Would Star Wars Battlefront have been better as a "Battlefield Reskin"?

[TheMigrantSoldier]

I remember playing the beta way back when and the current reviews (as of months ago) pretty much sum up the thoughts I had for it: It's a fun, arcadey game with excellent graphics and sound design but little else going for it.

When I first heard that a new Battlefront was being developed by DICE, it piqued my interest. I enjoyed Battlefield 2 and Battlefront 2 back in 2006, so it seemed like a perfect match, like chocolate and peanut butter or Total War and Warhammer (man, someone should combine those two someday). The Battlefront formula with certain elements of Battlefield (squads, commander mode) would have both made for a great Star Wars game and played to DICE's strengths.

But because no one liked the idea of a potential battlefield clone, this game was put out. Instead of vehicles spawns, there are tokens and instead of classes, there are very broad loadouts and power-ups. So, for the people who actually own or have owned the game, what are your thoughts?

 

[Windcaler]

The thing is Battlefront has always been different enough from Battlefield to be a seperate game. Yes they are both class based shooters based around conquest gameplay but the nuances is what makes them different enough to be seperate games. That said, all Dice really had to do was take battlefront 2, put on a new coat of paint (update the graphics and UI), and release it. If they had done that we would be singing its praises for staying true to the formula that makes battlefront 2 a solid game to this day.

I dont think Ive seen a more sure fire win before, at least not in recent memory, but rather then get the game we wanted we got this watered down, barely interesting, stuffed with DLC/microtransactions monstrosity

This goes right back to my issues with EA having the star wars liscence in the first place. I dont mind them making star wars games I mind them having exclusive rights to star wars because theyre not going to do anything really interesting with it. We could have gotten amazing games like a Pazak trading card game, an RTS fighting (or being) the yu zong vong, a six axis space flight simulator, a sim city like game where you create and maintain a Hutt Cartel, or even a Bounty hunter themed game based around investigation rather then fire fights. Theres already so many ideas but I dont think were ever going to see anything besides bland FPS's and if were very very very lucky we might get a good Kotor 3 or Republic commando 2

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

I thought Battlefront was enjoyable, but incredibly shallow.

I didn't like the cards and power-ups. I vastly preferred the vehicle-spawns system from BF2. I had the most fun playing the 6v6 hero mode; it made me want an over-the-shoulder Star Wars MOBA.

In general, there was a sparsity of actual content, and relying on random chance to use things like TIE fighters or AT-STs just meant that you never got to use them often enough to get good at using them, and couldn't rely on being able to use them when you wanted to use them.

Also, the bowcaster was fucking overpowered.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

The thing is Battlefront has always been different enough from Battlefield to be a seperate game. Yes they are both class based shooters based around conquest gameplay but the nuances is what makes them different enough to be seperate games.

You're certainly right. However, while Battlefront 2 is certainly a solid game up to this day, some of it simply hasn't aged well enough to earn an HD remake. Floaty movement/aiming, wonky physics, comically bad AI, and, somewhat like EA's Battlefront, chaotic "teamplay". Therefore, injecting some elements of Battlefield would have been a necessary shot to the arm.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Yes. Pure and simple. Scrap the shitshow Battlefront is and just modernize Battlefields 1&2 into a single game. Everyone would have loved it. And it would have made gangbusters.

 

[bluegate]

Yes. Pure and simple. Scrap the shitshow Battlefront is and just modernize Battlefields 1&2 into a single game. Everyone would have loved it. And it would have made gangbusters.

I would have hated it, boycotted it and would have made a big stink online about how I didn't like the game.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

The thing is Battlefront has always been different enough from Battlefield to be a seperate game. Yes they are both class based shooters based around conquest gameplay but the nuances is what makes them different enough to be seperate games. That said, all Dice really had to do was take battlefront 2, put on a new coat of paint (update the graphics and UI), and release it. If they had done that we would be singing its praises for staying true to the formula that makes battlefront 2 a solid game to this day.

I dont think Ive seen a more sure fire win before, at least not in recent memory, but rather then get the game we wanted we got this watered down, barely interesting, stuffed with DLC/microtransactions monstrosity

This goes right back to my issues with EA having the star wars liscence in the first place. I dont mind them making star wars games I mind them having exclusive rights to star wars because theyre not going to do anything really interesting with it. We could have gotten amazing games like a Pazak trading card game, an RTS fighting (or being) the yu zong vong, a six axis space flight simulator, a sim city like game where you create and maintain a Hutt Cartel, or even a Bounty hunter themed game based around investigation rather then fire fights. Theres already so many ideas but I dont think were ever going to see anything besides bland FPS's and if were very very very lucky we might get a good Kotor 3 or Republic commando 2

10000000000000% this. Just the idea of an updated battlefront 2 made my mouth water, but nope, they fucked that up stupidly hard.

(same goes for everything else you said, a pazak trading card game, an updated rts star wars game, and to give star citizen a run for its money star wars space simulator)

 

[Dansen]

Well EA went and made CoD: star wars edition. I'll admit the game is absolutely gorgeous and should hold up visually for quite a few years, but that aside the game lacks any real depth and is more of a glorified tech demo than anything. It plays like a brainless run and gun shooter, (which admittedly was what the battlefront franchise was) but in a much different way. I believe a lot of people primarily experienced the game as a co-op or 1v1 shooter, all the while surrounded by a horde of fairly dumb AI. The only people that got the online experience were the PC crowd, which I think may have been the minority of the player base (this is purely anecdotal, I only knew one person who owned it on PC as a kid but over twenty people who had it on console).

That ability to just go to your friend's house and mow down tons of star wars fodder was the probably the biggest factor in the franchise's success. As usual EA misses the point and scraps it to sell people a shitty digital storefront. If I had been the director of the game I would have had the new game be an evolution of the previous installments and make it sort of a MOBA shooter hybrid.

The gameplay would stay more or less similar to previous installments with the class based system, however the role of the A.I. in matches would be ramped up. A.I. would pursue objectives along set routes like a MOBA engaging in firefights along the routes while being a decent threat to players. As the match progresses players would rack up points that they could spend on a bunch of stuff like improved/elite infantry squads, maned or empty vehicles, entrenched/reinforced positions and advanced/special classes. It would need plenty of work but it could be pretty interesting and seems like a good compromise between mowing down baddies and pvp combat. It would definitely have a more ebb and flow feel to the action, kind of like an actual battle.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

I personally would have loved for Battlefront to have been a Battlefield reskin. Not because I'm hating on Battlefront, it's a fun game. I just enjoyed Battlefield 4 so much that a lot of that would still be fun to me. Unfortunately, to pull it off it would really have needed more prequel and Legends content, for vehicles and weapons and such.

 

[laggyteabag]

Yes. EA's Battlefront was so stripped of features that the game just became a shallow slog of videogame, with nothing going for it in terms of quality, other than the fact that the game was an absolute beauty to look at. If Battlefront was literally just a reskin of Battlefield 4, the game would have actually been a lot more true to the classic Battlefield formula than EA's Battlefront ever was.