Looks like there are going to be a few surprises in Star War Battlefront if you're expecting a re-skinned Battlefield. There are no classes or squads - two things you sort of take as a given in most DICE shooters. Well, any multiplayer shooter full stop.

The info's mentioned in the latest issue of OXM where design director Niklas Fegraeus says players are able to “freely” pick their weapons and gear, rather than select pre-made classes. You can instead unlock and use whatever you want using XP, so it sounds like you won't be tied to set archetypes.

Even more interesting is the move away from squads, Battlefield's familiar five man groupings. Instead of that there's a new 'Partners' feature that links two players together so that they can see each other on their HUDS and spawn on each other to save time getting around. They'll also be able to share whatever they've unlocked, so if you're teamed with a higher level partner, or someone who's bought a different loadout with their XP, then you can have access to a different set of toys.

There's a lot of intriguing ideas here (we've already heard about howStar Wars Battlefront won't have iron sight aiming). The lack of classes and the new unlock system sounds like it'll undoubtedly need a little tweaking and balancing along the way, but that with the partner system could make a huge change to the traditional online shooter template. You'll find all ourStar Wars Battlefront multiplayer info here and youcan read more about the game in OXM's cover story, which is out Friday the 8th of May. Download ithereorsubscribefor future issues.