Is Battlefront the Star Wars Game you're looking for?

[SOUND] It's quite unmistakable that Battlefront has been developed at [UNKNOWN], the Stockholm studio made famous for it's award winning Battlefield series. And while the developer has made sincere efforts to make Battle Front a beautiful and lovingly crafted homage to the Star Wars films, it's not unfair to draw direct comparisons with it's long standing military shooter theory. After all, from my several hours of playing, I suspect that people who are going to enjoy this the most Are hardened Battlefield fans and that's fine because that series has a legion of devotees who will be deliriously happy on DICE's depiction of Hoth, and Endor and Tatooine, whether the same same rings true for casual Star Wars fans who occasionally dabble in games however, remains to be seen. Right now you're looking at world first footage of Drop Zone, Battlefront's new multiplayer mode that pits two teams of eight rebel and eight empire players against each other. Here on the rock bound surface of Sullust, an escape pod will crash onto a randomly chosen part of the map. Players must dash to the pod, be the first to activate it, and then they have to defend it for 50 seconds. If they're successful they earn a point for the team. The opposing team however, must gain control of the pods by de-activating it within that 50 second limit. If they do it's then their turn to defend. Once a point is scored the pod is decommissioned and a new one drops onto another part of the map. [NOISE] After ten minutes of frantic chasing, and breaching, and defending, points are tallied, and the winning team is declared. Drop zone is an artful spin on the King of the Hill formula, with the same intensity and hot zones. But here, players seemingly abandon their camp, and scramble to different parts of the map. This removes any defenders' vantage, places emphasis on constant mobility, and increases the competitiveness of each match. But based on the short time I had with the game, it might be the case that Drop Zone is too brutal, too frenzied, and too demanding to enjoy in anything other than short bursts. Fingers will clamp down on the dash button until they ache. Shootouts are desperate short scuffles with survival. Getting shot from behind is hardly ever rectifiable. And so less alleys, openings, and drop zones all typically have several points where an enemy can pounce from. I found little room for strategy. The expression of flair. It's kill constantly or be killed constantly. Again, Battlefield fans will have no problem with the intensity. The short death loops. Other Star Wars sheer ferocity a little off-putting. [NOISE] [SOUND] Other modes fare far better. EA has focussed much of its Battlefront marketing on the Walker Assault on Hoth mode, and it's easy to understand why. This is a sprawling, epic, multiplayer, multi-objective team deathmatch Often punctuated by awe-inspiring moments. Witnessing Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader dash at each other in the midst of this chaotic war zone was certainly a personal highlight. Especially because these heroes appear on battlefields for only a very limited time. And only on locked [UNKNOWN] to cut various items dotted across the battlefield. Meanwhile the AT-ATs, despite their overexposure in Star Wars games, are still a sight to behold. They also act as an in-game progress bar to the alliance team as they crawl towards the rebel base with the ultimate objective to obliterate them. Rebel players must capture uplinks dotted across the map and it's successful. This was some of the [UNKNOWN] that takes down the AT-ATs shield. That exposes these gargantuan walkers to rebel gunfire, which gives them a crucial opening to win the match. This step up gives the walker assault mode a clear observable objective to both teams with a sense of scale, but also many moment of consequence. Even the smallest battles to gain control of an uplink Feeds directly into the wider, grander objective. Battlefront lacks a single player campaign, and almost as an apology [UNKNOWN] answer for this is a small collection of coop missions which can be played either online or on the couch. These are side attractions, granted, but based on what I played, they were a pleasant surprise. Survival on [UNKNOWN] is one such co-op mission. It is at a mentally [UNKNOWN] mode where players fight against five waves of increasingly dangerous platoons of storm troopers with ATSTs also making an appearance in the later waves. It makes for a nice break from the intensity of multi player. You have more time to appreciate the game's beautiful atmosphere. It suddenly feels like you're actually battling against the Empire, and of course being ordered around by Admiral Ackbar is always wonderful. But without a single player campaign, everything hinges on multiplayer. From the short time I had the Battlefront, I admired just how talented [UNKNOWN] is at building epic Exciting and constantly eventful online battles. Whether that pleases non-Battlefield fans is the crucial test. I must admit I'm a little skeptical. Star Wars has ballooned into an iconic multimedia franchise with thousands of [UNKNOWN] Comics, action figures, soundtracks, and games capitalizing on the popularity of the films. But the heart of Star Wars' long lasting appeal are the characters and stories it contains. Its tales of redemption, of sacrifice and family, will likely survive as long as the franchise itself. Star Wars Battlefront may not have any story for its own to tell. Instead it gives you a wonderfully polished, brutal, frantic multiplayer game set inside elaborate film sets. That is absolutely not a disaster. Nor a deviation from what the Battlefront series represented in the first place. But it begs the question. Is this really the Star Wars game that you're looking for? [NOISE] Enemies ahead. [UNKNOWN] Targeted. [SOUND] [MUSIC]