The past few days, I've been playing a bunch of Star Wars Battlefront 2. This shouldn't be too much of a surprise, seeing as it's a major AAA game that I'll be reviewing in a few days. But I've also been going back and playing Star Wars Battlefront, the 2015 shooter that came before it. I don't always do this, because sequels usually speak for themselves, at least to some degree. But I've been vexed by a general question that I can't seem to shake: I had a great time with Star Wars Battlefront, even though I wished there was more content. So why am I so comparatively miserable playing Star Wars Battlefront 2? It's a bit hard to tease apart how exactly this fun, breezy shooter became so onerous, but the overriding feeling is overwhelming. Star Wars Battlefront 2 is just way less fun than its predecessor.
This isn't a review -- not yet, at least. I still need to finish the campaign and put more time into Starfighter Assault, but Galactic Assault serves as the meat of the game's multiplayer, and it's where I've spent most of my time. And unlike Walker Assault, which I maintain is the best large-scale multiplayer mode in gaming this side of PUBG, Galactic Assault just falls short. And it isn't just that it abandoned the straightforward elegance of shooting at those giant AT-ATs, though that's a shame. It cuts to the core of the gameplay here.
Let's start with the biggest change: Battle Points. Star Wars Battlefront handled powerups, vehicles and hero characters with a delightfully anachronistic pickup system, where you'd be able to transform into Vader just by running over a weird blue token. This did a few things: for one, it controlled the number of vehicles on the field at any given moment. For another, it meant that anyone could grab a fun toy if they were in the right place at the right time, which felt like a welcome change from the scorestreaks of Call of Duty that give the best players in the game even more ammunition with which to make everyone else's lives miserable. Battle points turn that on its head: now you earn points through in-game actions, which you exchange for heroes and vehicles. This means that less skilled players will likely never get to use one of the superpowered Jedi or Sith characters, and it means that those players that do end up playing as Darth Maul are going to be even more dominant than before. It used to be I would get excited to drop into an AT-ST when one presented itself on the battlefield: now I'm just stressed out that I'll waste my points getting blown up.
And then we've got the weapons, which are heavy molasses compared to the zippy little blasters in the original game, and I have a hard time keeping them trained on an enemy through the duration of the game's surprisingly high time-to-kill. For me, the difference is striking: I could easily push myself to a 2+ kill/death ratio in the first game, but I'm lucky to get four or five kills a match in the new one. It feels more at home with the ponderous space opera tendencies of the prequel trilogy than the somewhat campy 70s sci-fi of the first movie, and you can go ahead and guess which one I prefer. Combine this is with a squad system that means you spend about five to six more seconds before spawning in, and you've got an experience that just feels more plodding than the pick up and play feel of the first game, even if our players move more quickly to their demise. There are other weapons, of course, but to unlock them you have to kill people with the terrible weapons that I already have, which takes time.
Finally, we've got the Galactic Assault objectives, which just can't compare to the excellent rhythm of zone control and AT-AT fire that Walker Assault had. In particular, many missions come with a kill countdown, where one team has a limited number of deaths, and once they lose all of those the match is over. This looks good on paper, but it just doesn't play in an actual match. It means that weaker players are now not only saddled with an inability to contribute, now we're actively contributing to our failure. And it means that things inevitably fall apart as the counter reaches down: where a timer would encourage dramatic last stands, the kill counter just encourages either nihilistic slapdash gameplay or overly cautious poking around corners. With 20 people on the team it inevitably means both, which just causes the whole thing to decay.
And while I had a great time in the beta with the dramatic and straightforward Theed map, I haven't encountered that one once in my play so far. The maps that I have played feel confusing and convoluted.
It all comes down to fun, something that Star Wars Battlefront was surprisingly good at in the comparatively stressful world of online shooters. Where the first game was a fun, drop-in sort experience that felt like a great way to blow off steam for an hour, the sequel feels ponderous and tired. Which is a shame, because for a time it felt like Star Wars Battlefront 2 was going to be exactly what I wanted, which was Star Wars Battlefront with more maps and a single player campaign. Alas, it lost its heart in the transition. I remember people criticizing the first game for not feeling like a typical online shooter, and now, guess what? It feels much more like a typical online shooter.
And we're not even getting to loot boxes.
