Star Wars Battlefront 2 - Game Thread

Jerichoholic

I thought it might be good to have a thread just for game discussion instead of a lootbox thread. I know a lot of people are looking forward to it regardless of what mess EA have made of the leveling up system.

CalamariFritti

Got it last night and had a first go. My 'background' is I used to be rather handy back in the day (Q2 etc) and BF1 brought me back to it after many years since I'm a big Star Wars fan.

BF1 had its problems, but was quite a well rounded shooter in the end and is still very popular. My biggest critique of BF1 was the forced game mode rotation stuff on the expansion packs. When all I want to play is Cargo. Meaning I paid for those packs and never actually played them to any degree. They should release one final version where they open all that up. But they probably won't.

BF2. It looks great but that was to be expected. The feel has changed a bit. You still will be comfortable moving around but there is a more direct feel to the controls, a bit harsher if you like while the characters and the opponents feel slower. I wiill get used to that. Strafing is a bit too easy now. In BF1 there was a little skill to it, now everyone can do it.

Bit of a shock to the system starting off again on the lowest equipment level rank (clone army robot) and everything has been said that needs to be said about 'upgrading'. Me personally I like it enough. It would be worse if everyone was starting out fully equipped or if there was no progress possible. There has to be some progress element. The negative thing is of course that you can buy yourself up with those crystals but you don't seem to get that many for your money and it would appear to be quite expensive. So realistically not many are going to buy themselves an entire career, it would cost a fortune and most players are probably kids anyway.

What worries me most is that objective based multiplayer is again a forced game mode rotation thing. So far I've not seen any sign of Cargo or anything similar. Wtf?!? To me it seemed Walker Assault and Cargo maybe Sabotage on Bespin were the most popular game modes in BF1. Are they simply going to ignore what people actually like?

In the end I had enough after 3 rounds of assault style play. Just too many players around in those maps, I never liked that. Just fkn mayhem and no structure to it. Ended up playing the solo campaign a bit and that was actually quite nice although too easy. I mean I can escape from prison cell and there is a guy 20 metres down the hall with a gun and I have nothing. And I can run up to him and take him out with a blow all the while he sees me and shoots at me and I actually get away with that? Thats a bit ridiculous.

After a few hours last night my first impression verdict is that of slight disappointment. I will dabble in and out of it I imagine and I may figure things out but it does not blow me away. I will probably continue with the solo campaign but probably end up still clocking more hours on BF1 Cargo.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Jerichoholic wrote: »

I know a lot of people are looking forward to it regardless of what mess EA have made...

Therein is EA's drive to the bottom.

Dave_The_Sheep

CalamariFritti wrote: »

Are they simply going to ignore what people actually like?

Of course. They're going to do what they like. Not sure what's surprising you here.

gimli2112

Thought that was a pretty good review by Calamarifritti. An apparent fan of the franchise, who leaving aside all the lootbox shenanigans, acknowledging it is good in some areas is still left feeling underwhelmed.
I really got the impression from some YT videos yesterday they were going out of their way to push the game in a positive light overall. Hard to shake the feeling they weren't being induced to do so.

bigphil2

From the reviews I've seen,it seems there is a potentially good game in there that has just been destroyed by EA's greed.It looks and sounds stunning,the campaign while short is something people were asking for.But i think this will be on sales in the coming months for next to nothing ala ME:Andromeda.. Its a shame.

Jerichoholic

Campaign seems ok so far, not sure if the shooting has improved but it feels much better in 1st person. Could be just the campaign though.

super_furry

Played my 10 hour trial and mostly enjoyed the game. It looks great, sounds great and has that real Star Wars feel but it feels a little too basic and slightly dumbed down from Battlefield. The main Galactic 40-player mode had me wishing that it had more of the objective complexity and team work of Battlefield - even having a medic class would make a big difference.

Haven't been able to get a hang of the Star Fighter space battle mode yet, the controls didn't click with me, even with the adjustments you could make.

They could have sucked in the Battlefield players if they just bloody put in conquest mode with manned vehicles/some aerial combat.

The blueprint is there and its proven to work but yet again they've decided to just fill the game with tacky game modes.

There's not a chance I'd still be playing BField1 if the only modes were War Pigeons/Operations and they're the only kind of modes in this game.

CalamariFritti

Its starting to grow on me. Decided to play some multiplayer stuff and its not bad. Its more tactical than BF1. I think its because the characters move at more realistic speeds which seems to make the typical 'keep running and shooting' approach less of a done thing. Campaign is really quite good. Good mixture of FPS and vehicle action. I actually have to learn flying the bloody star fighters which never appealed to me before but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Still want Cargo.

