Very soon, literally in a week, without exception, all fans of the Star Wars Saga will flock to the theaters to see the story of their favorite characters under the name “Star wars: the force Awakening”. To pass the time until the premiere of the movie, perfect game Star Wars: Battlefront, developed by Swedish Studio DICE with a deep respect for the original and great attention to detail. I carefully examined her and is ready to share with you my opinion.
If you are a fan of the Star Wars franchise, you probably know that Star Wars: Battlefront, which I’m about to tell you is not the first game with this name. The first Battlefront was released in 2004 for PC, Xbox and PS2, a game developed the now retired Studio Pandemic. In 2005 came the sequel – Star Wars: Battlefront II, which continued to develop the ideas of the first game. But then in franchise history was a pause the length of ten long years. New Battlefront for the authorship of DICE is not the continuation or re-release of games from the original series. Rather, it is a complete rethinking and an attempt to start with a clean slate.
The game meets you familiar Lucasfilm logo and minimalistic main menu, in which old friends the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 fighting among themselves. At me literally the memories came flooding back, when I, as a boy, with shining eyes looked at the pirate saloon the fourth episode of Star Wars, thinking to myself, how and where I could miss the first three? In movies George Lucas was all to fall in love with them finally and irrevocably. And the developers at DICE have tried to carefully transfer this atmosphere in your new game.
The main modes in the game: “Jobs” and “multiplayer”. Jobs include missions for 1-2 players, to resist whom will be bots running artificial intelligence. Here you can undergo complete training that will help you become more familiar with game mechanics and to learn driving. You ride speeder bikes on the Endor jungle planet, will fly the x-wing above the canyons of Tatooine, you will learn how to manage fighting machine AT-ST, and even be able to feel the dark side in the role of Darth Vader attacking a rebel base.
Once you complete your training, I recommend to try yourself in the mode of “Combat” where you can fight against bots or his friend, and in ‘Survival’ mode, where you have to repel the waves of Imperial soldiers and military equipment. It is important to note that cooperative game with a friend is possible both online and Split-Screen that will surely please fans of “couch rest” in front of a large TV. Just the game you are four planets on which the vast unfolding of the battle: Hot, Tatooine, Sullust and Endor. More planets will be released as DLC.
Of course, the main fun Star Wars: Battlefront lies in the multiplayer. Just nine players available modes, actively operating online. Describe in detail each of them, I will not undertake, since it will need more than one material. But I would like to briefly describe some especially memorable to me personally. For example, “Hunting the hero”, where one player randomly becomes Luke Skywalker, Han Solo or Princess Leia, and the rest of the participants acting in the role of Imperial storm troopers trying to beat this hero. Killed him, he becomes a hero and starts to fend off enemies. The winner is the first kill maximum number of enemies in the allotted time.
Another similar mode called “Heroes vs. villains”, invites players to split up in two teams of six people consisting of three heroes/villains and three regular soldiers. Characters I have already listed just above, but as the villains are Emperor Palpatine, Boba Fett and Darth Vader. Each hero and villain has a set of three superpowers, Vader, for example, is able to throw a lightsaber, choke enemies with the “force” and sharply to rush forward, chopping enemies into pieces. Boba Fett is able to fly high above the ground on his jetpack, and Palpatine crushes the rebels with the help of lightning. As to positive characters, they also have their own special skills. Princess Leia, for example, can create an energy shield, protecting her from the shots, and Luke Skywalker Salavatski reflects the rays of blasters back at the shooter.
In the game there was a place for the classic mode, without which can not do any modern online shooter. Mode “Excellence” allows us to come together in the fight for the territory to two teams of 20 players each. Each team must capture key points on the map, gradually pushing enemies back. “The battle for cargo” — similar to the popular “Capture the flag” where the player must get to enemy team’s base and steal there valuable cargo, then deliver it to their base. In “drop Zone” and “capture the droids” you have to capture and hold falling from orbit in a capsule or slow walking droids, the only difference is that in the second case the targets are constantly moving. In the mode of “Combat” on the battlefield converge two teams of 10 people and winner is to kill a certain number of enemies in the allotted game time.
For each game you get local currency “credits” and increase your rank, which unlocks new weapons and other pleasant bonuses. By the way, about the bonuses: in the game there are many so-called “Star cards” that you can equip on your character in no more than three pieces at a time. These cards allow you to enjoy various advantages in battle, for example, due to one card you will not have to worry about overheating their weapons in battle. The other card will provide you with a “jump pack”, with which you will be able to jump over tall obstacles. There are cards that assign your character a particular class, for example “the bodyguard”, “scout” or “the bounty hunter”. Each class has a number of advantages and disadvantages, so you have to carefully study them to find for themselves the most appropriate option.
Of course, the cards are play money, which you will have to earn in the hard fought battles on distant planets. In addition, it is impossible to get access to all cards, you must first reach a certain rank. Every star map you can pump, putting it in cash, thereby increasing its effectiveness. But we should not forget that the effect of most of the maps only lasts for a certain time, and then have to wait until they restore their energy reserves. Number of uses of some cards is limited, and when it reaches zero, you will need to look on the battlefield with a special bonus that increases the number of uses or increase the number of in-game cash. By the way, I didn’t notice in the game the opportunity to buy this currency for real money. Maybe just bad looking, maybe, the publisher EA listened to the players who are fed up with the annoying microtransactions. If so, then just remove before them the hat.
