I killed a Jedi in Star Wars Battlefront, and I liked it
Armed with blasters, lightsabers and all sorts of starships and other armed vehicles, CNET's Anthony Domanico heads to war in a galaxy far, far away in the new Star Wars Battlefront video game.
My breathing is raspy. I feel the power of the dark side of the Force. I am Darth Vader, and I've just killed my son Luke Skywalker. The feeling is oddly satisfying.
Oddly satisfying is actually a pretty great way to describe Electronic Arts' new video game Star Wars Battlefront, released Tuesday for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The massively multiplayer online (MMO) shooter has a handful of game modes on just four different planets to start, so things can feel repetitive after a while. Despite that, and even after 15 hours (and counting) of playing the game since its release, I'll still keep coming back for more.
Maybe it's the fact that this is a Star Wars game and not a generic warfare game like the Battlefield or Call of Duty series that I grow tired of fairly quickly. As soon as the game was announced, I knew I'd be buying it, and not just to get the mini-fridge showing Han Solo frozen in carbonite. Star Wars is my favorite sci-fi franchise and I played all or almost all of the Star Wars video games growing up. I'm pretty sure Star Wars Battlefront is just the latest in a long line of geeky games I'm destined to become obsessed with.
Unlike some of my favorite Star Wars games, like Knights of the Old Republic or Jedi Knight, Battlefront doesn't have a traditional single-player story mode. It's an MMO shooter that pits me and other player-controlled characters against each other in a massive intergalactic war.
It does, however, up the replay value by providing tons of power-ups throughout the maps. These power-ups put players in the air in starships like the TIE Fighter and X-wing and on the ground in deadly vehicles like the AT-AT and AT-ST. The power-ups also let them take the reins of favorite Star Wars heroes and villains like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, the Emperor and Boba Fett.
I swear about half my time in the game is spent tracking down these power-ups, as all I really want to do is kill some bad guys with Han's trusty DL-44 blaster or use Vader's deadly Force-choke ability to literally choke the life out of all who stand in my way. The rest of my time is spent completing the game's objectives or, more likely, getting killed while trying.
Yes, I find myself far too often on the wrong side of a laser blast, but with every game I'm getting more and more deadly. Soon, perhaps, I'll be well on my way to single-handedly taking down the opposing army, driving my team to yet another victory in the never-ending battle for the future of the universe.
Star Wars Battlefront is now available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The first content from "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" -- The Battle of Jakku -- will be playable in early December. Have you given Star Wars Battlefront a go? Share your impressions in the comments.