I know I only just put my toe in it but so far I don't get the outrage over the micro transactions. Not saying its not a profiteering thing, it is, but you can simply not buy into it - literally - and it doesn't automatically turn you into cannon fodder. I think all the criticism is valid but I don't think it destroys the game.
Be some laugh if you could transfer your BF1 crystals into BF2 ones. I have an actual 1 million there. Misspent youth middle-age. :eek: As you pay $20 for 2100 in BF2 they would be worth about 10 grand in Bf2. :eek: :eek: :eek:

Edit: Seeing on the other thread it seems today EA have removed buying crystals due to the sh1tstorm. Nobody talked about the game and everyone was just talking about micro transaction. They must have figured it really will hurt sales. Result I guess. Maybe we can get back focussing on the actual game now.

Jerichoholic

I played through the campaign yesterday, it was a decent if not great Star Wars story. Some levels were really annoying but some were incredible. Characters stuck with me after too so I'd say it was a solid effort.

Tried MP last night but was having other players just appearing and disappearing in front of me, along with me just randomly appearing 10 feet away from where I was. I hope that's just a server thing otherwise I'll be trading that in.

CalamariFritti

Jerichoholic wrote: »

I played through the campaign yesterday, it was a decent if not great Star Wars story. Some levels were really annoying but some were incredible. Characters stuck with me after too so I'd say it was a solid effort.

Tried MP last night but was having other players just appearing and disappearing in front of me, along with me just randomly appearing 10 feet away from where I was. I hope that's just a server thing otherwise I'll be trading that in.

I didn't experience any kind of lag stuff. I came across somewhere in settings a line that said Server: EA Ireland, ping 11ms. I dont know if that number is real but it is a very good number.

Jerichoholic

I'll check that out. Wasn't as bad there now, still happened twice though.

Played a decent amount of the game and like it, played on both Xbox and PS4 and not had a single issue with connection or bugs popping up. Was linked to a Jim Sterling video in which he appears to moan about bugs for 5 minutes but I've not had a single issue so far. If you are experiencing lag it may be worthwhile doing a little troubleshooting, open your ports, clear your alternate mac address and so on.

Keyzer

Read the ARS Technica review, jesus its sobering...

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/11/star-wars-battlefront-ii-review-nope-nope-nope-nope-nope-nope-nope/

Temptamperu

I waited for a deep sale on the first one and will do the same with this one.

Captain Obvious

The Jimquisition review has put me right off

Captain Obvious

Captain Obvious wrote:

The Jimquisition review has put me right off

I'd ignore it, it's a typical Sterling angry click bait rant. I've now tried the game on PC, Xbox and PS4 and seen no stuttering or had any issues. The game runs well, looks great and at this stage and I'm having fun with it and happy to play more of it.

CalamariFritti

The campaign is really quite good. Must go to bed now.

SeantheMan

If in the future every game has lootboxes and microtransactions...I'm blaming all of you here for buying the game anyways :P

Canis Lupus

The meme is old but people literally can't help themselves. They'll buy into it and kids will use their disposable income or their parents and nothing will change.

Jerichoholic

SeantheMan wrote: »

If in the future every game has lootboxes and microtransactions...I'm blaming all of you here for buying the game anyways :P

Is that lad willfully ignorant? EA turned off in game purchases, you can't buy anything even if you wanted to.

Northern Monkey

Jerichoholic wrote: »

Is that lad willfully ignorant? EA turned off in game purchases, you can't buy anything even if you wanted to.

It was probably posted before the u turn.

SeantheMan

Jerichoholic wrote: »

Is that lad willfully ignorant? EA turned off in game purchases, you can't buy anything even if you wanted to.

1. Yes it was posted before the lootboxes temporary removal.
2. Lootboxes will still be coming back at some stage
3. Just because they are turned off for the moment doesn't mean it's suddenly a reason to rejoice and buy the game...we should boycott it anyways
4. That 'lad' is a games designer who has worked on the likes of Bulletstorm, Painkiller, Vanishing of Ethan Carter and others. So it's fair to say he has a better understanding of the industry and it's inside practices than we do.

CalamariFritti

These inside practices are not so hard to understand. Its companies trying to squeeze money out of their product. It's what they all do these days. The new angle is that these are games you already paid full price for. I absolutely welcome companies being told what people think of that.

As it happens to a smaller degree that was already happening in BF1. You could buy these upgrade packs if I recall correctly. It just wasn't an ongoing thing.

