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Preview: Star Wars: Battlefront

Before my most recent hands-on with Star Wars: Battlefront, I was still on the fence. I was yet to make my decision on whether or not I would purchase the multiplayer-only title. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a huge Star Wars fan —  I already have my Force Awakens tickets — but PvP just doesn’t do it for me. By the end of my latest session though, my mind was made up.

It’s a bit of a conundrum I explained to a friend earlier the day of the preview session. I’m excited by how amazing Battlefront looks more than anything. Battlefront proves how good a Star Wars game can look. My reasoning was that when a “real” Star Wars game comes out it will benefit from Battlefront’s hard work. Those were my exact words. My friend asked what the hell does a “real” Star Wars game even mean?

My first example is really just the game at the top of my wish list: Rogue Squadron. I realised all I wanted was a new Rogue Squadron game. We began reminiscing about Factor 5’s series and the hours we had spent and it was then that I thought I had finally made my decision on Battlefront. I would give it a miss. I just couldn’t see myself playing PvP enough to get my money’s worth. As usual, I was wrong.

This specific preview was for Battlefront‘s Fighter Squadron mode. I was excited for two reasons: one, I’d never played the mode, and second, this was the first time this mode was being demoed in the southern hemisphere. At first I thought the flying was going to take some getting used to, Battlefield-style. Again, I was wrong. All I had to do was change the controls back to their default settings and I was off.

Star Wars Battlefront _4-17_D

I was blown away by how natural it felt. Swooping and diving through lasers and explosions was effortless. Chasing down rebel scum was a little harder but extremely fun. I must have been born too late in the wrong Galaxy because it felt like this was why I exist. Destroying X-Wings and hunting down the Millennium Falcon is amassive rush, and everything looks incredible while you’re doing it too.

The planet below the fight is littered with power-ups. I found diving down and grabbing some extra fire power invaluable, making the fight easier on myself. It can be a bit tricky at first to time your dive right. If you mess up you’re going to smash into the planet or the magma flowing out of it.

As with the standard PvP modes in Battlefront, the sound is phenomenal. All the music and sound effects do a lot of the work to bring the Star Wars universe to life. Add this to the intuitive controls and stunning visuals and this mode itself is the closest thing to feeling like actually being in the Star Wars movies I’ve ever experienced.

After playing the Fighter Squadron mode in Battlefront I can easily say I’m no longer on the fence. I’ll be getting this on 19 November at launch.


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About the author

Shane Wall

I'm just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe. A game geek turned audio engineer/musician. Shane's life is a delicate balance of video games, music and science fiction.