Getting out of a big setback – with a defensive hand or legs forward? – a look at “Star Wars: Battlefront 2” from EA three years after its release

Good start? It’s for amateurs!

If EA marketing specialists were Poles, when asked about Battlefront 2 , they would certainly quote Andrzej Sapkowski to clearly illustrate what stench this game caused them. Even the combined strength of the Star Wars brand , which experienced The Force Awakens shortly before its premiere , and the EA brand as a large, well-known – but not necessarily liked – publisher with a substantial budget and processing capacity was not enough to give the star shooter a smooth start in November 2017. In fact, the only positive thing that can be said about the premiere is that it did not go unnoticed.

We would like to look for an example of AAA game so long awaited by the warm-minded fandom, which, after its premiere, would just as quickly enchant the gaming community and constituted such a big image failure for the publisher. It was primarily about blocking a large part of the content for players starting their adventure with the game – for example, access to such a cult character as Darth Vader had to be paid for over a dozen hours of the game or … another portion of real money – and basing the character development system used in multiplayer games on the so-called lootboxes , or boxes with completely random “star cards” unlocking new skills.

Such a maneuver on the part of the creators was received very negatively by the players, the Internet was full of frustration and accusations about the use of a poorly veiled pay-to-win system in Battlefront – after all, you could simply pay extra to have access to all characters and the best skills at the very beginning. Mockery, mocking memes and calls for a boycott of the title began. Surprisingly, the laughter and bitterness did not end there. About a month after its premiere, the game – quite by accident, of course – began to be sold in many places at promotional prices, sometimes reaching a discount of almost 50%. However, in the spring of 2018, EA began to stealthily withdraw from the lootbox system – despite the theatrical outrage and suggestions thatGrinding to unlock characters is great fun, giving players a unique sense of fulfillment, the company succumbed to criticism and completely removed character locks and crates, offering a development system still based on previously used cards, but no longer random, but strictly controlled by the player.

I myself came to the party tastefully late and bought the game at a strike promotion price, and with the frustrating play of boxes always drawing the most unwanted cards I had to deal with this way less than others. So where two are fighting, there I eat the leftovers … or how did it go?

They spoke wrong, now they don’t say at all… what next?

EA eventually learned a lesson from the tense and resolved to adopt an attitude from now on … well, not repentance, but at least a human Lord who is not deaf to the complaints of the people (nor blind to the pitchforks and torches that the people were beginning to wave with). Lootboxes and optional extra fees have disappeared, the game defends itself with gameplay and nice graphics, and is also to be supported and expanded in the future by completely free DLC, so the bloodlust is slowly dissipating, the people are spreading home. But a large part of the people go home without a copy of the game in their pocket …

While the game eventually managed to find its own piece of the floor and attract enough people despite the initial boycott and negative publicity, to keep the active player count at a decent level on the agenda, it was far from the hit that was expected. The conflict was eased, but the outraged shouts were replaced by dead silence. Nobody wanted to hear about the game anymore – both publicists and players, discouraged in the initial phase, avoided the title with a wide berth. The catastrophe reached a scale beyond repair by simple marketing hocus-pocus.

Since then, the title gives the impression of a kind of experiment conducted both on the game market and on the gaming community itself. EA makes it clear that Battlefront is not a priority for him – he took over from Star Wars Battlefield a long time agoand this is where most of the company’s resources and processing capacity are located. Despite this, the game is still supported and new content is added to it: maps, characters, game modes. Relevant people responsible for communication with players, such as Community Manager Ben Walke, remain in – more or less – constant contact with the game community and constantly announce new changes and additions, whether in the form of official announcements or ambiguous “tips” to fuel interest . And this interest seems to have been steadily but steadily growing since the memorable DLC announcement from the Clone Wars announced at EA Play 2018, which in a matter of months gave players the long-awaited characters of General Grievous, Count Dooku, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.

Indeed, it remained that way until the end of the support period for this title. Battlefrontit grew with each new update, the gaming community grew, and the critical voices faded away. Until April this year, a new game mode for 40 people has been handed over to us at the same time, several additional planets, types of weapons, support units and many skins, both for soldiers and iconic heroes known from the movies. It was not without mistakes, periodic balance issues or mishaps in communication with the fan community – yes, we are talking about the “crashed speeder” – but it all went over the bones in the end. Especially in recent months, producers from DICE have gained genuine sympathy, gratitude and enthusiasm from players, which seems almost unbelievable if we remember the anger and disappointment of 2017.

Marketing is marketing, but can you play it at all?