Jerichoholic

Well I'm enjoying the game I won't have anyone tell me not to buy something I know I'll enjoy. Problem with the stuff being turned off is I can't level up my starfighters now, I've earned plenty of credits from matches to get the lootboxes (yes you earn plenty by winning matches imagine that?) but they are turned off.

So I reckon they are coming back but not as in game real money purchases, I suppose they are figuring out the best way to do that, It's a shame that people who don't own the game or play the game are dictating what happens to those of us who are actually trying to enjoy it.

Canis Lupus

Jerichoholic wrote: »

Well I'm enjoying the game I won't have anyone tell me not to buy something I know I'll enjoy. Problem with the stuff being turned off is I can't level up my starfighters now, I've earned plenty of credits from matches to get the lootboxes (yes you earn plenty by winning matches imagine that?) but they are turned off.

So I reckon they are coming back but not as in game real money purchases, I suppose they are figuring out the best way to do that, It's a shame that people who don't own the game or play the game are dictating what happens to those of us who are actually trying to enjoy it.

Maybe you like getting shafted but I don't. I'm sorry that we're hating a sh*tty gouging mechanic and trying to make sure they will be discouraged from doing the same thing in the future and making gaming a smidgen better in the process.

Jerichoholic

Absolutely not being shafted. Played the campaign, was good. Playing Starfighter assault which is really good fun, so I'm getting my money's worth I'd say.

Captain Obvious

Jerichoholic wrote: »

Well I'm enjoying the game I won't have anyone tell me not to buy something I know I'll enjoy. Problem with the stuff being turned off is I can't level up my starfighters now, I've earned plenty of credits from matches to get the lootboxes (yes you earn plenty by winning matches imagine that?) but they are turned off.

So I reckon they are coming back but not as in game real money purchases, I suppose they are figuring out the best way to do that, It's a shame that people who don't own the game or play the game are dictating what happens to those of us who are actually trying to enjoy it.

Well it's not just what happens to you is it? It's what happens to Star Wars games in the future. It's what happens to EA games in the future. It's what happens to games by others who like how EA have extracted every cent they can from players.

Jerichoholic

The outrage over this is beyond embarrassing. You'd swear EA were murdering children. I take you don't own the game let alone have even played it?

Sonics2k

Jerichoholic wrote: »

The outrage over this is beyond embarrassing. You'd swear EA were murdering children. I take you don't own the game let alone have even played it?

That's the key point. People wanted to buy the game, but are now refusing to because of the whole controversy around basically turning this into a Pay to win mobile game.

I love Star Wars, I've been genuinely excited about the prospect of playing Battlefront 2. However, I'm not excited about playing a game where you can literally buy the ability to defeat people easily.

johnny_ultimate

Mod note: So we all know this is a 'controversial' game, but we already have two threads talking about the loot box stuff (one on this game particularly as opposed to the wider topic). If you want to discuss that, can we request you take to those threads and leave this for those who are playing the game and want to discuss it on its own terms rather than be lectured for buying it

Don't want to shut down the discussion or anything, but realistically there will be people playing who don't want to hear about 'the outrage' every time they post so better to keep to the dedicated thread rather than overlapping. Thanks all!

Other thread here

Jerichoholic

I'm pretty sure this isn't the fist game and EA aren't the first company that has done this. Can you buy your way to better stuff in COD, Battlefield, CS GO, Overwatch etc.? Of course you can.

The way I see it, the most expensive crate in game is 4000 credits, you can earn that easily in game in about 40 minutes you can also earn credits by hitting challenges etc. I'm NEVER going to buy a lootcrate in this game and I can hold my own no problem the way it is now. And I'm not by any means great at multiplayer games at all.

Hey guys,

Can anyone clarify please is it possible to play as Darth Vadar? Getting this as a gift for someone and I know the first thing he's going to want to do is get Darth Vadar. I know that it was possible to purchase the character, but now with the transactions gone will he have much work to unlock Darth Vadar? Is it even possible to unlock him at all at the moment?!

Thanks.

Kiith

You can still play as Vader. You just need to unlock him with in-game credits.

Jerichoholic

Took me about 2 hours to unlock him.

Jerichoholic

Jerichoholic wrote: »

Took me about 2 hours to unlock him.

Excellent, thanks.

TerrorFirmer

Jerichoholic wrote: »

I'm pretty sure this isn't the fist game and EA aren't the first company that has done this. Can you buy your way to better stuff in COD, Battlefield, CS GO, Overwatch etc.? Of course you can.

