Support NeoGAF

[Tal Shiar Agent]

This one hits deep for me, the original Star Wars: Battlefront II was a formative game for me. It was the first multiplayer game that I played in a serious manner, and on the PlayStation 2 at that, and I played it consistently from early 2006 to 2010 when Battlefield: Bad Company 2 came out and SWBF2 stopped having daily full servers. There was a small (40-50 people) competitive community for the game that set up brackets to play small tournaments several times a year and I remember we'd scrounge and scour for every tiny hint at a Star Wars: Battlefront III so when we learned about the cancellation of FreeRadical's game it was a big blow to us.

Fast forward to 2013 and EA and Disney get in bed and a new Star Wars Battlefront is announced, being made by DICE no less, the creators of the game that inspired Battlefront to begin with. Well what could go wrong?
.
.
.
Almost everything it turns out.

Now, I do love Star Wars Battlefront 2015. I fell in love with the feel of the blasters, the movement, general arcadiness of the gameplay, and the atmosphere of the levels. It was like being a part of the original films in a way that almost felt real. I sometimes still boot it up to play a round or two.

But Battlefront 2015 had serious issues, in an attempt to differentiate Battlefront from Battlefield for some asinine reason DICE left out pretty much most of what made Battlefront Battlefront, being a Star Wars version of Battlefield. No Conquest, no classes, no server browser and community servers, three really big things that almost ruined the game.
Then we get to the infamous Star Wars Battlefront II 2017, which despite what some will tell you, is still not a good game. Sure, they added classes back (horribly balanced with special classes and heroes), added a Fisher Price version of Conquest, and added Squads (actually a good thing here), they also butchered the gameplay. Blasters feel awful to use, gone was the arcade gameplay of the originals and 2015 where movement was an essential part of the gameplay by not having a hipfire or movement penalty for shooting, now it was your basic-ass "stop, aim, shoot, run" loop of every other shooter. Awful. None of the content they added to the game ever could fix what they broke.

Thats not even talking about the lootbox fiasco.

Now we are in limbo again, no Star Wars Battlefront on the horizon. Its like the title "Star Wars Battlefront III" is cursed to never come out.

 

[SeasonedInTheAbyss]

Guess it all depends on a certain point of view. Both of Dices versions had their plus and minuses. I bought them both and I have a hard time of drawing which one was better or worse. BF1 had some really cool maps but was limited to the OT, BF2 did its best to expand on those and add more of the other trilogies in and add the extra units in to make a more bigger scope of the game at the expense over time. They ditched the loot crate system eventually that ruined the launch and over time made a more fuller game at the expense of the 1st one. They Def should have added the bf1 maps to bf2 as a extra mode but they never got cleared to implement it due to costs and the next battlefield game coming up.

 

[Trilobit]

[...] Then we get to the infamous Star Wars Battlefront II 2017, which despite what some will tell you, is still not a good game. Sure, they added classes back (horribly balanced with special classes and heroes), added a Fisher Price version of Conquest, and added Squads (actually a good thing here), they also butchered the gameplay. Blasters feel awful to use, gone was the arcade gameplay of the originals and 2015 where movement was an essential part of the gameplay by not having a hipfire or movement penalty for shooting, now it was your basic-ass "stop, aim, shoot, run" loop of every other shooter. Awful. None of the content they added to the game ever could fix what they broke.

Thats not even talking about the lootbox fiasco.

Now we are in limbo again, no Star Wars Battlefront on the horizon. Its like the title "Star Wars Battlefront III" is cursed to never come out.

That's disappointing to hear. I was a bit interested in checking it out as I finally got a PS5 and love Star Wars. But I think I'll pass on it. I was also hoping for a BFIII, but read that it's probably not coming in the future 5 years if ever. These are dark times to be a Star Wars gaming fan. I think I'll just reinstall KOTOR on my laptop to get my fix.

 

[violence]

By the time BF2 hit $5 it was a very good game imo.

 

[kyussman]

I had a great time with the first EA Battlefront game,as an old fart I loved that it stayed within the OT.The maps were beautiful and the gameplay was simple(it had plenty of issues that I was able to overlook as I was just having fun),it scratched an itch for my Star Wars nostalgia and felt like a modern day update of me playing with my Star Wars figures as a child.

 

[Jibran#one]

Battlefront 2 was an amazing game but the pushback of community about its microtransaction was so huge that it never recovered it's playerbase.

 

[Larxia]

Even if I'm sad it doesn't have the huge conquest mode like in the older one, I still enjoy the new Battlefront 2. The problem however with that game is that it's almost unplayable because of the terrible matchmaking...

You can't see a server list, there's no server browsers. Because of that you can't see which games are being hosted and in what mode, so you have to try each mode one by one to hope finding a game. Worse than that is that sometimes the auto matchmaking won't find games, even if games do exists. We did the experiment with a friend, each looking for a match, one would find an almost full match, while the other one is put in an empty lobby waiting for players.

Even worse, if you look for matches with friend in a party, it's even harder to find a game because of how the game handles squads (each player in a match is put in a 4 players squad), so the auto matchmaking first needs to find a match, put you in there, and that match has to have 2 available slots in an existing squad. Sometimes we try searching for a game for like 30 or 40 minutes before being able to play one, it's horrible. It's easier to find a match if you search alone, but if you invite your friend once inside the match, you won't be in the same squad, so you won't be able to see your friend and spawn on them.

It's extremely stupid, the game is rendered unplayable because of all this.

 

[salva]

I wanna see those seamless space to ground battles realised from the leaked free radicals footage all those years ago.
Do that + server browser + vehicles spawned on map + flight model from squadrons + SP galactic conquest and you've got a winner

 

[Heisenberg007]

After the MTX issue was resolved, I thoroughly enjoyed BF2, played for 100+ hours, and even got the very rare platinum.

I'd love a BF3. Such a shame that we likely won't get one.

 

[Drizzlehell]

Battlefront 2 (2016) became a fine-ass game once they removed the lootbox grind and added a bunch of post launch content. There are so many different modes in it (both solo and multi) that it's impossible to get bored with it. People who still lament how the old BF games have been lost to time are just coping with nostalgia because what they should be actually doing is playing BF2.

This actually made me want to play it some more, lol.

 

[Deerock71]

Guess it all depends on a certain point of view.

 

[Games of Today]

Well thank God there is another person that says the truth about SWBF 2017.

Despite all DICE did to it to "correct" it, it's not fun to play, the audio is worse, the graphics are worse and the maps (outside of Mos Eisley) are worse.

SWBF 2015 was fucking mind blowing when it came out despite it being toned down for general audiences, Battlefield 1 was the same way and it's no surprise that both were very popular.

 

[Games of Today]

That's disappointing to hear. I was a bit interested in checking it out as I finally got a PS5 and love Star Wars. But I think I'll pass on it. I was also hoping for a BFIII, but read that it's probably not coming in the future 5 years if ever. These are dark times to be a Star Wars gaming fan. I think I'll just reinstall KOTOR on my laptop to get my fix.

If you're just looking for some pure Star War's spectacle like you're in the movies, get SWBF 2015 for cheap and play the single player challenges and play offline with bots.

Unfortunately you can only do this on the base maps but it's worth it.

Xbox still has a pretty strong community for it too and they host sessions on the weekends.

 

[BlackTron]

It's a shame we can't mash Battlefront 2-1s game and Battlefront 2-2's insane graphics.

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

My prayers have been answered.