Star Wars: Battlefront

[niennumb1]

Yeah me too nitrox, downloaded it played for a bit..... boring. Looks great, sounds great but MEH.

YES!!!! I only got to play for a couple minutes so far, so I can't say I hate it or love it yet, but from the 2 minutes I did play, as true to form, no Stormtrooper was able to hit me and got through the first 3 waves pretty quick.

Off the bat my immediate impressions were:
- Holy crap! AMAZING STUNNING visuals. Some of the best looking environments I've ever seen in a game as far as realism. Details on the characters were outstanding
- Gameplay... eh....
- Feeling of being engaged..... A few troopers popped up and not much to feel too intense over. Felt like an old-style shooting gallery where nothing was threatening me.

AGAIN, only 2 minutes of play, but felt like they took arguably some of the most beautiful visual renditions of Star Wars done into a game, but just didn't have time to create a situation where it engages you as a player.

I'm not a major gamer by any stretch, but my last game I was pretty invested in was "Destiny." What I liked about that was how they set up some mystery and anticipation. You weren't sure what was going to happen and I remember feeling a bit on-edge. The beginning of Battlefront kinda gives stuff away before it happens. Ackbar comes on and says to get ready for enemy forces, so you are already prepared to take them on. It might be better to not give it away and just let there be ambushes to keep you anxious.

I'm not hating what I've seen yet of Battlefront and look forward to playing more.... It was just a first initial impression.

 

[The Terminator]

I still need to play the other map... but as of right now I don't think I will buy this, ever.

That's how DICE games always work. They're built around basic concepts of operant conditioning. You give rewards quickly...at first. Then you gradually space out the period between rewards, but by that point, people are invested and hooked.

The gameplay itself ends up only needed to be "good enough," because the game is merely the mechanism by which you advance in the meta-game. You don't play for the purpose of playing. You play for the purpose of advancing. Playing the game is a means to an end, rather than an end unto itself. DICE has been doing this since Battlefield 2. This also enhances their ability to sell things like expansion packs. It's not because they provide additional maps, but rather because they provide additional enhancement.

I mean, don't get me wrong. The gameplay has to be up to a certain minimum level of entertainment. But it only has to get that far. They can make a "eh...decent enough, I guess" game as long as they layer the "Skinner box" mechanics on top of it.

Indeed. One thing about DICE, Gameplay might lack, but they promise great visuals and they deliver. A few other developers promise great visuals and amazing gameplay, this and that and so on and deliver on none of those. Then gamers are left standing with a confused expression on their face: what did they do to that great looking game they showed off? :confused

 

[StevenBills]

YES!!!! I only got to play for a couple minutes so far, so I can't say I hate it or love it yet, but from the 2 minutes I did play, as true to form, no Stormtrooper was able to hit me and got through the first 3 waves pretty quick.

Off the bat my immediate impressions were:
- Holy crap! AMAZING STUNNING visuals. Some of the best looking environments I've ever seen in a game as far as realism. Details on the characters were outstanding
- Gameplay... eh....
- Feeling of being engaged..... A few troopers popped up and not much to feel too intense over. Felt like an old-style shooting gallery where nothing was threatening me.

AGAIN, only 2 minutes of play, but felt like they took arguably some of the most beautiful visual renditions of Star Wars done into a game, but just didn't have time to create a situation where it engages you as a player.

I skipped the "training" mission and jumped right into Walker Assault, and I'm glad I did: It's chaotic and beautiful, and I felt like I was in Star Wars.

SB

 

[niennumb1]

I skipped the "training" mission and jumped right into Walker Assault, and I'm glad I did: It's chaotic and beautiful, and I felt like I was in Star Wars.

SB

Ah so that's why, haha! Training mission..... GAH! Okay, well I obviously have a lot more playing to do!

 

[Amish Trooper]

As others have said the graphics are stunning. The gameplay isn't quite there. Mechanics seem very basic. I'm Shute BF fan and play. If they could dump that into this I'd buy it in a heartbeat but again this is just the beta but how much can change before release

 

[Solo4114]

Answer: nothing, really. Glaringly obvious bugs may be squashed, but design-wise, this is the game you'll get upon purchase. It's possible that'll change over time somewhat, but my guess is that core gameplay is set now.

