Spawn Wars Battlefront – Beta Impressions
Arguably one of the most anticipated launches of the year and easily the most sought after beta events of 2015 yet as a hardcore Star Wars Battlefront fan I find myself straying from the game within just a few hours of picking it up. Usually when I dive into a newly released beta for the first time I'm glued for days, at the very least I sink 10-15 hours in to get as much of a feel for the game as possible. However, and despite my huge interest and hype for Star Wars Battlefront, this was not the case from the latest title from EA & Dice. Firstly, the actual amount of content available is hugely disappointing. I realize it's a beta and the basic premise is to test the game to help ensure stability at launch, but to offer a very limited selection of game modes and maps this close to release is puzzling. Typically there are two approaches EA could have taken here. Provide enough content to really showcase the game and help convince those yet to purchase to pre-order the game, or deliver the minimal content for barebones testing - completely ignoring the fact it becomes incredibly repetitive after just a few hours. Are EA afraid to showcase more content simply because it's not ready? Or maybe it's just not good enough. The content they do have on display is surprisingly polished, in a technical sense, but it lacks in every other. There are 3 modes available in the beta, each one only playable on a single map. The survival map last all but 5 minutes and doesn't have any additional options open in the beta, so it's not surprising this mode is rarely mentioned. The other two modes offer more substance but it's still a not up to par. Walker Assault is the primary 20v20 game mode, and currently the only mode in beta that allows players to use Heroes and vehicles. If you can ignore the terribly poor balancing, ridiculously suicidal spawn points and lack of innovation when it comes to power ups, you may enjoy yourself for a few hours. The Rebels are expected to capture a number of objectives to increase air support and do damage to the Empire's onslaught of AT-AT's while the Empire has several ground vehicle options, aerial superiority and the ability to hijack turrets. You'd also think 20v20 combat would require a huge map but it's relatively small. If you're flying overhead you can literally pass the entire combat zone in 2-3 seconds, so enjoy flying in circles all day. If you're brave enough to take the battle to the enemy, you'll find nothing but heavy fire spam from vehicles and lack of cover for infantry. There's also the lack of AI units, which is always a Battlefront feature I enjoyed. Personally, the Walker Assault mode on Hoth couldn't be more wrong. Almost the entire time you're alive as infantry you're within range of heavy weapons fire from vehicles, aerial combat is limited to just 2-3 at a time and the power-ups are so poorly placed it's often a choice between power-up or life. Drop Zone is the other mode in beta and I'm happy to say this is actually playable. There's still a problem with spawning and certain elements could do with a bit more time in the balancing department, but the smaller scale combat seems far more manageable. The downside however, there are no vehicles or heroes used in Drop Zone so it's literally just a typical online, session-based shooter. Now don't get me wrong, although I've left the beta with a far more negative opinion than I'd hoped for, Star Wars Battlefront doesn't get it all wrong. It can be difficult to meet the expectations put forward by some of Dice's biggest and best selling titles but in many aspects of Star Wars Battlefront, those expectations are easily exceeded. The graphics are fantastic, the audio is about as good as you're going to get in a video-game and the smoothness of game play is a great example of a developer perfecting their craft. Now if only they could get the basics right...Leave a comment
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