Battlefront Beta...HNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[CellShaded]

Goddamn, people are trying so hard to hate it. Having loved Battlefront 1 and 2 to death, and having recently (still) played Battlefront 2, I can say the new one is good. I had fun, and I've sunk many hours into the beta so far. I can't believe people are honestly complaining about a lack of content (maps, modes, weapons progression etc.)in a free to play beta.

Would Free Radical's BF3 been better? Maybe. But we're not getting that and this one will certainly do as a replacement. It feels great to play, the third person is well done. Shooting feels great, the weapons and arenas feel authentic. I'd rather have "mediocre" games with Star Wars paint than no Star Wars games at all.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Part of that is two things: Rebel air vehicles can damage the AT ATs when they've been hit by the Y-wings, but not everyone is aware of this, and the snowspeeders can hit the AT ATs with their tow cables at the last stage. It's not very well explained. Unfortunately, what it seems people are learning is how to hide on the hill with a cycle rifle.

I managed to get a snow speeder, got near one, was prompted with a cable thing and then it began a mini game where I had no idea what to do and was shot down a moment after. Poor explanation is an understatement.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Goddamn, people are trying so hard to hate it. Having loved Battlefront 1 and 2 to death, and having recently (still) played Battlefront 2, I can say the new one is good. I had fun, and I've sunk many hours into the beta so far. I can't believe people are honestly complaining about a lack of content (maps, modes, weapons progression etc.)in a free to play beta.

I have to agree. I've never seen more jaded cynicism than what is currently happening in the gaming world. Yes it is an EA game and also a DICE game. But even so I'm still one to judge a game on its merits and flaws, not solely on who has developed it. DICE has had some poor entries, like BF4. However an aside from that, the current iteration of BF4 seems to run perfectly fine now, it just had a shit launch. I don't always agree with EA's business decisions, some of them downright piss me off to no end (Dungeon Keeper how far ye have fallen) however they haven't always fucked up everything they touch.

Cautious optimism is so much more healthy than callous cynicism.

 

[Zhukov]

The Hoth map in the beta is hilariously unbalanced. For the Rebels (defenders) to win, they have to hold onto the control points for an absurd amount of time, considering that the Imperials get all the land vehicles. I am yet to see Rebels win. Closest I saw was taking out one walker and getting the second to about half health.

Part of that is two things: Rebel air vehicles can damage the AT ATs when they've been hit by the Y-wings, but not everyone is aware of this, and the snowspeeders can hit the AT ATs with their tow cables at the last stage. It's not very well explained. Unfortunately, what it seems people are learning is how to hide on the hill with a cycle rifle.

I'm pretty sure people know they can shoot the walkers when a big load voice says, "Shoot the walkers!" Everything else hurts them so it doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to shoot them with an air vehicle. I've seen other people do it and I know I strafe them at every opportunity.

Didn't know about the snowspeeders being able to cable them though. But only at the last stage? That's weird and arbitrary. The game doesn't explain what the vehicle secondary weapons do at all.

Snowspeeder is crappy anyway. Relatively slow, handles like a pregnant cow and is even harder to control than the aircraft.

 

[fix-the-spade]

That's strange, last I heard some testers said it's a shit storm bug-wise.

The beta is impressively normal actually. There are some pretty fundamental design issues though (DICE plz) but compared to the BF3/4 betas it's all abnormally stable.

Not sure I'm going to buy it though, maybe when it comes down in price.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Snowspeeder is crappy anyway. Relatively slow, handles like a pregnant cow and is even harder to control than the aircraft.

The Snowspeeder did handle like crap, but I found the Tie Fighters etc seemed fine to me... Maybe I somehow suit the apparently shitty controls XD

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

fucking christ. they were ROASTED over social media platforms for them to not fucking do this in all their bullshit press releases, and they tried to assure us it wasn't going to be that way

And you thought they weren't gonna lie about it?

In all fairness they probably didn't lie knowingly. They probably think that the game is vastly different from Battlefield because they're the ones working on it which makes their perception very different. Every time they do something they didn't do for Battlefield it reinforces their opinion of how vastly different the game is. They don't look at it in terms of the final product, they see all the details that are different and think that's enough. They probably can't see the similarities for what they are. But gamers can. And none of the "differences" can hide the fact that it's a Battlefield game in a Star Wars universe.

 

[Dango]

At first I didn't like it.
Then I switched to third person.
And then I liked it.

Overall, I don't think it's the best representation of the final product, there's just not enough content to make a good judgement. I think Hoth is definitely tipped in the Empire's favor, and the LMG-equivalent is OP, but overall I think it's fun and I'll probably buy it.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

At first I didn't like it.
Then I switched to third person.
And then I liked it.