Can you describe in more detail how the gameplay "isn't quite there"?

My major gripes about the old Battlefront games were that it all felt very...basic, as you said, but in a particular way. Like, it felt almost "dumbed down" from other shooters I'd played, even more arcadey ones like the Battlefield series. There was no ADS, really (well, there was "scope mode" but that was largely useless). There was a LOT of conefire, to an annoying degree. Weapons all felt very "samey." Animations were very "fast" for movement, and yet movement felt slow across the battlefield. There also was too much reliance on explosives (detonators and rocket/grenade launchers) for my tastes, and vehicles felt really sluggish to control in an artificial way. It all just felt very "arcadey" in a kind of off-putting way. Is that how this game is?

The initial gameplay footage of this game made it look...pretty similar, really. It was really pretty, of course, but the core gameplay looked extremely arcadey and simplistic. That's not to say that games like Battlefield 3 and such are highly complex, but the gameplay tends to feel a little more...I dunno...involved. Some of that could be map design, but I think it's also partially weapon lethality and how weapons respond when you fire them. There's a sense of weight to actions, both in terms of avatar movement and in terms of gunplay (usually).

 

[glunark]

Your weapon gets hot and you have to wait while it cools down, funny in six star wars movies and three animated shows, I have never once see anyone have to wait for their gun to cool down.

In single player it pays to not move around, let the enemies come to you and you'll be in a fight quick enough, try to go looking for them and you could end up looking at a lot of empty scenery while they try and find you.

Multiplayer is a different beast all together, where you either get killed by someone behind you, or by a single pixel off at the horizon in front of you. If you are really lucky you get to briefly fly an A wing, and then crash it almost immediately afterwards.

 

[Solo4114]

Your weapon gets hot and you have to wait while it cools down, funny in six star wars movies and three animated shows, I have never once see anyone have to wait for their gun to cool down.

In single player it pays to not move around, let the enemies come to you and you'll be in a fight quick enough, try to go looking for them and you could end up looking at a lot of empty scenery while they try and find you.

Multiplayer is a different beast all together, where you either get killed by someone behind you, or by a single pixel off at the horizon in front of you. If you are really lucky you get to briefly fly an A wing, and then crash it almost immediately afterwards.

Ah, now THAT sounds a lot like Battlefield: you die mostly from people getting the jump on you, and the flying sucks and is limited only to "professional pilots" who hog the aircraft, so that nobody but them ever gets good at flying.

 

[The Terminator]

Well after playing the Hoth level, ******** that is beautiful and damn I am NOT looking forward to a possible snowy Swedish winter (last year the longest we had snow covered scenery was for two days yay) and the singleplayer/co-op Tatooine level..... WOW that is damn beautiful(!!!!). Now I want to like this game. 20 vs 20 on Hoth, running between the legs of a huge AT-AT, wow, I am inside of star wars. That and Oculus rift :eek

24 more 1080p screenshots directly from the game and uploaded to the net:
http://s304.photobucket.com/user/Termivader/library/Battlefront/Hoth - Tatooine?sort=3&page=1

If it had been strictly co-op mission-based with big battles and such, then I would be excited but honestly you alone with 19 strangers running around like chickens that just got their heads chopped off.... MEH.

 

[Wolfsburg]

I haven't played it yet but from the two guys I know that have, one finds it boring and the other finds it addictive. Lol

 

[SpyderDan]

I played for a few hours on Xbox One last night. I played the single-player (or co-op, local split-screen) "survival mode" when the EA servers were down (which happened a few times), but mostly the multi-player. The "Drop Zone" multi-player level was essentially training, to get your first few levels and unlocks, before going into the "Walker Assault" Hoth map.

Drop Zone did not impress me, and Survival would have been a lot more fun with co-op buddies to play with, but "Walker Assault" was a lot of fun and sold me on picking this up the full release next month.

It plays very much like the Battlefield games, re-skinned as Star Wars, and I'm happier with that than I expected. The few different weapons offered actually did feel a lot different than weapons in previous Battlefront games, and some of the secondary weapons you can unlock are interesting. They have a "cycler rifle" you can get as a secondary (like the long gun Luke had in the landspeeder) that is single-shot bullet firing (with a cool-down), good for long range accuracy, and shields are not effective against it. It's great for sniper kills, or as counter to the shield bubble power-ups some players had.

