Soapbox: Why I'm Worried About Star Wars Battlefront on PS4

I actually enjoyed the weapons and walker assault, also thought the survivals were too easy. Then again I am a Star Wars fan and very biased.

Can we have kotor 3 please now bioware and make it good not crud like this?

That was a good read. I very much concur. Will wait for more reviews of the full game and if that turns out to be any good I might bite when it's up on the PSN christmas sale.

Nope I'm totally with u on this, being not only a huge star wars nerd but a huge fan of Battlefield I feel like the spirit is there but it lacks luster and the game will probably get boring fairly quick

@get2sammyb Show me a modern Star Wars game that's better than Mass Effect - that's why Mass Effect is needed.

When this was announced I was hyped for it, but when I found out there was no Campaign mode or even ADS I kind lost interest. But after a few games of the beta today I'm actually interested in this, I won't pay €70 for it but will probably eventually buy it down the line.

It's also reminded me how much Beta's can change someone's opinion about games, it done it with Destiny and will prob do it with this. I'd love it if more multiplayer focused games released Beta's, it's a great way for people to figure if they actually want the game or not, and not having to depending on no misleading trailers.

@ShogunRok Mass Effect >

This is exactly what I was worried about with this game. Excellent write up Sammy, I'm glad you gave an honest opinion because I have yet to get my hands on the beta. Seems like some of the other gaming sites are singing the praises without really going into any detail on what the game needs to change from the beta, if there is even still time for that.

As far as Mass Effect goes, how dare you question it's importance! Only joking, but seriously, without mass effect I feel like we would be left with alot of cheesy, trope infested, Sci Fi games. Sci Fi RPGs are my absolute favorite, if done correctly. Mass Effect stands as a pillar among fellow Sci fi games, with fallout, bioshock, and even destiny to a lesser extent.

I am sure this game will sell boat loads, but I think they had a chance to create a truly magnificent game, instead they gave us a superficial shooter with no story, no campaign, and barely anything to work towards; besides memorizing maps to camp spawn locations and up your kill streak. Ugghh, what has happened to my beloved hobby these days, lol.

Its decent but not nearly as spectacular as I had thought. Perhaps too much hype? I too feel sort of drained after several matches, but that could just be because we're playing the same maps over and over again. Im sure once the full game releases, the variety of game modes and maps will alleviate this.

meh, I'll take another Mass Effect over this every day of the week. Sammy just doesn't like games that take longer then an hour to beat.

Walker Assault's totally unbalanced

Isn't that how it was in the movie though? Don't the rebels only take down 2 or 3 of a dozen AT-ATs before getting overrun?

Not saying being totally over run makes for very good game play, just wondering if they were going for movie realism and forgot to make it fun.

One of my favorite games is PvZ. My whole family played it, taught my youngest how to do multiplication of 25 really well, and we were so excited when multiplayer hit, but it only took a few minutes to realize that game was so well balanced to have the plants win every battle they just couldn't balance the zombies right for mutliplayer. (We're pretending PvZ2 doesn't exist. Same for Garden Warfare.)

So maybe they tried too hard to make it like the movie, which doesn't sound like fun when 1 side gets overrun. Maybe that's why nobody made a game of 300?

I think everyone is worried about this game, honestly. I ask people about it and I get the same reaction: "Battlefield cosplaying as Star Wars". I personally have my eye on it and hope it turns out well. It could be great if it's done right, but some announcements that were made (no campaign or space battles being the bigger ones) kinda soured others. So your worry is justified.

@Neolit
I bet JC would've even come more than twice if he played Rocket League.

You can interpret this anyway you like...

@get2sammyb looking at the menu there doesn't seem to be many game modes especially as there is no real single player and we'll see everything the game has to offer within a few hours on launch. I'm going to give it a real go over the next couple of days, firstly to see if it's even possible to win the Walker launch as the rebels. That level has serious issues and it's so easy to be sniped from miles away as you have to run around to activate uplinks. I had more fun on the other stage capturing probes as it was at least fair.

