Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2017) Review

Ahead of the upcoming Star Wars: Outlaws, I thought I would go back and play some other Star Wars games, especially those that have come out on the next gen consoles PS4 & PS5. Over the last few days I have been playing my way through the 2nd incarnation of Star Wars Battlefront 2 that was released in 2017 and here is my review for the game. The premise of the story sees an elite Imperial squad attempt to fulfil the will of The Emperor after the destruction of The Death Star. 

Characters

The main character of the game that you play as is Iden Versio played Janina Gavankar and unfortunately, she is a pretty boring lead character. There just isn't anything particularly interesting about Iden and her character development doesn't really make much sense and feels incredibly rushed which fits the theme of this game. I think Gavankar really cares about the role and really wanted to make it work but the writing truly lets her down. 

A slight issue is that her partner Del Meeko played by T.J. Ramini has a better story arc then she does. It still feels rushed but there is an event that happens to him at the beginning of the game's story where he is on his own that at least makes it make sense and he does a decent enough job with that. 

Shriv played by Dan Donohue is a Rebel soldier and the comic relief of the game. He is really funny and has the best one liners of the game, its a shame the rest of the characters didn't have the charisma that he had throughout. 

The Awesome Paul Blackthore plays Gideon Hask and even though his character is a pretty generic Imperial, he revels in it and owns the majority of his scenes with how over the top villainy he possesses. He knows the role he is given and plays it really well. 

Throughout the story mode you get the chance to play as heroes such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo and these are fun detours from the journey of Inferno Squad. Though not the film actors, these voice actors all do stellar jobs and it does feel like the characters you are playing as. 

Story

Quite controversially, the reboot of Star Wars: Battlefront had no campaign which was a terrible decision. This game has both a campaign and a DLC Campaign so that is a step in the right direction, however, the campaign isn't that great. The parts I enjoyed were the fact that you get to play as these heroes in fun missions and that you get to play at the Battle of Jakku and see how the DLC campaign links to the events of The Force Awakens & The Last Jedi. However, the story is really frustrating, we were promised that we would get an Empire story where we would see their point of view but that is just a lie and doesn't happen and you are frustratingly a good guy after like an hour in. The story is also too short, I finished the main campaign and Resurrection (The DLC Campaign) in around 5 hours and it rushed by without much substance. 

Side Content

So the single player campaign isn't great but the multiplayer is fantastic. It is so much fun playing on these iconic locations in huge battles both on the ground and in Space. The Starfighter Assault mode is really fun and Supremacy feels like this epic battles between two factions. Heroes vs Villains is here and it is always fun playing as these iconic Star Wars characters and even though some are better then others there is no denying that it is fun. 

There is other single player content with Arcade missions where you have to complete tasks as certain characters to earn rewards. These are satisfying enough and I like that the game bothered to include them but they won't be overly remembered. 

Gameplay

The actual gameplay is really good, using these iconic weapons from Star Wars and playing in these iconic locations is a lot of fun. Alongside the different abilities and classes it makes everybody's experience feel a little bit different and unique which is really fun to see. The battles feel really large in scale and that the game does a great job of showing that. 

However, in the campaign the AI is some of the worst I have seen. The partner AI are useless and they just don't help you at all and they might as well not be there. But the enemy AI is even worse, either they just run at you with no tactics or care for their lives or they spawn out of nowhere. The only reason  I ever died was due to the sheer amount of enemies that you face and not due to the AI actually being smart or well programmed. 

Graphics

The game looks fantastic, seeing such planets as Endor, Takodana & Naboo in all its glory is a sight to behold and that is continued with the brilliant visuals of the Starfighter missions which all feel slightly different and unique. The character models all look really great too with plenty of customisation alongside less but still worthwhile vehicle and Ship Design. 

But during the campaign I suffered from a lot of graphical glitches mainly involving the enemies moving through walls and magically floating in mid air after I killed them. It just took me out of the game and made the entire thing feel a bit cheap and weak. 

Overall

Overall, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is an above average game. If you only play games for the single player then give this one a miss as it doesn't offer enough. But if you are a Star Wars fan who loves multiplayer then this is a must play, it is so much fun playing these huge battles in multiplayer. If they make a Battlefront 3 I hope they focus a bit more on the campaign and keep the great multiplayer. 

Rating - 6/10