It's odd, but that was my impression of it too. In first person it somehow doesn't feel like a Battlefront game, but in third person it plays much better. I mean, it's not an absolute riot that's going to set the gaming world on fire, but I didn't run into anything that would make me cancel my pre-order either.

 

[Lightspeaker]

Well as I more or less said in the other thread: it'd basically have to climb out of my computer and try to strangle me to death to fall BELOW my expectations. So based solely on the fact it actually didn't outright crash on me meant it beat my expectations. But it still falls pretty woefully short of the older games.

Pros:
- Looks pretty
- Nice music
- Gunplay isn't as godawful as Battlefield 4
- The UI and equipment loadout itself is actually quite well done. Nice and simple and makes things quite fluid. Could do with making the radar a bit bigger and more obvious. I frequently just outright forgot it was there.
- Didn't have any real problems with lag in the game, although the menus took way too long to load sometimes.
- Haven't seen any major bugs so far.
- I actually had some fun on Hoth.

Cons:
- The single-player survival thing is just pathetic. Really. If this is the standard of single-player content they're replacing the Campaign and Galactic Conquest with then this is absolutely not a full-price purchase.
- The small-scale fight map that it first directs you to is not quite as bad as that but still nothing special. Its particularly frustrating, however, when you lack grenades or the jetpack. This level basically absolutely requires equipment because of all the mix of 'canyons' and hills and when you start out you're just going to die a lot for nothing at all.
- The whole "level and unlock equipment" thing is absolutely stupid as hell. You start with nothing and get beaten up by guys who are throwing grenades at you, deploying personal shields to prevent them from dying when you catch them out, sniped across the battlefield and gunned down by someone who has taken the high ground above you with their jetpack. None of which you have to begin with, of course. I HATE these systems in multiplayer shooters. They're fundamentally unfair, poor design and anti-competitive. At least its fairly quick in the beta.
- Removal of class-based system was also stupid. It allows more flexibility in loadouts when you've unlocked a bunch of equipment, perhaps, but in the beta it just means that you have absolutely nothing to deal with vehicles at first other than to just shoot it with your blaster or desperately try to find a turret or something.
- Absolutely zero explanation on anything at all. You get in a vehicle or get a hero and it flashes up some ability icons on the panel in the bottom. What do they all do? Damned if I know. For some you can guess (like the speed up for flying vehicles being the usual series of arrows in a line), others you have no idea until you try.
- Speaking of vehicles the flying ones in particular handle like a dead cow attached to a rocket engine. Games seem to consist of people constantly flying into the ground and exploding (personally I just try to crash into the opposing fighters).
- I actually kinda like the pickup system but they seem to spawn in the most godawfully stupid places. Like right in the middle of the open field of battle. Also minor nitpick- they can be really, really hard to see against the white snow.
- Hoth, as many people have pointed out, is hilariously imbalanced. I know its possible to win as Rebels because I've done it a couple of times and I've lost once as Imperial. But its massively hard to do.


IF the leveling is still fairly quick (because god knows they're not going to remove it despite the fact I think its a fundamentally toxic mechanic) and IF its very cheap (I'm talking maybe ~£20-25 or so) somewhere then I might consider picking it up. But right now its retailing for £40 on Amazon so...no. I'm not paying full price for half a Battlefront game, the half (multiplayer) that I never even used to play anyway.

Edit: Oh I forgot one thing:
The spawns are AWFUL. The game will routinely spawn you right in front of a bunch of enemies and you just instantly die.

 

[mad825]

I have better things to waste my time on. IMO the maps are way smaller than the previous battlefronts, call me uninspired.

Hoth is absolutely larger than any Battlefront map so... I'd say you didn't experience much. TIE Fighters/X-Wings/A-Wings give you a better sense of size/scope.

You know what? I'll take it back. It has the worst map design and unfaithful to Empire strikes back. I spent 20 mins near the shield generator without seeing a soul expect for tie fighters. If this is meant to be a showcase to blow my socks off then call me uninspired again.

Even then the map size seems to be equivalent and not any lager than the one on BF2.

The gimmick, what gave battlefront it's shizbang is the recreation of scenes from Starwars and having the actual ability to relive that moment with interactivity.

 

[gorfias]

I have to admit: this is an awesome gif. Sharing it with everyone to express my anger that my car is very sick. Brought it in for an oil change and it needs $1K in repairs.

As for Battlefront, I did not run into bugs. It was unbelievable pretty. I played some, protected something successfully, then someone did a one shot, one kill on me. I am sad. Is the game really this hard?

