Star Wars Battlefront II: The Dark Side of Power

Star Wars Battlefront II: The Dark Side of Power

Star Wars Battlefront II
Genre multiplayer action
Platforms Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Developers EA DICE
Publisher Electronic Arts
Sites ea.com, Origins

Multiplayer shooter Star Wars Battlefront II from EA DICE caused a real storm of emotions on the web, and even a few days before the release of the game itself. Against the new EA project, literally everyone took up arms - the players, the press, the regulating authorities of several countries. In this case, the game itself against the backdrop of a heated scandal, it seems, generally forgotten. We will try to correct this injustice, however, an excursion into the history of the conflict can not be avoided anyway.

Conflict

So, what happened? Players who took part in the beta testing and got access to the Deluxe version of the game a few days before the release were outraged by the presence in Star Wars Battlefront II of lootboxes, cards that change characters' characteristics, and, most of all, the overestimated cost of discovering some heroes for multiplayer. EA tried to justify itself, but stumbled upon a coordinated Internet trolling - players jammed EA's response to reddit, easily breaking the previous service record by the number of negative ratings, and also underestimated the Battlefront II wherever they could reach, for example, Metacritic. Naturally, the news of this printed all the gaming and not only sites that only added fuel to the fire. Moreover, against the background of a growing scandal, the regulators of Belgium and the Netherlands announced that they are investigating the connection between the mechanics of the lootboxes and gambling. After all, cards from purchased, including for real money, boxes fall out completely randomly than it is not gambling? But this is serious and threatens EA with the need to obtain a license for gambling, and separately in each country, to pay taxes on money earned in this way, and in addition, the game can be completely removed from the shelves of stores.

Not expecting such a sharp reaction, EA first lowered the cost of unlocking characters 4 times, and before the release of the game and completely disconnected the mechanics of buying lutboks for crystals that are paid for by real money. Those who have already bought crystals will return the funds. In EA promised to rework the mechanics of the lootboxes and give players the opportunity to open all the awards in the game, though not specifying how much time it will take.

What is the reason for such a sharp and united reaction of the community, because luteboxes have long become almost standard game mechanics, including for paid AAA-games? There are some types of football in Overwatch, PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS, Call of Duty: WWII, Assassin's Creed Origins, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Need for Speed ​​Payback (the review will be a little later). Why did Star Wars Battlefront II cause such a public response?

There are several reasons for this. First, EA really was too smart with the prices, after all, according to the estimates of users, for the full discovery of all cards, characters and emotions of the characters, you would have to spend more than 4000 hours of play or $ 2800 if you buy boxes for crystals. Secondly, in all the above games, the lootboxes contain only cosmetic items that do not affect the gameplay in any way, or objects for a single-player campaign. In Star Wars Battlefront II, the cards open change the parameters of the characters in multiplayer, which affects the gameplay: the base attack and attack aircraft with cards of the fourth level - it's still two different units, and the "pumped" Darth Vader is generally some sort of murder machine . Well, thirdly, and this is perhaps the main thing, the players have long been indignant at the mechanics of the lootboxes, only a spark and an object of application of forces was needed, which became the unfortunate Star Wars Battlefront II.

In fact, the victory of players in this conflict, and the retreat of EA can not be treated otherwise as a loss - a very important factor that will make other companies think about the need to add luteboxes to their new projects. After all, the game community that felt its power is a terrible thing.

However, let's still go to the game. What's wrong with the gameplay?

Campaign

One of the complaints voiced by users about the reboot of Star Wars Battlefront 2015 is the lack of a single-player campaign. Multiplayer is, of course, excellent, but everyone wanted to run around in such familiar and such beautiful locations in the story missions. Well, EA listens to you, Star Wars Battlefront II has a single-player campaign. Well, like the campaign - 12 missions, which can run for 4-5 hours, not particularly straining. On the other hand, it's a little less than in any Call of Duty or Battlefield.

The campaign tells the story of Eden Versio, commander of the elite Imperial detachment "Inferno", the captain of the raider "Corvus", a girl who is devoted to the emperor and current order with all her heart and hates the insurgent insurgents. However, EA DICE did not have the spirit to endure the chosen side to the end, nevertheless the Imperials are often compared with the Nazis, whose animation is not comme il faut. So no matter how interesting it is to see a well-known galactic conflict on the other hand, alas, it will not work, at some point Eden will understand all the depravity of the old power and move to the bright side of power. However, some of the missions you still have to go through as a loyal soldier of the Empire.

