Star Wars: Battlefront II started off in possibly the worst way imaginable. Despite all the hype, fans (myself included) were hugely disappointed with how the game turned out to be upon release.
The biggest problem with the game was how progression worked. You rely on loot boxes that you can buy with real-world money to get a random assortment of in-game goods. Electronic Arts (EA) decided to make this the foundation of the game’s progression. Fans were outraged and considered this a pay-to-win mechanic that free-to-play mobile games use.
Fans were upset with other mechanics in the game, such as how it would take approximately 40 hours to unlock a new hero. This was discussed on Reddit during a live Q&A and EA explained that this was done “to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment”. It eventually became the most downvoted post in Reddit history with over 680,000 downvotes. To give you a sense of scale, Reddit is the seventh most visited website on the entire internet.
Another issue was the story mode. There was a lot of hype involving story mode. Not only was it all cannon (meaning it’s part of the official Star Wars lore along with the movies and novelization) but it was also played from the perspective of the Empire.
It starts on Endor after the second Death Star is destroyed. You play as an Imperial soldier, Iden Versio, leading a special forces team called “Inferno Squad.” She grew up on Vardos which is a firm supporter of the Empire.
Once you start, you see how much she loves the Empire, but after two missions, she quickly turns to the side of the rebellion when she realizes that the Empire is bad. Then the rest is just a standard story of fighting the Empire and bringing hope to the galaxy. It also doesn’t help that it’s only four hours long.
With all this bad press, Disney executives put the hammer down and told EA to fix this since “The Last Jedi” was coming out soon after this game. So, they removed all paid loot boxes from the game. However, it was still getting worse. Belgium and the state senator of Hawaii have launched investigations to see if loot boxes equate to real world gambling, which is a big problem when the targeted audience was children.
To make up for all of this, EA has recently released a new update to completely change how progression works. Loot boxes are now strictly for credits (in-game currency) and cosmetics without impacting gameplay at all. You can only obtain them through gameplay and completing certain milestones and challenges. If you want to make whatever class you’re using stronger, you have to gain enough experience to get enough skill points to spend on upgrading weapons and in-game abilities called “Star Cards”.
All of the heroes and villains have also been unlocked so you won’t have to spend hours of grinding to unlock them. Now you can play as whichever hero or villain you want.
It also added a new map. Cloud City on Bespin. It’s only available when you’re playing Blast (Team Deathmatch), Heroes vs. Villains and Jetpack Cargo (fighting over a cargo unit where everyone has Jetpacks), though Jetpack Cargo is only available for a limited time.
It has also made certain guns and heroes more balanced, powering up certain blasters and heroes while also powering down others so battles aren’t too one-sided.
Whether this game is worth buying or not is still up for debate. We’ll see how players react to this new form of progression to determine if EA has made up for its previous pay-to-win mechanics, or if people still consider them to be on the dark side of the force.
Samuel Christian
Intern