 

[Loonyyy]

Part of that is two things: Rebel air vehicles can damage the AT ATs when they've been hit by the Y-wings, but not everyone is aware of this, and the snowspeeders can hit the AT ATs with their tow cables at the last stage. It's not very well explained. Unfortunately, what it seems people are learning is how to hide on the hill with a cycle rifle.

I managed to get a snow speeder, got near one, was prompted with a cable thing and then it began a mini game where I had no idea what to do and was shot down a moment after. Poor explanation is an understatement.

Yep. If you fly a snowspeeder near the legs, you get a prompt for the tow cable. Of course, the first time you see this, you'll probably crash, and with the wonky controls, probably a lot more times. I have a feeling eventually players will work this out, and then the walkers will be fucked. My brother switched to his controller for circling the legs, and brought one down on his first try, after I'd told him about the cable, so it's possible, I'm just rubbish at it. I've managed to crash it every time, but while I was playing earlier, more than a few players worked it out, and successfully brought them down. It didn't seem to matter overmuch what their health was either.

And, I'm pretty sure that the tow cable can only be used when they are vulnerable to damage, after a Y-Wing strike, and the game is really poor at telling you when that's happened, because there are 5 or 6 different audio cues to pick from, most of which aren't the strike, and if you're airborne, you want to spend that free time clearing the sky. There's like 3 or 4 incoming strike, or lock cues, and I swivel to the walker every time I hear one, and most of them aren't it.

I don't think this is going to be a significant long-term balance issue, I think it's going to get messier once people work out how it works, and I'm sure that'll be painful. I expect that the Imperials will steamroll to the endzone every time, and then the speeders will take them out, and then they'll come in with the nerfs.

Personally, I enjoy that map up until that final section, even if I am on the losing side.

I'm pretty sure people know they can shoot the walkers when a big load voice says, "Shoot the walkers!" Everything else hurts them so it doesn't take a great stretch of the imagination to shoot them with an air vehicle.

I'm sure it's a mixed bag. Most of the players on my team had worked out they could jetpack onto the hill, and ignore the walker. I keep missing the chance to really dig into the walker, because there's a bunch of different audio cues for it. Really, the only way I know for sure is when it's all blue.

Didn't know about the snowspeeders being able to cable them though. But only at the last stage? That's weird and arbitrary.

I'm pretty sure the snowspeeders only spawn on that last section, feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken, I haven't seen a token for one of them in the starting region.

The game doesn't explain what the vehicle secondary weapons do at all.

I've still got no clue what the third card on the snowspeeder does.

Snowspeeder is crappy anyway. Relatively slow, handles like a pregnant cow and is even harder to control than the aircraft.

Yeah, I think it's really only useful for the tow cable. I think what's going to happen is people are going to work out the tow cable, and then the speeder's going to get a nerf, because when it takes down an AT AT, it's ridiculous. It's so slow that it's vulnerable to ground fire, you can't strafe troops for rubbish in it. The fighters are actually really good for this, since they can basically stop.

I'm fairly sure the tow cable only works when the AT ATs are vulnerable, which is arbitrary and annoying, especially if you're trying to work out how to tow cable. That was my second snowspeeder crash.

 

[Fappy]

It's mediocre as fuck.

Have you played any multiplayer shooter with an objective based mode? Ever? Then you've already played this.

The air vehicles control like arse.

The Hoth map in the beta is hilariously unbalanced. For the Rebels (defenders) to win, they have to hold onto the control points for an absurd amount of time, considering that the Imperials get all the land vehicles. I am yet to see Rebels win. Closest I saw was taking out one walker and getting the second to about half health.


Oh, and they start you out with no abilities or equipment. Not even a default loadout. So you're going to spend your first couple of levels getting shredded by objectively more powerful players. Terrible way to start off new players. Because apparently they thought that one gun and three abilities might blow our tiny minds if they dumped all that complexity on us right away.

Single player skirmish mode... thing is bland as fuck. Could be fun playing co-op I guess, but I'm not feeling it.

The 16 player mode is okay. But gets repetitive real quick. Like I said above, you could get the same experience from any halfway competent shooter, including several free ones.

If you want to play a shooter that is average in every regard while listening to Star Wars music and sound effects then this is for you. Otherwise it's just... nothing.

I'm glad I got to play it though. Ensured that I don't go making some kind of stupid impulse buy and waste $90.

PS. Oh, and I'm not bashing it because it isn't a remake of the old games. I barely remember those. This is poor entirely on its own merits.

