by Philip Cole
So hopefully you’ve read the write up from Jon and myself of the Battlefront Survival Mode demo we put up the other day. If you have, you’ll know that I was rather scathing on the gameplay aspects of the game and I hoped that the multiplayer demo would deliver a better experience (If you haven’t… err spoilers?). Having now sat down, along with thirty nine other attendees, and played my part for the Rebel Alliance I can firmly say…
*Pause for tension*
It most definitely has.
*Thunderous applause*
The multiplayer game truly is everything I wanted after the survival demo. The absence of the suicidal AI and the fact that you are playing against cunning and tactical human beings (I say this, completely excluding myself and most players who got into aircraft…) means that you instantly feel that more is on the line, especially since the ever present walking doom machines that are the quadripedal AT-AT walkers loom invincibly on the horizon, stalking towards the shield generators.
It also helps that the Battle of Hoth is, for the moment at least, a much more memorable location in
our collective psyche than Jakku could ever be at this point, which only helps to kick you in the
nostalgia even more.
The gameplay itself is very well thought out – Battlefield rush-style objectives, when held by the rebels, open up a Y-Wing bombing run which knocks out the AT-ATs defences via a suitably visible ion cannon lightning effect which allow the rebels to try and take out them out. The time they have to do so increases with each second the objectives are held for. The Imperials on the other hand must charge forward to disrupt these same objectives, thus limit the damage taken by the walkers and ensuring they reach firing range of the generators. These objectives serve to focus the gameplay nicely, whilst the level itself is broad enough to allow for some leeway in manoeuvres by both teams.
Throughout the level the map design changes between open trenched snow plains, rocky snow-capped bottlenecks and interior sections of the rebel base. Each of these provides a nice change of tempo to the gameplay with you naturally adapting to each area and the transitions feel very natural.
Speaking of transitions, I had a chance to grab one of the floating power-up tokens around the level which allowed me to call in air support and take on the role of Red 11 up in the skies above Hoth to get a taste of the game’s flight model. This proved a nice and fair way of ensuring that they weren’t constantly up in the air and that getting the chance to fly was evenly spread - Gone are the days of queueing with other players at an airfield only to be griefed if you manage to get in it first!
Managing somehow to somehow stay airborne (the second time at least!), I spent my time peppering both AT-ATs with laser cannons and torpedoes during their vulnerable period. The flight controls take a lovely queue from the X-wing/TIE fighter games - while the right stick offers rudimentary direction control, the left stick allows you to balance the energy of the ship between engine power and cannon power. This little touch is nice to see and I can see in the future how good
pilots will finely balance the two much better than I did. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to pilot a snowspeeder and so comparisons with the fantastic first level of Shadows of the Empire on the N64 will have to wait.
Final Thoughts
Over the years we’ve had a lot of Star Wars games of varying quality to play out our fantasies with but as I said in the co-op round-up I think Star Wars Battlefront really does come the closest to actually being there in those pivotal battles – At least on the ground! Whilst the co-op has it's issues, as far as mechanics; visuals and sound design go I think we have nothing to worry about. It will come down to level design and level choice to really cement the game as a true classic of the franchise. Do or do not DICE, there is no try.
So hopefully you’ve read the write up from Jon and myself of the Battlefront Survival Mode demo we put up the other day. If you have, you’ll know that I was rather scathing on the gameplay aspects of the game and I hoped that the multiplayer demo would deliver a better experience (If you haven’t… err spoilers?). Having now sat down, along with thirty nine other attendees, and played my part for the Rebel Alliance I can firmly say…
*Pause for tension*
It most definitely has.
*Thunderous applause*
The multiplayer game truly is everything I wanted after the survival demo. The absence of the suicidal AI and the fact that you are playing against cunning and tactical human beings (I say this, completely excluding myself and most players who got into aircraft…) means that you instantly feel that more is on the line, especially since the ever present walking doom machines that are the quadripedal AT-AT walkers loom invincibly on the horizon, stalking towards the shield generators.
It also helps that the Battle of Hoth is, for the moment at least, a much more memorable location in
our collective psyche than Jakku could ever be at this point, which only helps to kick you in the
nostalgia even more.
The gameplay itself is very well thought out – Battlefield rush-style objectives, when held by the rebels, open up a Y-Wing bombing run which knocks out the AT-ATs defences via a suitably visible ion cannon lightning effect which allow the rebels to try and take out them out. The time they have to do so increases with each second the objectives are held for. The Imperials on the other hand must charge forward to disrupt these same objectives, thus limit the damage taken by the walkers and ensuring they reach firing range of the generators. These objectives serve to focus the gameplay nicely, whilst the level itself is broad enough to allow for some leeway in manoeuvres by both teams.
Throughout the level the map design changes between open trenched snow plains, rocky snow-capped bottlenecks and interior sections of the rebel base. Each of these provides a nice change of tempo to the gameplay with you naturally adapting to each area and the transitions feel very natural.
Speaking of transitions, I had a chance to grab one of the floating power-up tokens around the level which allowed me to call in air support and take on the role of Red 11 up in the skies above Hoth to get a taste of the game’s flight model. This proved a nice and fair way of ensuring that they weren’t constantly up in the air and that getting the chance to fly was evenly spread - Gone are the days of queueing with other players at an airfield only to be griefed if you manage to get in it first!
Managing somehow to somehow stay airborne (the second time at least!), I spent my time peppering both AT-ATs with laser cannons and torpedoes during their vulnerable period. The flight controls take a lovely queue from the X-wing/TIE fighter games - while the right stick offers rudimentary direction control, the left stick allows you to balance the energy of the ship between engine power and cannon power. This little touch is nice to see and I can see in the future how good
pilots will finely balance the two much better than I did. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to pilot a snowspeeder and so comparisons with the fantastic first level of Shadows of the Empire on the N64 will have to wait.
Final Thoughts
Over the years we’ve had a lot of Star Wars games of varying quality to play out our fantasies with but as I said in the co-op round-up I think Star Wars Battlefront really does come the closest to actually being there in those pivotal battles – At least on the ground! Whilst the co-op has it's issues, as far as mechanics; visuals and sound design go I think we have nothing to worry about. It will come down to level design and level choice to really cement the game as a true classic of the franchise. Do or do not DICE, there is no try.
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