Star Wars: Battlefront II is a great game from a certain point of view

Games
1

Pretending to be Darth Vader is the ultimate power fantasy.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/11/22/star-wars-battlefront-ii-great-game-certain-point-view/
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Reading the review, going into a fair amount of detail about how a great game was buried under its monetization scheme, I expected a 2 star Qt3 rating. 3 means you liked it, which wasn’t really supported by the text.

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There’s no question EA screwed up royally on messaging and decisions. But if you actually play the game, there’s no denying that it is quite good in terms of moment to moment gameplay experience. This is unquestionably a better game than Battlefront 1, for example, in every way I can think of.

However, if you are a professional internet armchair commentator who has spent zero hours in Battlefront II, you probably hate it because reasons.

Maybe future games will learn to be more careful with their messaging / loot create design as a result, so that’s a positive outcome for the industry, at least, if not for this particular game.

4

Not so much buried as infested.

Seriously though. I like the actual multiplayer gameplay quite a bit.

Shame about the terrible meta-game progression system though.

5

I agree. I picked this up last week and am enjoying the campaign and the arcade modes. I’ve played some of the multiplayer, which is also a blast and have done reasonably well with no cards against others with cards.

I typically don’t worry about min/maxing or having the perfect character build in games, but I can see if a person did they would complain about the progression and being at a ‘statistical’ disadvantage early on. Knowing the maps and player skill is still a huge factor.

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Yeah, I can’t comment on the gameplay since I’ve not played it. I just find the business side of this game too distaeful to plunk down $60.

I’m happy to hear the moment to moment is good though. It certainly looks pretty. Sad to see a mechanically sound game get overshadowed by a distasteful business model.

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A lotta hate for poor Bossk in this review when the real question is, “Where’s IGN-88?” Isn’t that his name? IGN-88 or something?

Count me as someone who really wants to like the game, but the gooey sour business model smeared all over makes it difficult.

-Tom

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Just be glad you’re not Dengar. Or Lobot. Or an Ugnaught.

I can see Disney getting upset over this business model applied to one of their flagship properties, especially after customers plopped down $60 or more for the game. They have no problem with f2p business models for their mobile games, but this for an AAA title was maybe too much.

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I see what you did there, and I loved that. ;)

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“Even though publisher Electronic Arts was forced to temporarily disable the real-money microtransaction sales for the game until they can overhaul the approach, that design infects the progression system to the point that it’s impossible to play it without feeling its influence. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.”

Excellent.

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I’ve spent a few hours in the Origin Access trial and I definitely think the gameplay foundation is very solid, but I have zero interest in plunking down money to get sand blasted by the crappy randomized progression. This game would quite literally be better if there was no progression system irrespective of the presence of a real money option. That way at least you wouldn’t be getting jerked around by RNG and pwned by Star Card whales.

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It’s worth pointing out the game caps how many credits you can earn from arcade mode during a 24-hour period. Such a dick move.

-Tom

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They don’t want people to “abuse” the arcade to get credits. You know. Abuse it. Because how terrible would it be if someone got more loot crates than you?

14

Time limiting how much you can gain in a 24 hour period is very, very standard stuff on the mobile side. Extremely so.

Note that there is no gate on how much you can get from real multiplayer, which always rubs Tom the wrong way because – and let me take a page from the terrible, no-good, very bad book of @JonRowe here – “apparently you must suck at multiplayer”.

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Less common in mobile is charging a $60 entrance fee.

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It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.

Bravo.

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We all need to stop pretending that the pachinko parlor tactics that have obliterated mobile gaming’s creativity are normal, desirable, or ethical.

Burn it down. Burn it all down.

Great review though, Tom. Well done there.

18

Telefrog wrote this excellent review. :)

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Good grief. My apologies!

Well done, Nick. I’m pretty sure nobody would ever mistake one of my reviews for Tom’s!

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You know what else is very, very standard stuff on the mobile side?

Hitler! Oops, I meant to say “loot crates”. That Hitler thing just slipped out. My bad.

-Tom