Rick and Jake talk Star Wars: Battlefront

Rick: Maximum Star Wars! We should probably discuss modes a little bit. My favourite mode was probably the Walker Assault. If only because I could run around the feet of an AT-AT walker like an excited dog spinning around their owner's legs.

Jake: Yup, I liked Walker Assault the most but also enjoyed Heroes versus Villains.

Rick: Yes! Heroes versus Villains was surprisingly good. Of all the modes, that one had the closest resemblance to what you could call "tactics", as you needed to protect the heroes. Although, actually playing as the heroes isn't all that fun. The movement feels really clumsy, and the decision to switch to an over-the-shoulder perspective is just silly. The message it conveys is "You're in Star Wars, EXCEPT for when you play as the most important Star Wars characters, then you're slightly outside Star Wars". Hooray?

Jake: I enjoyed the heroes. Although not Palpatine, who got the short end of the ability stick.

Rick: What made them enjoyable for you?

Jake: Darth is a behemoth. Luke too, super agile. Han and Leia have great shooting abilities. Boba Fett has a jetpack and a flamethrower.

Rick: Boba Fett was the most enjoyable of the heroes because you could fly around popping rebel heads from thirty feet up. But, Walker Assault remains the standout for me. I really enjoyed the asymmetry of it; how the Imperials would be plodding inexorably forward, and then suddenly the AT-AT's shields would come down and EVERY rebel would crawl out of their hidey hole and start blasting at it. As for everything else, well...

Jake: Pretty awful, if I’m honest. It looks nice but plays poorly.

Rick: It looks splendid, especially Endor, which is just...crikey. Although, there's an interesting thing that happens when you play an Endor map. The Imperials stand out really obviously because of the white Stormtrooper armour, whereas the rebels are very hard to make out in their camouflage gear. The rebels feel like they have a distinct advantage on Endor, which make sense both logically and in the context of the films. BUT, I'm not so sure it makes for great game balance.

Jake: In later levels you can change your gear and dress as a black Stormtrooper. This is better for Endor but much worse for Hoth.

Rick: What did you think of the shooting?

Jake: I expected better from DICE.

Rick: I think they really struggled to create varied weaponry. Nearly all of the weapons are "A blaster, but faster/slower"

Jake: Yep. This blaster is long range. This blaster is a pistol. The one fun weapon was the Jawa shotgun.

Rick: Ah, I never used that. What was that like?

Jake: It’s a shotgun, but it’s solid projectile and the only gun in the game that doesn’t feel like the same blaster

Rick: Odd given how good DICE usually are at this stuff. One point that should be mentioned though, is that the game sounds as good as you'd expect a DICE game to. Not just with all the Star Wars effects you'd expect, but the concussive sounds too. The way projectiles impact and thermal detonators explode, all very satisfying in an audio-visual sense. Which makes it all the stranger that it just doesn't feel like there's much of a game to be had.

So would you go back to it now that you've reviewed it?

Jake: Probably not at all.

Rick: I'll likely dip in and out across December. But I don't think I've played it as much as you have, and I always find myself becoming bored after half an hour or so. I'm glad it gave me a chance to experience Hoth from a ground perspective, on the kind of scale that feels like that of the films. But I don't think that amounts to £50-worth of game.

Jake: Yeah. It's not good given what is there - an overall total of 4 maps.

Rick: Although, EA just announced that it will be getting some free maps. So maybe it's not quite the end for Battlefront yet?

Jake: THE SAGA CONTINUES

Rick: Da-da da-da da-da dadada!