Star Wars Celebration kicks off tomorrow in Anaheim, CA, and the city streets are already filled with adults in Star Wars shirts, stormtrooper cosplayers walking menacingly out of hotel lobbies, and kids jumping out of cabs with X-Wing toys in hand. Along with the hope of seeing new footage from J. J. Abrams' upcoming film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this convention is giving the world its first official look at DICE and Electronic Arts' Star Wars: Battlefront game, tentatively slated to release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC this year.
DICE has been hard at work on this Battlefront project for a couple of years now, giving a E3 showgoers small taste of the game's content, which appears to be rooted heavily in the classic trilogy era. We've seen glimpses of locations like Hoth and Endor, and vehicles like snowspeeders, AT-STs, speederbikes, and the lumbering AT-ATs, but we haven't seen any gameplay yet.
DICE is a veteran of video game war, making a name for itself with the long-running Battlefield series. Battlefront is a beloved multiplayer experience of yesteryear. On paper, the developer and game are a great match.
Before LucasArts closed its doors, developer Free Radical was developing a Battlefront project that honed in on the true scale of Star Wars conflicts: A player could exchange fire with stormtroopers on a planet's surface, duck into a hanger, hop into an X-Wing, launch into space, and form up with dozens of fellow rebel pilots for a strike on a star destroyer guarded by TIE fighters. DICE specializes in big battles of this caliber, but as impressive as the 64-player skirmishes in Battlefield are, they pale in comparison to the scope of a Star Wars fight. That brings up the question: For this series' return, should DICE stick to its guns and follow Battlefield's blueprint for Battlefront, or dream bigger and deliver on that vision that Free Radical was trying to realize years ago?
Here's what I would like to see:
Move Beyond the Films
The content we've seen from DICE points to the studio trying to recreate the battles from the original trilogy films. DICE team members even did location scouting to get the look of Endor's forest just right. As much as I would love to turn the tides of the Battle of Endor so the Empire isn't defeated by teddy bears, I hope DICE is given the chance to expand upon the lore of the original trilogy. Give me a new single player campaign complete with new protagonists and conflicts that bridges the gap between Star Wars films. The multiplayer component can be a compilation of the famed battles from the films and the big, new wars from DICE's story.
A Selectable View
Whether I'm in an X-Wing or running across the terrain as a Sith Lord, let me experience that action from the third- or first-person viewpoint. In other words, give Rogue Squadron fans what they want. Give X-Wing fans what they want. Give Battlefield fans what they want. And give Battlefront fans what they want.
Created Characters
In the classic trilogy, stormtroopers didn't have much in terms of personalities, but for the sake of player progression, I think it would be cool to be able to customize the armor and weapons that these expendable troops bring to combat. I'd like to see this aspect of the game unfold through an experience point-based progression system similar to that of Battlefield or Call of Duty. In other words, rank up to gear up.
A True Sense of Scale
The image above captures the sense of awe that accompanies the best Star Wars battles. Even from a mile away, the size of the Imperial vehicles is terrifying. Achieving that scale may mean more downtime in battle, but just think of what the chatter would be like with your wingmen as you approached those AT-ATs. I'd much rather see an isolated battle like Hoth done appropriately to scale than include the "you can also go out to space" gameplay hook.
Most Vehicles Support More Than One Player
One of my favorite elements of modern war games is the shared experience in vehicles, such as someone driving a tank and another person firing its machine gun. Most Star Wars vehicles are designed with more than just a pilot in mind. Even the X-Wing, which has the most crammed cockpit space of any sci-fi vehicle, has a co-pilot droid. Let me play as that droid and help the pilot. Let me be the person who fires the tow-cable to drop an AT-AT. Let me man one of the turret guns on the death star's trench. Star Wars games can deliver strong cooperative gameplay within the competitive multiplayer framework.
Go Nuts with the Force
Jedi and Sith played large roles in previous Battlefront games, and I suspect they'll be back in this entry as well. I want to see Jedi be nearly unstoppable. Yes, this may mean they are tucked away in their own modes, but Jedi should be lethal. If I fire a laser blast at a Jedi pointblank, that laser should be deflected and sent back right between my eyes. Give Jedi super speed, crazy lightsaber and Force powers, and make them an entity that immediately strikes fear into players. If Darth Vader shows up, everyone on your team should say "We're screwed."