DICE’s continuous patches, reworks, and content drops for EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront 2 have long been constructing a triumphant comeback story, and its latest update is the near-final building block. At launch, Battlefront 2 was straight-up bad, but - capped off by this week’s Age of Rebellion update - it’s now more than just OK. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is a great video game in 2020.
Battlefront 2’s launch is perhaps the most infamous in modern gaming history. The Battlefront 2 loot box mess kick-started conversations about gambling-esque microtransactions within the video games industry and without, contributing to an overall decline in the use of the tactic in most triple-A games today. But Battlefront 2’s problems went beyond predatory monetization: Its single-player story was mediocre, and worst of all, its progression system was terrible, forcing players to obtain character upgrades and cosmetics from random loot box openings. The shooting was fine, and the graphics were great, but the meat of the game was marred by EA’s apparent drive to milk players for cash.
Yet, somehow, possibly to save face after such a notorious event, EA and DICE have managed to turn things around. Loot box purchases were removed, the progression system was overhauled, and two years of free updates have made Battlefront 2 into a truly fun Star Wars game. Between Battlefront 2’s Co-op mode and large-scale Supremacy battles (as well as a slate of other, smaller modes), there’s enough content to provide regular, compelling playtime. These modes have been around for a while, of course, but the Age of Rebellion update nearly filled them out.
Just earlier this month, DICE added Disney’s sequel movie era to Supremacy and Instant Action, nearly completing Battlefront 2’s content library and teasing a return to original trilogy-era gameplay. The Age of Rebellion update exceeded expectations, bringing the original trilogy to Co-op, but also adding tons of unexpected new features. There are now seven new original trilogy Co-op maps, two extra Co-op and Heroes vs. Villains maps, a new reinforcement for the Rebels and the Empire (the Ewok Hunter and ISB Agent, respectively), reworks for Leia and Chewbacca that make them more viable as heroes, improvements to solo play in Instant Action, and the promise of more maps coming to other modes soon, including original trilogy content for Supremacy. That’s a lot of new stuff already, but perhaps the biggest addition for longtime fans are the four new weapons - one for each of the regular trooper classes. Each class has been stuck with the same weapon selection since 2017, so these will help add needed variety to ground-troop gameplay.
While DICE still has things it could improve for a potential “Battlefront 3,” the moment-to-moment gameplay of Battlefront 2 is now better than ever. With the exception of original trilogy maps for Supremacy and Instant Action, which will likely come in the next update, it’s now possible for players to hop into nearly any mode (in any era), customize their personal loadout (with new weapons), fight alongside their friends (or AI allies), and feel like they’re in the middle of a Star Wars movie. EA may have failed to fulfill the potential of the Star Wars license, overall, and Battlefront 2 still has a bad story and a progression system that’s hard to grasp. But DICE has successfully made Battlefront 2 into a game worth playing - one that has the potential to overpower the wistful nostalgia many Star Wars fans hold for Pandemic Studios’ early-2000s classic, original Battlefront 2.
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Star Wars: Battlefront 2 released on November 17, 2017, for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