The game begins shortly before the battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi, moreover, Eden and her squad will be on the surface of the satellite at the time of the explosion of the second Death Star, and after that the commander and her people will go to perform the last will of the emperor. And the campaign ends, making a small "installation" before the final mission, on the planet Pelion already in the era of the new trilogy, after The Force Awakens. The plot of Battlefront II does not shine with originality, it's the same conflict of fathers and children, but Eden herself turned out to be an interesting character, worthy, perhaps, her own film in the spirit of Rogue One.

Manage Eden Versio you will be in about half of the tasks. And most of them resemble the mission of last year's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - first take part in a space or air battle, then disembark in the hangar of the enemy cruiser, exploding everything that explodes, and take the ship to board or sabotage. There are even rudiments of stealth and an imperial droid helper breaking open the doors. By the way, the droid is really pretty, no worse than the BB-8 from The Force Awakens.

In the second half of the tasks under your leadership will fall all the significant heroes of the universe of Star Wars - Luke Skywalker, Leia Organo, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian and even Kailo Ren. And if the missions for Eden can still be called at least a little difficult, the superheroes play with the help of their skills whole crowds of storm troopers or insurgents.

In general, with the complexity of the campaign is clearly some kind of problem - on Normal the game resembles an interactive shooting gallery. Opponents come in orderly rows, do not even try to hide and die from one hit, in the style of the old Call of Duty. The ridiculous situations with gunfire through the box and firing at point-blank range here are not uncommon. Imperial attack aircraft obviously bitten the rebel soldiers, infecting those with an inherent strabismus. The problem of complexity is not only in land battles, but also in space battles.

Nevertheless, despite all the shortcomings, the campaign copes with its task. It is beautiful, epic and contains a sea of ​​fan-factor. Although to the last mission we would not be prevented by an interpreter from starnovannovskogo to human: what exactly was looking for Kailo Ren to Pelion and how he is connected with Eden Versio, we still do not understand.

But the campaign is not the main dish of Star Wars Battlefront II, we are here after another.

Arcade

And this is another - obviously not Arcade. Why do we need this mode in Star Wars Battlefront II, remains a big mystery. Arcade is a simulation of multi-user battles with bots. Choose side, battle and tear dumb dummies like Tuzik warmer, the good they almost do not resist even at a high level of complexity. But you can feel like the all-powerful Darth Vader or Han Solo. However, you can pass tasks in the role of a regular infantryman.

The only advantage of the Arcade - here you can quickly enough to earn money to open characters or purchase boxes. Literally three or four minutes of the game, and 100 coins in your pocket, the pace is clearly higher than in multiplayer, the reward in which, by the way, does not depend on your skill, but only on the time spent in battle. One misfortune, after a while and 500-600 coins, the game blocks additional earnings in Arkad for 3-16 hours, so that it will not be possible to become a millionaire.

Multiplayer

And finally, the main dish is multiplayer. It's still casual and very arcade, but in network modes since the first part there have been some changes.

Now the game presents different epochs of Star Wars: the original trilogy, the prequel and the new trilogy. So, depending on the map and the side of the conflict, you can play for the clones of the Republic, the imperial storm troopers, the Trade Federation droids, First Order soldiers, insurgents of different eras. Accordingly, the set of available heroes and techniques is changing. The attraction works with might and main, carrying us through all the locations significant for the Star Wars universe. The Royal Palace on Naboo, with the final battle right in the throne room; marshy coast on Kashyyyk, the planet Wookiee; The desert of Giacca and the fallen Imperial Shredder; castle Maz Kanata and its surroundings; the great temple on Yavin 4; a factory of clones on Kamino; the base of the rebels on Hoth, etc. Just a tour of the sights. Beautiful, rich, evokes tears of emotion.

The most massive in terms of the number of players, and, perhaps, the most interesting mode is the Galactic Battle, which came to replace the Attack walkers. No, you will still have to accompany AT-AT, including on Hote's favorite players, but part of the tasks will do without a giant combat vehicle. As usual, we perform combat missions, grabbing objects or holding them, and moving further along the map in case of a successful assault. If the defending side loses all the stages at the last moment - the fight can drag on for twenty minutes. The attacking side has a reserve counter instead of a timer, when it reaches the zero point, the match will be lost.