In online modes on the battlefield you will meet different glowing logo. Collecting them, you can get access to powerful weapons, like call of strike from orbit, to request from staff transport, for example, x-wing or AT-ST, or become the key hero of the famous space Saga. I’ll never forget one match, when together with comrades-the rebels have rushed to attack the enemy in the narrow corridors of a military base and then noticed, as by me in the opposite direction ran the terrified and out of breath Luke Skywalker – all my morale immediately disappeared somewhere. Even if the Jedi flees, it may be me today not to go? Such moments perfectly diversify the gameplay a lot and amuse you.
I specifically pulled the game to wait for the release of the first free add-on “Battle for Jacko”, which became available to players yesterday. This is the tenth network mode that transports players into the midst of a fierce battle the Empire and the rebels on a desert planet Jacko. The action unfolds against the backdrop collapsed to the ground Star destroyer, which only adds what is happening on the screen more epic. By the way, that planet Jakku 30 years after this battle we’ll see on the big screen in the film “Star wars: the force Awakening”, so familiarize yourself with the history of this place will not prevent any fan of the series.
The game has its own achievement system, for which the player will receive collectible figurines of your favorite characters. For example, if playing as heroes you have killed 250 enemies, you will hand over a figurine of Darth Vader, and if you used all the star maps and did some shooting of each weapon in the game, we get a figure of Boba Fett. All the figures are placed in a special section of the game “Diorama” on the static background scenery, where you can carefully consider. To assemble a complete collection of characters and equipment will only the most hard-nosed players, as some achievements are incredibly difficult.
Whatever you say, but the quality of the graphics in Star Wars: Battlefront is beyond praise. The Frostbite engine version 3.5 shows their best side. Crystal clear picture, high frame rate without a problem, photorealistic textures, impressive special effects and a high range of drawing. Fantastic planet, which we previously saw only in movies seem just real. No, of course, there are some flaws, for example, the bodies of dead enemies disappear after some time, thus slightly disturbing the reality of what is happening on the screen. But it’s all the little things, because where else can you fly in the Millennium Falcon or wrap the rope legs are slow-moving AT-AT, knocking him into the snow? Definitely, we have one of the most beautiful games of the outgoing 2015.
As for sound and music, here I had mixed feelings. Famous musical compositions such as “the Imperial March” and the title theme Star Wars series authored by John Williams perceived by your ears just to cheer. The shots of blasters, lightsabers sweeps, noise proletaya past the fighters, the heavy breathing of Darth Vader – it all seems so native that you are touched incessantly. But as soon as it comes to Russian voice acting, this is where all the magic ends. After a brief personal investigation, I discovered the awful truth. For Russian scoring the game publisher hired the fans of Star Wars from the Russian division of group “the 501st Legion”, and popular Russian videoblogger golopolosova like Maxim, known to many thanks to the show “+100500”. Well, what else to add? And all anything, Yes only I have not found the game disc of the original voice in English, why depressed and even a little drinking.
Another drawback of the game is a pronounced imbalance of some online battles. When you are just starting to play, and destroy high-level players, hung tough modifications and pumped the weapon, likely to survive you, to put it mildly, a little. Game with you does not stand on ceremony and are being thrown in the midst of the battle, where literally every other opponent feels obliged to demonstrate his superiority over the pathetic rookie in the worst manifestation of this word. No, I’m not complaining about the difficulty of the game. Just a few shame for the newcomers, which may deter such nedruzhelyubstvo games against them.
Pros:
- Star Wars: Battlefront is one of the most beautiful games of this year.
- Gorgeous music by John Williams and the familiar childhood sounds.
- The ability to play with a friend in split screen.
- You can feel like a hero beloved science-fiction Saga.
- An impressive number of the online game modes for any taste.
- The system “Star maps” well-refreshed game mechanics.
- No matter how I searched, but never found in-game microtransactions.
- Some of the epic moments just can not help but delight.
- The developers approached the game with passion.
Cons:
- The lack of a story campaign blurs the impression of the game.
- Somewhat saddened by the lack of balance in multiplayer modes.
- Russian voice was of rather dubious quality.
Star Wars: Battlefront is a very high quality game, which involves two target audience: Star Wars fans and fans of online shooters like Battlefield. You certainly will be impressed by the scale of the battles and the enormous size of playing cards, and when you hear in the radio the phrase: “To the rescue came captain Solo” and not think “this is – happiness!”. A large number of multiplayer modes and the opportunity to play with a friend on split screen is great, but the soul of a fan requested story campaign with a deep plot about the struggle between good and evil. But that’s just the whole story in the game did not deliver. And like everything very efficiently and made with a great love for the original, and the aftertaste remains kind of strange, like a very expensive dish I forgot the salt before serving. Such things. 8 points out of 10. And may the force be with you.