You're right with the Destiny comparison, I spend most of my time in PvE but I've been tempted into PvP recently. So far it's better than this and only a fraction of the whole package rather than virtually the whole game

@ShogunRok To be fair mass effect was kotor 3 in many ways.

Star wars has had loads of great games even the Atari 2600 game was fun.

@Tasuki no the mmo is called the old republic I think not kotor 3.

It's quite good for a beta....a single player story mode would be cool but its still a decent game...perhaps everyone has hyped it too much.

Its pretty.
Thats all I have to say >_<

It's fun for a while but it feel's like it might get old very quickly unless the other game mode's really shine.

Imagine a really solid campaign set in the Star Wars universe with these graphics and sound. I'd buy that in a heartbeat. As it is, I won't.

Sums up how I feel about it. Had a feeling it wouldn't be any good.

@itshoggie I know i went and cancelled my pre order so betas are great and just decided to get a game that will be good no matter what like fallout. this game is worse than evolve , full price $80 plus dollars in my country after tax for a mp only boring game. Thanks for the beta because now i know its a game to buy used at no more than $20 but i think it will be dead with in half a year accept for the same core group that sticks to it but all the people will have moved on and the with new cod coming and destiny the only thing this had going was dice and star wars name and those both are junk in this game based on the beta. sick of mp only games and charging full price and worse the games are usually empty and they wonder why burning and torrents are at a all time high when a game like this is over $80 in Canada after tax in the BC area LOL they will never get a penny from me buying this new if i ever did buy it because it will be dead in 6 months and destiny and cod will still be there.

Good article Sam, this almost precisely echoes what I had been thinking about the game both prior to release and since playing the beta.

The presentation is superb, you can't really hope for more authenticity, but I had always been worried just what sort of longevity there would be. I'm pretty much burned out on regular competitive multiplayer games and was struggling to see where there would be enough depth to keep me interested, the beta does nothing to alleviate that reservation.

The set pieces are the headline makers but I don't see much beyond what has been done in KZ3's Operations with a Star Wars theme. There's definitely no long term interest in the outcome.

The co-op mode would be much more interesting to me but I would want co-op epic Star Wars battles, not just a little cliff-top skirmish against a few drabs of anonymous Storm Troopers. The best part of old Battlefront games was the large scale 1 or 2 player battles against the AI.

I would rather challenge myself against a difficult game than grind out points on yet another repetitive loop of PvP and the beta doesn't do anything to suggest that Battlefront can offer much but the latter unfortunately.

I played about an hour of the beta (offline survival and Walker Assault, didn't try Drop Zone) and like many I have mixed feelings about it. I was initially enjoying the survival mode, but probably only because I was geeking out over the presentation. But when I actually began playing MP, I began to see the flaws (confusing/overly large map, weird/random spawns where I'm suddenly within firing range of the opposing AT-ST, lack of balance). Also I found it a bit funny that my Level 1 caliber gun has near-sniper range when using the scope (just get sight someone's head from near the horizon and you can still kill them).

Granted, some of these could be fixed with patches, but the fun factor seems lacking to me. Looking beyond the franchise license and I'm having trouble finding a great game here.

With my experience with Splatoon and then Halo 5 coming out a month before, I'm finding it a bit hard to justify getting the game at launch.

The game should've been released sometime after Episode VII - would've been great to have a campaign mode based off the movie (and to avoid spoilers since most people playing would've likely seen the movie first).

@get2sammyb I actually agree with you on this one, audiovisual is top notch but something just didn't click with me as much in the weapons department and yes balance is definitely an issue rebels can win but they have to work so much harder.

Took a while to get into but I'm really enjoying it now. Plenty of room for improvement though, that's true enough.

@themcnoisy Oi, there's a reason I said modern games. Can't escape these KotOR fanboys!

@get2sammyb yeah hopefully there will be more variety to the co-op mode too because the same premise in a different map still won't be interesting for very long.