While the game’s turbulent history is undoubtedly interesting, a real player is certainly more curious about the gameplay itself (yes, I decide what a real player characterizes, please don’t argue!) And what the game has to offer at the moment. How is Battlefront 2 in this field?

The game is a relatively simple team shooter operating with the division into classes of characters, which – although they have their own characteristics that determine the general style of the game – can be modified both visually (skins) and in terms of available skills (star cards). The gameplay is engaging, keeps the pace well and in the end it quite clearly rewards the player’s experience and skills – the advantage is primarily a good understanding of the game mechanics, skilful selection of star cards and detailed knowledge of maps. The audiovisual setting is also at a fairly good level – the graphics and most of the animations look solid, the music does not surprise anything, but meets the expectations, serving iconic songs known from movies. In addition, Battlefront 2Like its predecessors in the same series, the Convention goes beyond the typical shooter when viewed from the perspective of the first or third person (the two views to choose player), also offering the opportunity to fight as a user or a lightsaber fighter pilot who took part in the battle space.

But you can read such things on the box. Time for details!

So many game modes! … Which nobody is playing

From the very beginning, the game offered a decent range of modes. Since the premiere, the flagship type of game offering battles on the largest maps for 40 players simultaneously (in 20 vs.20 teams) using any additional types of units such as vehicles, fighters or heroes was Galactic Assault, with 13 maps (4 for the Clone Wars, 5 for the Original Trilogy, 4 for Disney sequels). Over time, however, the creators stopped updating it, and the baton from his metaphorical hands was taken over by the Supremacy mode inspired by the Conquest mode from the “old” Battlefront 2from 2005. In it, we have the opportunity to compete symmetrically for five command points scattered around the map, and then take part in an attack on the enemy’s flagship. An interesting addition was also Co-op, a fairly simple mode that uses slightly reworked maps from Supremacy and Galactic Assault, in which four cooperating players face relentless hordes of enemies controlled by artificial intelligence.

Next to them, there are two smaller infantry combat modes – Strike (8 vs.8 gameplay consisting in capturing an item like Capture the flag or planting and protecting bombs in two opponent’s “bases”) and Skirmish (also 8 vs 8, first team, who gets 100 kills wins). For this we have the cosmic attack of fighters and heroes and villains, i.e. 4 vs 4 clashes known from the movies of heroes of the light and dark side of the force. In time added to the game mode Fighter Heroes (Heroes. The fighters. Also 4 vs 4. There probably were expecting the unexpected?), Known Battlefront 2015 Convoy mode and struggles of Heroes (2 vs. 2 battle to force change on the winners of round form used) .

Ah, I would have forgotten – we also have the slightly absurd Ewok Hunt mode, where the cannibalistic bears from Return of the Jedi hunt Imperial Stormtroopers in a survival horror fashion in a dark forest … Well…).

So many options to choose from, right? Unfortunately, in my opinion, the only truly playable modes are Galactic Onslaught, Supremacy, Co-op, and Heroes and Villains, as the rest of the gaming community seems to be thinking. Fighter planes have their enthusiasts and you can usually find a lobby full enough for the game to start – but I am not one of those enthusiasts, as are the game developers who have only added the Hero Fighter mode since the premiere and have consistently ignored since then. the existence of space battles.

It only gets worse. Heroes’ struggle is a rage quit festivalanyway, depopulated to such an extent that at certain times of the day it is impossible to start a match at all. The convoy is fun for about half an hour until you realize you only have two looped, tiny maps. It was therefore combined with Impact over time, but to tell the truth, it didn’t help him much. Ewoks are a nice springboard with a completely different style of gameplay, but they also get bored quickly due to the limitation to just two maps and the fact that most players use bears so unskillfully that losing as a stormtrooper is almost impossible (unless we don’t know the map yet and fall into traps or spontaneously get lost in the forest). On the other hand, the smaller modes for infantry, i.e.

Full steam ahead! … but does anyone know where the front is?

Since the beginning of the Clone Wars updates in mid-2018, EA and DICE have tried not to rest on their laurels and not leave the game alone – so we had communication with the community, update schedules published from time to time and content added month by month. On paper, it sounds great and the Battlefront 2 team certainly showed off several times during this time, offering contenthard to complain about – nevertheless, as seen from the sidelines, the game’s development process seemed surprisingly chaotic and lacking any clear direction. The game received new game modes, such as Convoy or Ewok Hunt, which were forgotten immediately after the premiere and died quietly in the corner (because how many maps can you play over and over again?). The creators ignored the Internet requests for specific skins or interface improvements several times, and instead added ones that no one could think of (since the premiere, you are asking for Leia in the famous bikini from Jabba Palace or additional outfits for Luke and Darth Maul “Okay, you have Count Dooku in his pajamas here. You wanted private matches and a better system for finding and joining the lobby? No, but you have a second wheel for emotes here). The only clear trendsequels during the promotion period of the film Skywalker. Rebirth , in the last months of the title’s development, updates from the Rebel Age series were released , which culminated in the final update of the Battle of Scarif .

