Star Wars Battlefront Open Beta

As most among you, I always loved Star Wars saga. As many, I do prefer the original trilogy but, as much as I love sci-fi and video games, for some reasons I never bothered to play a Star Wars game.

I must admit that I was very intrigued when LucasArts announced “Star Wars 1313” (the first trailers were a real blast), but my mood went down the drain right after Disney acquired the company and then shut the project down (Die, Disney, Die!!).

It was probably in an attempt to seek revenge (coupled with the announcement of the incoming movie “Episode VII”) that I finally decided to book the new instalment of “Battlefront” as soon as it was available. In addition, Dice released the Open Beta campaign just two days ago, so here I am to give you some insights on it.

I guess you guys know that the game is focused on heavy multiplayer action, throughout the entire Star Wars universe, putting you in control of Emperor Soldiers, Rebels and their peculiar vehicles.

Inside the beta, most of the features are locked up, but you can play 3 distinctive missions inside 3 different scenarios. Let’s proceed with order:

The first one is a mission called “Drop Zone”. The mission sees you and your teammates take turns to reclaim and secure a series of escape pods that are crashing down on Planet Sullust. This is a competitive match for a maximum of 8 vs 8 players. The first team that can claim 5 pods wins. Sullust is a very hostile planet and enemy soldiers are not your only problem since you can end up in puddles of hot mud and get seriously burned.

The second one is called “Walker Assault”. In this case, you are dealing with massive warfare action where teams of 20 vs 20 players engage in heavy combat over Hoth’s snowy fields. If you are among the rebels you have to defend the Uplinks that guide the Y-Wing towards the AT-ATs and assist their bombing, otherwise, you will have to deactivate the Uplinks to let the Walkers (AT-ATs) get to their destination.

While playing this mission I also had the “pleasure” to be slashed by both Luke Skywalker and Dart Vader, who were “happily” killing people with just a stroke of their lightsaber while strolling around.

Finally, the last mission type available in the beta is a survival mission (in this case “Survival Tatooine”) in which you have to face multiple waves of enemies. Actually, this campaign can be either played solo or in co-op mode (either online or in a split-screen local mode).

In addition, the base mechanics allow for weapons to unlock and inventory customization. While playing you will achieve credits that will let you “buy” new items. Up to 3 power-ups can be selected prior mission start and can be used during the mission itself.

As said at the beginning I was never involved in such kind of games. I recently read on the news that some people consider this game a sort of Battlefield expansion (it’s a Dice game, after all) and tend to call it “Battlefield: Star Wars” instead of “Star Wars Battlefront”.
There’s might be some truth behind this, by my truth is that I had so much fun playing the beta: it sports intense action, jaw breaking graphics, awesome soundtrack and seems to have a million of side options. The beta campaign ends in two days. Get it on PSN, while it lasts. The complete game is scheduled for November 19th.

Thank you for reading.