I guess my main concern is that this is going to be very much a competitive multiplayer focused game which is not what I would want from Star Wars Battlefront.... or indeed from any game I'd actually buy anymore.

@get2sammyb yeah I played a bit more this morning and finally won as the rebels, you do seem to need to do a lot of damage relatively early though. It was frustrating when most of my teammates had little interest in bothering to activate the uplinks meaning we couldn't damage the AT-AT. I'm starting to enjoy it more but it seems harder than it needs to be to play with your friends, I had a friend in a party and chosen as a partner yet we often appeared in separate games or different sides

@ShogunRok You are absolutely right my friend. Mass effect rocks! Except for 3. But let's just hope that was a fluke.

I quite enjoyed it , wasn't sure that I would like lack of ADS but it didn't seem to matter. Im a big fan of Battlefield and was born in the 70s so this is right up my street ,gone from a possible to a must buy. Don't buy many games day 1 but this will be one , I'd love the Witcher ,Bloodborne ,Fallout 4 but I'm not touching those type of games this generation. Just haven't the time to invest in them ,I've a cupboard full of sandbox ps3 games hardly touched.

Edit- I think I might slowly be becoming a casual gamer. .....arrrgh

@Dodoo I agree. Why do developers think we don't want campaigns? For me its single player or co op games that I really appreciate. When I heard this had no campaign It really lost a lot of appeal to me.

For me, it is what I thought it would be. Great to play co-op or online with friends. For a single player...meh. I will still wait on reviews and if it does well, maybe. I mean, it is Star Wars.

I've read some ridiculous statements on this website, but the one about there being no point to Mass Effect anymore is just the absolute height of insanity. So lets see now...
1. Open world games suck.
2. The Borderlands universe sucks and in part because of that Tales of the Borderlands isn't as good a game as the diary of a teenage drama queen.
3. The best E3 press conference ever was Sony's 2015 but NOT because of something like Horizon Zero Dawn, rather a re-announcement of a game that should've been out in 2010 at the latest, a kick-starter funded sequel and a remake.

And now we can add the Mass Effect statement to the list. I understand not liking certain things, I'm not a fan of Elder Scrolls, at all, but I can still give credit where it's due, many people love those games so Bethesda must be doing something right. Many people love open world games, many love Borderlands, many love Mass Effect, so those devs too must be doing something right...

Without a single player campaign & limited map & weapons I can see this getting old really quickly.
Im not sure why companies feel that everybody wants to run around, online shooting randoms. It has its place but some of the best games of recent times have been single player games.

@get2sammyb
Two different universes, there's room for both. Not that I would complain if EA cut Mass Effect and put Bioware back on a Star Wars RPG. But I'd only want that to happen if EA promised to back the hell off and let Bioware create the game without any meddling or stupid input from corporate slime.

@Nifty
I'm with you, I need a singleplayer campaign. But these companies do have access to data that we don't and there has to be a reason many are cutting back on putting a singleplayer campaign into their shooters. A quick look at trophy/achievement data on my friends lists on both PlayStation and Xbox would probably provide a bit of a case for the choice these developers make. That's why I'm not going to take games like Halo or Gears for granted, they're two of very few shooters these days that have actual campaigns.

Played last night and the game and maps got boring very quickly, they need to do more before i will buy this.

I agree with the balancing for the Walker assault being off. But I think with the collective players level rising that would change (many of the destructive weapons require higher level cards). I think how much you enjoy this is directly related to how much you enjoy Battlefield and Star Wars. I personally am a longtime fam of both and this is like a dream come true for me.

Also, to those unhappy about the lack of campaign, have you played any of the original Battlefront games? It was basically multiplayer with bots and no campaign to speak of.

@Gamer83 Agreed but then quite a lot of completionists & trophy/cheevo hunters will simply boost them and never go back again. Something that data wont really convey.

