Star Wars Battlefront Review

This imbalance is corrected slightly by Battlefront's power-up system, scattering special items, vehicles and the ability to play as heroes around the map. On one level this is great because it lets players get their hands on some terrifying weaponry, fly an X-wing or twirl a lightsaber. While it's jarring to have power-ups dished out by medium of floating glowy sigils, it's a smart design choice and emphasises map control.

The vehicles are actually pretty thin on the ground. There's the AT-AT, The AT-ST, speeder bikes and a few flying vehicles. Flying is great fun in the Fighter Squadron mode, and dogfighting is one of my favourite parts of the game. In every other mode though, the scale is all wrong. Attacking targets on the ground will more often than not lead to you smearing yourself across the landscape, and unless you're trying to attach a tow cable to an AT-AT - which is a joy - you're largely just competing with the other pilots and the forces of gravity.

Heroes are largely fun, although incredibly imbalanced, so if you don't manage to play as them yourself than you can look forward to a rousing cry of "Darth Vader, run!" as your squad walks into everyone's favourite Sith Lord. This actually feels pretty close to how it would be in the movies but it's rare in a video game to feel so completely out of luck.



The 6 different heroes have varying powers, although striding purposefully down a corridor with Vader or Skywalker always feels fantastic.

If you're playing for the spectacle, there's plenty of it. Stand out mode Walker Assault gives you 40 players, vehicles and a smattering of heroes all thundering around the games 4 maps: the famous snow planet, the famous forest planet, the famous desert planet, and the… lava and rocks planet? The game plays slightly differently in each but largely each battle will play out similarly on account of the mammoth AT-AT walkers taking the same route towards the enemy.

Outside of the competitive multiplayer there's a cooperative horde mode and a few AI battles. These are okay, but unlikely to add any real playtime to the experience.



After 6-7 hours when you've gotten tired of the multiplayer, the lack of a single player experience really grates. There's a robust engine here and a single player storyline could have added something to break the monotony.

Chances are that if you're a big gamer or you want something genuinely competitive then Star Wars Battlefront isn't for you. This is a passable online shooter that uses the Star Wars license to excuse most of its flaws. It's decent but uninspired and beyond causing a great disturbance in the force for many big Star Wars fans, it's unlikely to be worth your time.