This has been my experience as well. It's a pretty standard "spam grenades across the map", tunnel vision-y shoot people in the back fps. I got bored of this genre in 2007. I'll just wait for ME Andromeda Multiplayer I guess.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

I've been playing it on the Xbox One this afternoon and even on the consoles, the graphics are impressive. Frame-rate suffers every now and then, but when you're looking at a 40-player online shooter, that's bound to happen.

It shares little in common with the original Battlefront, and yes, it's basically just a Battlefield game with a Star Wars skin. Your jump-pack does not allow you to hover in the air, yet AI-controlled Jetpack Troopers can do this in the solo missions where you're just fighting bots. I'm actually fine with being able to customize my class, I just hate the fact that I have to grind in order to unlock shit to use.

Somehow it's plenty different from Battlefield, though... I can't quite say what it is. Battlefield itself feels, I dunno heavier, I guess? I'm terrible at Battlefield and I get my ass kicked the second I step out onto the field, but in Battlefront, I'm actually keeping up with the better players. But then I haven't played in the Hoth level yet so I may be in for a surprise.

Captcha: I like you!

Eh, sort of. Better than I though, but still not enough to make me want to drop 60 on it.

 

[shintakie10]

I've been playing it on the Xbox One this afternoon and even on the consoles, the graphics are impressive. Frame-rate suffers every now and then, but when you're looking at a 40-player online shooter, that's bound to happen.

It shares little in common with the original Battlefront, and yes, it's basically just a Battlefield game with a Star Wars skin. Your jump-pack does not allow you to hover in the air, yet AI-controlled Jetpack Troopers can do this in the solo missions where you're just fighting bots. I'm actually fine with being able to customize my class, I just hate the fact that I have to grind in order to unlock shit to use.

Somehow it's plenty different from Battlefield, though... I can't quite say what it is. Battlefield itself feels, I dunno heavier, I guess? I'm terrible at Battlefield and I get my ass kicked the second I step out onto the field, but in Battlefront, I'm actually keeping up with the better players. But then I haven't played in the Hoth level yet so I may be in for a surprise.

Captcha: I like you!

Eh, sort of. Better than I though, but still not enough to make me want to drop 60 on it.

It's Battlefield, sped up and dumbed down. No offense, but that's why you're surviving. It's more like CoD with a Star Wars skin.

To me, it's basically the second BF4 mod being sold as a new game. Hardline, and now Battlefronts. They'd be worth $20 together as expansions.

If it was Battlefield I'd actually be happy. Its not Battlefield though. The random power ups ruin any chance it had of Battlefield.

Seriously. Fuck the random power ups.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Well as I more or less said in the other thread: it'd basically have to climb out of my computer and try to strangle me to death to fall BELOW my expectations. So based solely on the fact it actually didn't outright crash on me meant it beat my expectations. But it still falls pretty woefully short of the older games.

Spoiler

Pros:
- Looks pretty
- Nice music
- Gunplay isn't as godawful as Battlefield 4
- The UI and equipment loadout itself is actually quite well done. Nice and simple and makes things quite fluid. Could do with making the radar a bit bigger and more obvious. I frequently just outright forgot it was there.
- Didn't have any real problems with lag in the game, although the menus took way too long to load sometimes.
- Haven't seen any major bugs so far.
- I actually had some fun on Hoth.

Cons:
- The single-player survival thing is just pathetic. Really. If this is the standard of single-player content they're replacing the Campaign and Galactic Conquest with then this is absolutely not a full-price purchase.
- The small-scale fight map that it first directs you to is not quite as bad as that but still nothing special. Its particularly frustrating, however, when you lack grenades or the jetpack. This level basically absolutely requires equipment because of all the mix of 'canyons' and hills and when you start out you're just going to die a lot for nothing at all.
- The whole "level and unlock equipment" thing is absolutely stupid as hell. You start with nothing and get beaten up by guys who are throwing grenades at you, deploying personal shields to prevent them from dying when you catch them out, sniped across the battlefield and gunned down by someone who has taken the high ground above you with their jetpack. None of which you have to begin with, of course. I HATE these systems in multiplayer shooters. They're fundamentally unfair, poor design and anti-competitive. At least its fairly quick in the beta.
- Removal of class-based system was also stupid. It allows more flexibility in loadouts when you've unlocked a bunch of equipment, perhaps, but in the beta it just means that you have absolutely nothing to deal with vehicles at first other than to just shoot it with your blaster or desperately try to find a turret or something.
- Absolutely zero explanation on anything at all. You get in a vehicle or get a hero and it flashes up some ability icons on the panel in the bottom. What do they all do? Damned if I know. For some you can guess (like the speed up for flying vehicles being the usual series of arrows in a line), others you have no idea until you try.
- Speaking of vehicles the flying ones in particular handle like a dead cow attached to a rocket engine. Games seem to consist of people constantly flying into the ground and exploding (personally I just try to crash into the opposing fighters).
- I actually kinda like the pickup system but they seem to spawn in the most godawfully stupid places. Like right in the middle of the open field of battle. Also minor nitpick- they can be really, really hard to see against the white snow.
- Hoth, as many people have pointed out, is hilariously imbalanced. I know its possible to win as Rebels because I've done it a couple of times and I've lost once as Imperial. But its massively hard to do.