In my experience after playing several hours is that there is some serious balance issues. The survival mode is easy but I imagine it will be more challenging with harder difficulties available in the finished version, plus more stages beyond 6 levels or waves.
But where I think it's mostly imbalanced is in the multiplayer mode, especially when you start off playing on the rebel side, the starter weapon sux compared to the starter weapon on the imperial side which if I remember correctly is called an E-11, (can't remember the rebel starting weapons name) but the rebel weapon shoots faster does considerably less damage and because of the rapid rate of laser fire makes you visually easier to target as a natural side effect, on the imperial side the the more powerful E-11 takes rebels down easier with more damage but at a slower and less visible fire rate.
So in my player opinion the multiplayer is skewed towards the imperial side after playing both.
I actually can tell a difference unlike some as far as (certain) weapons and there capabilities, but most weapons not all, feel flat, and not as fun or capable as they should be.
Putting aside leveling up later in the full game, as a way to balance and even things out, the beginning of the game shouldn't be this uneven.

Dice needs to balance the weapons and gameplay better.

@Neolit @get2sammyb I do indeed, I'd go as far as to argue that Destiny has the best gunplay on PS4. It's phenomenal, really.

"there are no classes – so everyone will eventually pool around the same gear – while the random nature of the arcade-like power ups seems to deter tactical play."

Yeah I really dont get the design behind it, a bit too arcade-like for my tastes. A few small campaigns would've been nice too, for the sake of getting $60 worth of content.

I don't think the guns are bad, but they could also be better. They could use a bit more bite as you say, but I think the main problem is personality. The range is too long and the feel too general purpose.
For Walker Assult, I think the balance of this is yet to be truely seen. I had a really close match yesterday, I think it's just that most rebels don't know what they're doing yet. I think once people figure how the snow speeders work with tripping the At-Sts work it'll be much more balanced. It takes less learning and effort for the Empire, but they might get overpowered once people figured out the rebels if it was eaiser.
Also, the random power-ups (I mean the infantry ones) have got to go. They need to be more reliable, and not knowing if you're gonna get a turret or a rocket launcher is anti-strategy. I feel like there has to be a better way to prevent people from camping at vehicle spawns too.

I had it on pre-order, played the beta, then went and cancelled the pre-order. Hearts? Lives? Really? When did Mario game mechanics turn up as a good idea in Star Wars?

Since I have never played mass effect, if a new one doesn't come out I won't be mad. This beta seems fine, and these problems you pointed out make a serious case, especially when It is an online only game. They have to nail it, if they don't, well, they'll be in a worse place than titanfall.

Fully agree with you here, the beta hasn't sold me at all. Sure, the presentation is stellar and the sound design is great, but the maps have no sense of scale and it has unlocks and perks and the sort of crap that I hate in online gaming. I hate that vehicles are pickups rather than actual vehicles, I hate that the vehicle controls are terrible and I hate how literally nothing from the older Battlefront games has been carried over. Because of unlocks, games aren't balanced anymore and it's just a completely different game to Battlefront 2, in the wrong way. I hate to play the whole "Battlefield Star Wars" card, but that's honestly the best way to describe it

I've been worried about this game since no campaign has been announced. Going to sit down with it for an hour or so tomorrow & Sunday. If I like it I will keep my preorder if not it's getting cancelled and moving the 30 bucks I have on it to something else.

@get2sammyb Great article and well written. I agree with your points after playing the beta. The sound, is indeed, a Star Wars headphone orgasm ( okay, my words not yours ). I found the better gear helped out later--fire rate > power, especially in the confined spaces of Drop. The gravity of the game mechanics is so heavy. My character seems to run and jump like a 5 year old. I'm not sold on this yet, but I'm such a Star Wars fan I will get it anyway.
Yes, a Star Wars universe Mass Effect style game would be truly amazing, Sammy. Warframe still has replay value as I can build, customize, and invest into my character; I'm not sure what will make me invest into this game.

