Gadgetory

the Star Wars Battlefront beta started this past Thursday and is going to be wrapping up really soon so I want to talk about five things that really stood out to me while I played it starting with how this game is not like a battlefield now don't get me wrong there is some influence from the Battlefield series on this game because obviously it's being developed by the same people dice but there are a lot of ways that this makes huge changes from how battlefield works which personally is actually kind of relieving to me because my biggest fear for this game is that it was just gonna be another battlefield game with a Star Wars skin thrown over it and depending on who you are this is either really good news or sounds like an absolutely terrible idea for a lot of reasons in general really the game is just a lot more arcadey in its design you don't have any ammo for your guns instead they can just overheat temporarily if you fire too much you don't have any kind of secondary weapons or gear that have limited uses instead you have abilities that all act on cooldowns which could be pulling out a specialized weapon like a sniper rifle or grenade launcher for a single shot using something like a grenade or even mobility based abilities like using a jump pack there's also the fact that most of the big interactable things you can do on a map like using a vehicle or playing as a hero are based on power-ups you pick up rather than something you interact with and they randomly spawn on the map and to top off these two is the fact that in general the game has a lot of toned down mechanics that make it a bit more casual for instance there is no recoil in any of the guns you can only Crouch not go prone and doing so doesn't increase your accuracy and where your respawn is completely random unless you choose to respawn with your partner all this ends up making the game something very different from battlefield in a way that makes it a lot more open to people that don't want to really have a steep learning curve they just want to jump in and have a lot of fun in really one of the most beloved universes from film but if you're a fan of battlefield or you want something that's a little more recognizable to modern-day FPS games you're not gonna find that here at all now that being said I do have some pretty big problems with this beta starting off with point number two vehicles I absolutely hate the way vehicles control in this game it's sluggish awkward and nothing really handles the way you'd expect it to it's impossible to get the hang of controlling a vehicle but it's definitely far from intuitive which is a real shame because honestly one of the biggest things I look forward to in this game was using starships because growing my favorite Star Wars games were stuff like Rogue Squadron or even older with x-wing vs. TIE fighters so finding that using vehicles like TIE fighters or a wings controlled the way they do it was just a big turn-off for me in this beta now there is one other big problem I had with this beta but it is one that dice has addressed and has said they are trying to fix which is the balance issues in the Walker assault mode now I'm a big fan of asymmetric game design where two teams compete and don't necessarily have the exact same objectives trying to work with what strengths and weaknesses they have on each side but the thing about asymmetric game design is that it is a bit trickier to balance which is exactly the problem DICE ran into playing on the Imperial side you have a pair of 88 es that are just raining destruction on the rebellion you have access to more vehicles like 80 STS and the rebellion doesn't really have anything great going for them on the other side they don't even really have a huge terrain advantage going on so while it's not necessarily impossible for the rebellion to win it's not very likely and assuming that both teams are equal in skill the Empire just has so much more going for them now like I said earlier dice has admitted this is a problem and they are going to fix it for the launch of the game but at the same time it's still a little worrisome that they thought the way it was before was okay and it kind of brings up this worry that other game modes are gonna have the same issue on launch day hopefully not but what we saw from this beta isn't exactly the most encouraging now I didn't walk away with nothing but complaints because there is one thing I really really do love about this beta and that's point number 4 the attention to detail as a gamer I definitely have some misgivings about the mechanics we're seeing in this beta but as a Star Wars fan I absolutely love everything I've seen the amount of work that dice put into recreating the Star Wars universe in a video game is nothing short of excellent and it's not just a matter of creating planets we've seen before as maps to play on or making sure that each side is wearing the right costumes it's all the little things it's how all the characters were holding or using their weapons it's how they're running it's what kind of animations they have when they get hit it's how 80s teas have their heads explode no matter what kind of damage they took right before dying what makes this attention to detail even better it's just how much is happening on the screen at all times it's not just limited to what you're doing in the battle there's tons of little environmental effects happening like dust clouds rocks falling down or things happening the distance like seeing an epic starship battle happen right above you dice has done an excellent job of taking such a well-known film universe and condensing into an experience that feels extremely familiar now my last point point number five is a little more awkward because it's not really based on something I experienced in the beta directly it's more something that the beta made me realize and that's how much I'm going to miss a campaign mode in this game now this is a weird argument for me to make because for the most part in most FPS games I could care less if there's a single-player campaign and oftentimes I prefer if there isn't one because a lot of times it just feels like a six hour long tutorial that had some minimal amount of investment into it that could have instead gone towards making the multiplayer even better the thing is part of the reason why is usually a problem in other games is cuz they're trying to create their own characters their own settings their own plot lines to where with this there's a well-established universe and a lot of material to work with to make levels where you're playing as soldiers from each side living through some of the major battles now given that is kind of what you're doing in multiplayer mode but it'd be really great to also see this kind of thing used in a single-player campaign because it's been a while since we've had a really good Star Wars game and having one that also meets the expectations of fans of single-player games just what has been really great to have and we're not gonna have that instead you have these offline single-player co-op modes that just consist of surviving against waves of enemies which is nice to have as an alternative to online multiplayer if you're having any problems to playing online or you just want a way to practice your skills a little bit without dying constantly on the internet but at the same time it's kind of a paltry thing compared to having a real full campaign so those are my thoughts on these Star Wars Battlefront beta both the good and bad thankfully what problems that you have with the game are things that can be fixed in time for the launch on November 17th and hopefully they do while the things I did enjoy would take a considerable amount of work to redo and thankfully doesn't need it as always if you guys enjoyed the video hit that thumbs up button to let me know I'll be seeing you soon with more content including a full review of battlefront when it comes out in November until then though if you don't want to miss out on any videos make sure to subscribe and I'll see you guys later