Not positive about COD: WW2 but the other games you've mentioned are all cosmetic only. Pretty sure COD as well is almost entirely cosmetic.

Eurogamer are now reporting that physical sales of BF2 are actually down 60% compared to the first game.

K.O.Kiki

Jerichoholic wrote: »

I'm pretty sure this isn't the fist game and EA aren't the first company that has done this. Can you buy your way to better stuff in COD, Battlefield, CS GO, Overwatch etc.? Of course you can.

The way I see it, the most expensive crate in game is 4000 credits, you can earn that easily in game in about 40 minutes you can also earn credits by hitting challenges etc. I'm NEVER going to buy a lootcrate in this game and I can hold my own no problem the way it is now. And I'm not by any means great at multiplayer games at all.

You actually can't buy your way to better stats in Overwatch.

All their lootcrates are cosmetics: Skins, emotes, voice lines & spray tags.

Jerichoholic

I stand corrected, but my point is it's not the first game to have it. Did you know however, whatever you get in the lootcrates cannot be applied to any characters without actually levelling them up by playing the game first? Also as far as I can tell you don't get any guns in them either, all guns are unlocked by completing milestones. By the time you get to that stage of unlocking the star cards you would have already earned enough credits by just playing anyway.

EA made the system way too complicated and didn't do a good job of explaining any of this.

K.O.Kiki

Jerichoholic wrote: »

I stand corrected, but my point is it's not the first game to have it. Did you know however, whatever you get in the lootcrates cannot be applied to any characters without actually levelling them up by playing the game first? Also as far as I can tell you don't get any guns in them either, all guns are unlocked by completing milestones. By the time you get to that stage of unlocking the star cards you would have already earned enough credits by just playing anyway.

EA made the system way too complicated and didn't do a good job of explaining any of this.

Even if they're not the first to do it, it doesn't excuse them using it.

gimli2112

Going by Jericoholioc's posts and as someone who hasn't played the game what EA have done doesn't actually look as bad as is being made out. I think the problem with it however is they were pushing it towards P2W, which is not a good place to be.

Gamer Bhoy 89

I'm still waiting on my copy to be delivered.

Playing the early access every now and then and gameplay wise it's brilliant. I'm intrigued to see how this game plays out after New Year. I'm also looking to see what future DLC they'll bring.

Jerichoholic

The more I play it, the better it gets. All DLC will be free too which is class. It just takes a while to level up your class, but that's the same for everyone. Starfighter assault is unreal.

CalamariFritti

The more I play the more I have mixed feelings about it. I was hoping it would be that good that'd I'd never play BF1 again. I was hoping BF2 would be BF1 on steroids. But it's not.

I'm not big into the space fighter stuff and the full on big teams big maps assault type FPS stuff is very chaotic. I like small teams FPS objective based matches and always thought that Capture the Flag or similar was the best format. Cargo in BF1 is pretty cool that way.

So while I like the campaign, I find - as far as the FPS or 3PS element is concerned - the look and feel in BF2 very different to BF1 and the only small team objective game mode in BF2 is Strike and it isn't blowing me away.
Generally speaking the characters are just too slow and the weapons too clumsy for a good FPS match. Cargo in BF1 beats Strike in BF2 hands down.

I will give it more time, but so far every time I played after a while I went back to BF1 for a 'proper match'.

J Mysterio

Just bought this for €25 in PS Store. 88 GB!

AndrewTW

Going to give this another go...Has it improved? since launch

AndrewTW

AndrewTW wrote: »

Going to give this another go...Has it improved? since launch

It's now respecting parental controls on the Xbox instead of outright blocking all under 13 accounts. Little lad can now play his Christmas present, Happy Christmas!

Dcully

Old thread but wow has this game changed for the better,its fantastic now with lots of content.
Shame it didnt release like it is now but better late than never.
Player count has increased hugely recently on PC so im sure its similar on all formats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4tS8rIIVRE

DeSelby83

Have dipped in and out of this recently, definitely a lot of fun. Very arcady feel to it but that's what I'm looking for in a star wars shooter.

Nijmegen

Picked it back up there with the Celebration update and after playing a bit of Fallen Order and wanting more of a Star Wars fix.

Wow. This is not the game it was on release. It feels much, much closer to Battlefront of old, in a really good way. Totally fixed all the pay-for-play elements, introduced tonnes of new content and all in all I'd say a really fun and varied DICE multiplayer experience. It feels like its own thing, not Battlefield in a Star Wars wrapper. And props to the Droid army for funniest quips while playing.