As others have stated, the production values and graphics are top shelf. The game looks absolutely stunning. I expected as much from the previews, but expected less of the game play, and was happily surprised to see that the game was more fun than I expected it to be. It isn't anything revolutionary, but solid fun. I'm excited to see the rest of the game now, after this demo.

BTW, that is exactly what this is: a demo. It cracks me up a little bit, as a veteran game developer, that they are marketing demos as "open beta" these days. I guess it makes the kids feel like they are in on something special, rather than having a game advertised to them.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I've already made up my mind not to buy it, but I watched my nephew play it tonight and I will admit it does look really good. They just dumbed it down too much and then last week saying the PC wouldn't get dedicated servers was the last straw.

 

[The Terminator]

BTW, that is exactly what this is: a demo. It cracks me up a little bit, as a veteran game developer, that they are marketing demos as "open beta" these days. I guess it makes the kids feel like they are in on something special, rather than having a game advertised to them.

Yeah I have only ever played a single beta and.... that was filled with bugs and this is not. It is actually way more polished more than a few "finished" titles I have played.

 

[nitrox]

After spending a few hours on it I gotta admit.......It's growing on me.

 

[Solo4114]

Tried it today and got to Rank 3.

The Good:

The graphics are really lovely, and the sound design is generally pretty good. It looks and sounds like you're in one of the movies.

The lone innovative factor -- the powerups -- were interesting in general.

The Bad:

The gameplay is extremely generic beyond the Star Wars wrapper. It feels like every DICE game you've played, but not really in a good way.

The unlock system sucks, as it usually does. Guys who are higher ranked get better gear to pwn noobz, which is and always has been **** game design. Player skill should determine your abilities, not the gear you've unlocked.

The powerups, as I said, are interesting, but are also implemented in a haphazard and ultimately unsatisfying manner. It feels closer to old school Quake rune DM where you grab a rune and now you get a magic power until the rune runs out.

The weapons themselves really lack lethality, too. Outside of headshots, you can dump an entire magazine (well, "cooling period") into a guy and it seems like he'll survive. Some of this could've been lag, though.


I won't be buying it, certainly not on this computer (which is 5 years old and barely can run it), and definitely not at full price. It's pretty, but that's it. It's like a gorgeous airhead.

 

[Treadwell]

https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/652946014790270976

 

[The Terminator]

Hoth and Tatooine gameplay:

Would love to see a 100 vs 100 player battle

 

[MooCriket]

I honestly think that sometimes people are only happy if they bitch. I am enjoying the hell out of the Beta and could not be happier that I preordered this game. There will never be a perfect game for everyone. This hits enough of the sweet spots for me.

 

[Monkey67]

I'm gonna past on this game. Played the beta for about 7 hours. The graphics are beautiful that's for sure.

Reasons for passing:

1. No true head shot. It should not take 5 rounds to blow a hole in someone's head. A blaster to the face should end your life. Not saying all my shots are head shots. But those times when you sneak up on someone and pull the trigger. They should be dead. Not being able to turn around and try to fight back.

2. Force field personal shields. That's just a dumb idea. Now you can take 20 shots of blaster magic before you peace out of this life. So you get the punk running around with one while he bull charges everything in the room.

3. Unlimited thermo's! Do you really need that? I watched my whole team play bombs over Baghdad none stop. Limit them to 2 max per a round / life

4. These rifles to the moon n back. Get sniped by the starter guns on Hoth. I cant even see them shooting most times. I can understand a sniper rifle doing that. But the dude sitting at the kitchen table of a log cabin who is having hot coco with a wampa. That dude shouldn't be able to pull that off.

5. Hoth way over powered on the empire side. Yes this will likely be fixed

6. It's really not that fun. I guess I'm more of the 1 life per a round kind of guy with real teamwork ( old school Socom). Crap even regular battlefield is better than this mess.

if you like it..cool. Just not mine or my friends taste. Maybe I'll see how the real game goes and try it again.

 

[Deric]

I played it and as others have said the visuals are great which I would expect from dice. It felt like battlefield so much though where the team gets in position and just snipes the spawns.