No bonus tokens on the levels are no more, in order to change seats in the cockpit of the fighter or AT-ST, you will have to earn combat points, shooting accurately, performing combat missions, etc. By accumulating a certain amount you will have the opportunity to call on the battlefield a technician or one of the commanders. By the way, it's worth noting that those who resented the initially blocked by Darth Vader and Luke, do not know that in order to use them in combat, you also need to play very well - 8000 points earn for battle only a few players. And you still need to save your glasses, without spending on weaker reinforcements. That is, in reality the chance to use the hero in combat is scanty, at best you will call him at the last moment for just a couple of minutes. In addition, in Star Wars Battlefront II, the health of the heroes is clearly less, and to fill them with the entire team is now easier, unless, of course, this hero is not covered with legendary ability cards.

Unfortunately, not all network tasks in Battlefront II turned out to be balanced. The general dislike of the players of both the defending and the advancing side was achieved by the very straightforward and inconvenient Mos-Eisley map, on which any technique is useless. Quite controversial and a map of the Great Temple on Yavin 4. Not everything is good and with technology. Landscapists, LUMP, spider-bikes and aerospiders turned out to be completely stupid in almost all cases, the players try not to use them. Quite meaningless and available to the rebels open analog AT-ST - AT-RT. But artillery support with LAAT on some cards, on the contrary, is too effective.

The second most populated game mode is the Battle of Starfighter. Space arcade for 24 people now also consists of stages. First, we distribute the magnetic grippers holding the imperial cruiser, then the protection generators, then we blow up the core. To fulfill each of the goals we are given a certain reserve of reserves, and the task of the defenders is to protect the objects and shoot down the attackers. Space battles are encouraged by high speeds, dynamics and the presence of heroes, who again need to be called for earned points. Ships of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, By Dameron, Darth Maul, Boba Fett, etc. have an increased health reserve and powerful special abilities. By the way, the Millennium Falcon here is in two versions, the era of the original trilogy with Khan Solo and Chewbacca and a new trilogy with Ray and Chewbacca. Space battles are faster than Galactic battles, but there is less money reward.

In Heroes versus Villains mode, where Boba Fett, Bossk, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, Eden Versio, Kylo Ren and Darth Maul fight against Chewbacca, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Leah Organo and Luke Skywalker, there is no room for ordinary fighters. Now this battle is not 6 to 6, in which half of the seats were assigned to the heroes, and 4 to 4. A specific mode, but allows you to master the skills of heroes that will be useful in the Galactic battles.

The two remaining modes - the Fight for 20 people and the Excellence for 16 people, is, respectively, the usual team battle and the usual CTF. No heroes, only regular units, no stages - small closed cards.

In general, the multiplayer Star Wars Battlefront II differs little from what we saw in the first part. Weapons are familiar to us, skills in general, too. Some imbalance introduced by character cards is leveled by random matchmaking. Although the players seem to be lacking and the connection with the game does not take too much time, in the same space battles bots are often added, which is not particularly encouraging. However, to play everything is just as fun, it's not a shame to lose. Clean fan and laser shots in all directions. Star Wars Battlefront II has remained a theme park for the widest public, and that's good.

If we talk about the schedule, then you are well aware that it is worth waiting for from EA DICE and the engine Frostbite 3. By today's standards, Frostbite 3 is not particularly gluttonous, but the game's output is still good. At the height of the sound and music, as always authentic. Particularly pleased with the individual themes of the characters that sound when they appear and fade at death.

In general, despite the scandal associated with the launch of the game, Star Wars Battlefront II itself turned out to be no worse than the original two years ago. It's a shame, of course, that a single campaign did not become self-sufficient, as in Titanfall 2, but with multiplayer here everything is in order. Let's see how they will affect the game of character cards as they are pumped by the players and, most interestingly, how EA will be able to change the mechanics of the lootboxes that caused such a sharp reaction of the players.

PLUSES: Graphics; musical accompaniment; different Star Wars epochs; favorite heroes; dynamic battles

MINUSES: T-shirts and a controversial monetization system; Disparity of players due to the use of ability cards; The income does not depend on the skill of the player; almost useless Arcade mode; imbalance of some maps

Conclusion: Star Wars Battlefront II is the same beautiful arcade attraction on the theme of "Star Wars", now with a single-player campaign and in several "historical" epochs