavy is good at soaking up damage and laying covering fire, Officers boost their team’s abilities and can drop defensive turrets, and Specialists can spot and snipe enemies from a distance.

Realistically you can play one class for the whole match and do just fine, or swap between them on the fly to adjust to the battle. There’s no wrong choice, but changing to a class system helps everyone be on a level playing field with the right abilities to take down objectives or vehicles, something that might not have happened in the first game if no one on your team had the right cards.

Loadouts and Weapons

The first Battlefront gave you a ton of different options for weapons and Star Cards, which would dictate the abilities and weapon you could take into battle. This led to a situation where you had wildly different loadouts for players, not to mention how tedious it could be to find the one that you really wanted. The other problem was that certain cards, like the Ion Shot, had a limited number of uses, and you could only get more by using the game’s currency to purchase them. This didn’t ruin the game of course, but did lead to some frustrating matches when you didn’t have abilities to use, especially if you came back to the game after leaving it for a while and forgot to purchase more cards.

An even better change though reduces the number of weapons in the game. Yes, this is a good change because this helps each class be even more focused in their specific role. The classes each have four weapons to use, and you unlock three of those by playing the class itself. These weapons are focused on the specializations of each class, furthering the idea of fulfilling a role on your team.

More Focused Multiplayer Modes

Star Wars Battlefront II is also more focused than the first when it comes to overall game modes for multiplayer. There are fewer modes overall, but each one is more varied. Things like Droid Run and Hero Hunt are dropped, but Battlefront II doesn’t suffer for it. Now we have Galactic Assault, Starfighter Assault, Heroes vs. Villains, Blast, and Strike. Galactic and Starfighter Assault are the big focuses here, and each mode puts you in massive multi-tier battles with one team attacking and one defending. This is where everything comes together for Battlefront II, adding in all the vehicles, starfighters,  and more into epic Star Wars battles. There are 11 different maps for Galactic Assault and five for Starfighter, with the three different eras adding a little bit more variation with different looks as well.

Meanwhile Heroes vs. Villains boils things down to some great matches between good and evil, and you can get a dose of smaller and quicker matches with Blast or Strike. There’s enough variety to keep players busy, but each mode feels sufficiently developed.

Single-Player and Arcade Mode

Probably the biggest change to Star Wars Battlefront II comes with the addition of a single-player mode that introduces a brand new story to the Star Wars universe. You play as Iden Versio, an elite Imperial solider and leader of Inferno Squad. You follow Iden through the events of the Empire’s fall at Endor, and what happens in the aftermath. Although it isn’t incredibly long, Battlefront II’s story matches the look and feel of Star Wars very well. The campaign is nicely varied, and there’s quite a few familiar faces that pop up, sure to please any Star Wars fan.

Adding even more single-player content is arcade mode, which gives you a series of missions to play that essentially let you try out different heroes and classes in the game. There’s also a co-op option for missions and duel mode, letting you play split screen with a friend. There’s much more single-player content in Battlefront II than what the first game had, adding to the overall appeal of the package.

Microtransactions and Locked Content

For everything Star Wars Battlefront II does right, there’s one glaring issue that’s a big downfall from the first. EA traded up one disliked business practice, the Season Pass in the first game, for another. While the Season Pass was obviously problematic because of how it divided the player base, microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront II have turned some people off of the game entirely, to the point that EA has temporarily removed them from the game.

Star Cards play an important role in the progression of Battlefront II, and every class, vehicle, and hero has their own set. There’s a huge amount of cards in the game, and you can unlock them without every paying any real money, it’s just going to take you a while. Even worse is the fact that half of the heroes in the game are locked behind paying huge amounts of credits, which at this point is going to take lots and lots of grinding to unlock, as there’s no other way to get credits.

These are both things that can turn players off of the experience early on, especially if they don’t plan on spending a ton of time with Star Wars Battlefront II. Seeing a huge amount of content waiting to be unlocked can be overwhelming, and for new players it doesn’t quite feel fair when you have one or two cards and other players are loaded up on them, altering their classes, heroes, and more. In this way, although it isn’t physically separating the player base, the microtransactions do separate Battlefront II’s player base on a competitive level. This separation is currently based on who has a lot of time to spend with the game and who doesn’t, instead of who wants to drop a ton of cash and who doesn’t.

EA is currently working on these microtransactions and they’re coming back at some point, but the whole system can’t help but feel like a bit of a design flaw. Fans are already upset, and although this is only one example, sales in the UK for Battlefront II are currently down 60 percent compared to the first game. There’s definitely some work that needs to go into Star Wars Battlefront II, and EA will need to listen to player feedback at every step of the process. It’s a shame honestly, because there’s a really good Star Wars game hiding underneath the loot box controversy, it just needs a bit of work to really be brought to attention. That’s the big problem here, the microtransactions negatively impact the experience enough that it’s been the dominating point of conversation, not the myriad of things that Star Wars Battlefront II actually does quite well, and that’s understandable.