It’s great to play when everything works … rarely ever

The only really serious problem with Battlefront 2 , which I can not fail to mention, despite all my sympathy for the title, is the amazing sluggishness and ineffectiveness of DICE in fighting bugs, glitches and all sorts of other bugs. Despite the cooperation of the gaming community, which actively reports any shortcomings and willingly publishes on YouTube recordings of the weirdest crashes the game is capable of, there are still many bugs in Battlefront , which have already happened on the day of release – that is, they have been in the game for almost three years. . In addition, the creators’ battles with bugs resemble the fight with the mythical Hydra – each fix or update fixes one bug and adds two or three others (we fixed the glitchone of Obi-Wan’s abilities, except now the clone officers roar like a Wookiee and the first strike of Luke’s lightsaber does no damage. Oops). It was not uncommon that bugs appeared in areas of the game that were not “touched” at all with the given update, if you believe the officially released changelists, or were reintroduced into the game after they were fixed a few patches earlier.

It also happened that the title was haunted by serious errors that made certain elements of the game unplayable or seriously disrupting the game’s balance, and the release of a hotfix that brought the situation back to normal took the developers weeks, if not months. The most spectacular setback in this field came in July 2018 – Emperor Palpatine’s targeting system was “improved” so much that he could murder enemies through walls for a few days, and then he was dragged into the pit stop for over a month, leaving him absent. in-game from early July to mid-August. In such cases, DICE itself refers to the limitation of processing forces related to the very small size of the team delegated to “maintenance” of Battlefront 2. This is probably true, but nevertheless the results are very disappointing from the players’ perspective – after all, we are dealing with a recognized studio behind which there is a publishing juggernaut, and not with a cellar indie company coding after hours …

In addition, the game has long struggled with completely general problems related to physics (did you want to perform a charge with a lightsaber on an exposed enemy? likes to bump into invisible walls, unexpectedly grow into the floor or limp for good after sliding off a slope in the wrong place?).

So how is this glass? Half full or half empty?

After this long journey full of ups and downs about the game, it is rather difficult to form an unambiguous opinion – both fans and opponents can find a lot of perfectly reasonable arguments for themselves. I myself, despite the minor mockery and points of criticism that I allowed myself in this text, definitely consider myself a lover – Battlefront 2 has its charm for me and is a game that I enjoy when I want an hour or two of casual entertainment on a free evening after work (even if it happens that when I encounter another bug, I start to remember Master Yoda’s words that anger leads to hatred and that to suffering).

Battlefront 2 may certainly seem disappointing or limited in some areas to some. I myself often find myself complaining about some of the solutions used in the game, or being aware of the fact that, for example, I do not use many game modes or types of characters at all, considering them unattractive and neglected by the creators, nevertheless … not so terrible devil as he is painted. Contrary to appearances, the game still has a shadow of a controversy from the time of its premiere, and many players omit the title with disgust and criticize it without hesitation, remaining unaware of the fact how many changes have been introduced in the game, and referring to, for example, absent from spring 2018 lootboxes .

Although as of today the “complete” Battlefront 2 is still not a perfect game, in my opinion it does not deserve the amount of prejudices that have arisen around it – so I recommend everyone to try this production personally and not be influenced by the still impenetrable criticism of the title in especially cuts against EA. Throughout the development of Battlefront 2, I remained a more or less active member of its gaming community and experienced both the most shameful flaws and the warmest-accepted improvements and additions. I must admit that I am attached to the cyclical waiting for the next updates and despite all the mishaps I will remember the time when the game “grew” before my eyes.

In addition, looking at everything from the current perspective, I am full of admiration for the DICE team, who actually saved the title of “doomed to failure” and redeemed themselves in the eyes of a really enraged crowd of fans. I received the information about the end of the “life cycle” of Battlefront 2 with surprise and genuine sadness. However, I can’t do anything about the fate and business decisions of EA, so I can enjoy what the game has become over these three long years and wait for news about a possible Battlefront 3 !