IF the leveling is still fairly quick (because god knows they're not going to remove it despite the fact I think its a fundamentally toxic mechanic) and IF its very cheap (I'm talking maybe ~£20-25 or so) somewhere then I might consider picking it up. But right now its retailing for £40 on Amazon so...no. I'm not paying full price for half a Battlefront game, the half (multiplayer) that I never even used to play anyway.

Edit: Oh I forgot one thing:
The spawns are AWFUL. The game will routinely spawn you right in front of a bunch of enemies and you just instantly die.

now that I've had a chance to play it myself, I will say I agree with these bullet points quite a bit..specifically the level and unlock bit especially, jesus christ it is so anti-noob friendly, until you unlock anything yourself you might as well just be throwing spears and stones at your enemies.

this game is NOT battlefront...but, I didn't hate the game, I just hate that they took the battlefront name and attached it to this...

I may purchase it at some point in the future, depending on content release and GOTY edition type stuff, but this game is really just looking like "multiplayer: star wars skin edition", and I don't want anything to do with that pretty much.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

...
I'm glad I got to play it though. Ensured that I don't go making some kind of stupid impulse buy and waste $90.
...

Ninety dollars? Jesus Christ, I had to check the prices just to make sure, but it's true. Ninety god damn dollars for this? Other than the fact that it's Star Wars, hence, they can get away with charging on name recognition alone, why should this game be ninety dollars? I've watched various sources of footage, and while I'm aware that it's still in beta, I don't see how some run of the mill multiplayer shooter could warrant such a price.

Also, what the hell is this?

Digital Deluxe Edition Details

Immerse Yourself in Your Star Wars Battle Fantasies!

* Inflict more damage on enemy vehicles with the Ion Grenade.
* The Ion Torpedo locks on to and delivers extra damage to your opponents' vehicles.
* Made famous by Han Solo, the DL-44 is the blaster of choice for scoundrels across the universe.
* Get electrified with the Ion Shock emote, available exclusively in the Deluxe Edition.
* Celebrate your win in style and pump your fist in the air with the exclusive Victory emote.

Ignoring the pointless emotes, this other shit had better be available in-game to unlock, or ultimately superseded by better gear, otherwise this is real shady. I'm aware that pre-order/deluxe edition bonuses that grant advantages over others in multiplayer games isn't exactly a new thing, but that doesn't make it any better.
Besides, if it isn't a real advantage over others, then what idiot would even pay ten extra dollars for an already over priced game just for, what, three weapons and some emotes that make you look like a cretin? The blaster is the only thing I could understand people wanting, due to nostalgia, of course, but who the hell is nostalgic for a grenade or torpedo. I was going to say I could understand the torpedo as well, since they were used to destroy the Death Star, but then I remembered that they were proton torpedo, not ion.

Now, I'm not saying the game is bad, but I don't see why people should be gushing over this game other than the Star Wars skin.

Edit: From the footage I watched, the first thing I thought when I saw how the game works was: hey, this progression looks really unfair to new players. You're given nothing, and will ultimately be slaugtered by everyone else until you've leveled up. That's a really shitty way to introduce players to your game. You should aim for a positive first impression, not a frustrating and poorly designed one.
With that said, the combination of shitty progression and deluxe editions offering extra weapons, well ...
I'm not going to say anything, I'll instead just leave these two elements sitting there, out in the open, for you to draw your own conclusion.

 

[josemlopes]

Not bad (and looks great) but basic as fuck, if it werent for the visuals it would be one of those indie games that try to do something but fall short since they are a small team in the end. For DICE and EA that isnt an excuse so having such a basic as fuck game feels like a missed opportunity.

So yeah, even something like Galactic Warfare seems to have more content, and lets not talk of RTS mods

Comparing this Battlefront to the previous ones seems wrong since the old ones had so much more going on for them.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I've been enjoying my time with it (having a group to play with helps) but aside from the Star Wars window dressing there's almost nothing that sets it apart from any other shooter I've ever bothered to play. I'd say my first impressions are that it's decent in about the most unremarkable way possible.