This article would have been far more useful as feedback in the Beta Forums. While the game will look and mostly play the same at launch the issues you bring up here will likely get a balance pass. I think it's way to early to predict doom and gloom. Perhaps you haven't participated in a beta before?

2015: the year that we learned that marketing has outpaced delivery.

@DarthDiggler that's ok. It can always be copy/pasted onto the forum. To be fair Sammy is giving his impressions of the beta. He made it pretty clear that things will probably change before release.

It's fair dos really. It has to be said neither Evolve or Titanfall were the continued successes their publishers expected. At the end of the day I felt both just lack meat. I haven't spent enough time with this to comment, but I can understand some scepticism on this genre.

I'm wondering if this we're coming to the end of the big budget multiplayer only FPS. Destiny is arguably more MMORPG than shooter, and in all honesty has been the only big budget multiplayer success this gen, and other than the Campaign led COD titles, nothing else seems to stick. I ended up sinking more hours into Killzone Vita than I did Titanfall. Even though NO ONE played the bloody interrogation round properly.

STOP KILLING EVERYONE YOU IDIOTS, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO WOUND AND INTERROGATE!

I'm enjoying the hell out of it! I was messaged a code for early access to the beta, and I've been playing ever since!

What the hell you talking about? Bonks you The game is AWESOME! I absolutely LOVE the guns and especially the Imperial outfits! The graphics are so gorgeous, especially the sparkling snow. The gameplay is so fun. It's a beta, but I'm sure they will improve it even further. I'm gonna buy it on launch!

@get2sammyb
Ah here Sammy....it's got lasers man, lasers, lasers on Hoth ......

@get2sammyb I agree, that sounds crazy in the context of rocket league (awesome game). However, shooters have operated this way for years, those with more playtime in call of duty or battlefield have the best guns and perks and equipment. Also, i dont know if the U.K. had the same disclaimer, but in North America it warns you not to play walker assault until you have leveled up the first time you play that mode.

@get2sammyb so if it was down to you right now you'd drop ME and make a Star Wars RPG?

@itshoggie I'd LOVE for BioWare to make a return to single player, D20 system-reliant SW games made for consoles (notwithstanding ME as a franchise entirely; it plays distinctly from KotOR, so room for all)

All that's wrong with the Beta is weapon damage balance. I didn't die on survival at all. I didn't find a 3rd person camera option. I'm still excited for the full release, since I'll be able to be a clean TK (not a jetpack spacetrooper, lol obscure)

@charlesnarles hold down on the D Pad

@get2sammyb I've been worried about this game ever since the first footage was released, so I know where you're coming from. Now from what I've played, it's just good. But because Star Wars has been done brilliantly in the past (with both Battlefronts included), it feels a bit lack lustre.

It looks the business and it sounds great. And there are some addicting elements to it, but so far it feels more like a Battefield Star Wars expansion and it doesn't feel like I'm in that world somehow.

And whilst most of the controls are okay, the air vehicles are bloody dreadful. They're as awkward as a fart in an elevator, and the sense of scale compared to everything else goes out of the window when flying. When games like Rogue Squadron got flying down so damn well, it makes you wonder why it's so bad here. And also, having the vehicles as random pick-ups just feels lazy.

Whilst I don't think it'll be bad, I think it's a case of it could've been better. stares longingly at Free Radical's Battlefront 3 footage

As much as I agree with these thoughts on the beta, I'm gonna buy this game. I'm just a big Star Wars fan and, this'll be the most modern Star Wars experience there is. Its just fun enough (so far) to get a purchase from me. Hopefully the full game won't be as lackluster.

I'm a massive Star Wars fan and this game did nothing for me. It feels like something is missing. Something called campaign. Missions is basically a challenge mode. Those are fun for a time, for example I love the challenges in Transformers Devastation, but whan that is all there is for gamers wanting a solo experience, that high price point is just not enticing.

I COMPLETELY agree with this whole article. I really hope they expand on the game before it releases. The guns are such a bore