During our coverage of E3 2015, I got some hands on time with perhaps the most anticipated titles of the Fall, Star Wars Battlefront. The game is the product of DICE and EA and is the first of many Star Wars titles that EA will produce and publish under an agreement with Lucasarts.
After waiting in a cold recreation of Echo Base, complete with a Rebel pilot, droids, and more, I finally sat down at to play the game after watching a briefing video.
I was cast as a Snowtrooper on Hoth who had to protect two Imperial Walkers and dispatch enemy units when I encounter them.
I had a choice of blasters and had a grenade launcher as my secondary unit, I was also able to obtain power ups as I went along, but more on those later.
The graphics were crisp and gorgeous. The movement on the material on the uniforms as well as the detail of the landscape gave a very immersive look and tone to the game.
I usually play shooters on a PC so adjusting to aiming with a Dualshock 4 while not new is not my comfort level so I did spray and pray early in the game.
Eventually I was able to take down several enemies and even earned a launcher which I used to take out enemy gun batteries. The fun shifted in high-gear when I obtained an AT-ST and started dishing damage with my rocket and grenade launchers. I did as much damage as a could before being taken down by a rocket battery. I did later earn access to an AT AT but was taken out before I could activate it and it did not carry over to my respawn. On the plus side, I did get revenge later when I earned a TIE Fighter and proceeded to strafe enemy troops with glee when I made sure to avoid the speeders and other vehicles in the air. The range of flight freedom was great and I had to focus on the mission as I was tempted to take a joyride.
I noticed a Rodian amongst the Rebel units and Luke Skywalker himself with a blue saber appeared briefly, or at the least, a black-clad player that looked like Luke.
My combat was a mix of open-field and inside Echo base, and I was happy that after a sustained battle, my side did prove victorious. I was also thrilled that I had double-digits in kills despite playing with a console control which is far from my comfort zone.
It is clear that DICE are fans of Star Wars and they have lovingly created a game that is to date everything fans have waited and hoped for in a Star Wars game and then some. Let us hope the final product is as impressive as what I saw.
