Iden’s paradise lost



































Unlike the last game, BFII also ships with a bona fide single-player campaign. It is resoundingly "OK." You primarily play as Iden Versio, a member of the Empire's brutal Inferno Squad of ground- and air-combat specialists. Iden gets things done, and you meet her in the midst of an "I meant to get caught" infiltration of the Rebellion, set during the events of Return of the Jedi. Most of the game transpires after the second Death Star blows up, at which point Iden's commander—and, conveniently enough, father—sends her on a dubious mission of killing innocent people. How this really benefits the Empire's new "come from behind" plan, issued by Emperor Palpatine upon his death, is never quite made clear.

Worse, Iden's rapid switch from "lifelong believer in the Empire" to "welp, time to join the Rebellion" is as predictable as it is undercooked. The single-player mode has its fair share of average "walk straight ahead and kill a bunch of people" missions, which could easily have been boosted by significant, Star Wars-caliber storytelling segments.

The voice actors for both the Inferno Squad and the series' superheroes are pretty darned good and certainly better than the likes of the last game's low-rent Han Solo impersonator, and they're fed perfectly fine dialogue. But the script mostly consists of incidental, reacting-to-what's-around chatter or shouts of what objective is next. We never receive a grounded explanation for how the game's biggest hero, Iden, turns her entire worldview around so rapidly.

Her squadmate Del, at least, has a full mission tagging along with Luke Skywalker in which to have his perspective on the Rebellion changed organically. However, his mission ranks down there with the opening of Daikatana as one of the worst shooter missions of all time, which ends with Luke having to awkwardly swipe his lightsaber at wave after wave of tiny, obnoxious insects.

BFII's campaign suffers from missions that look like they could be awesome, with giant, gorgeous setpieces and an apparent cornucopia of paths to traverse. However, each mission plays out as if some producer yanked a bunch of gameplay features and tactics at the last minute. In particular, these all have apparent paths where stealth, sniping, and gadgets could have really fit in nicely. Pick off a bad guy here, set up some Stormtrooper-clearing traps there, and sneak carefully to a podium to grab a mounted turret over there. But stealth in BFII is 100-percent ineffective, due to the fact that a single gunshot or power-up sets off full-level sirens and alarms. If you do not walk perfectly behind a foe and take them out, with zero other baddies nearby to notice, that's it for the stealth path. And with no other Goldeneye-caliber gadgets handy, you're basically left with little other strategic course than finding a safe corner, shooting the first bad guy, and waiting for everyone else to run at you in a straight line.

(I also ran into some hilarious bugs in the campaign, particularly when my Xbox One X automatically went to sleep and was later awoken mid-mission. These cranked the game's animation speeds up roughly 400 percent and sent my heroes glitching either into the ground or floating into the sky.) [Update: We've now uploaded video proof of these glitches, see above.]

There's still a fine fan-service plot in this five-hour romp, along with ridiculous levels of polish and a few tasty plot bits that tie together the original trilogy with the events of Episode VII. But underwhelming action and an obnoxious cliffhanger ending combine to make me regret playing this mode instead of watching someone else do so.

One with the dark side

EA and DICE have responded to pre-release criticisms with promises to listen to the community and improve the game. They even pulled a last-minute "no more real money" move to save face, though the fact that EA says real-money purchases will return is worrying. Even in light of that drastic change, the game's handlers are still way behind schedule.

I don't look upon the time I've spent playing BFII and reminisce fondly. The game does not contribute anything significant, special, or even newbie-friendly to the crowded online-shooter genre. I tremble at the thought of younger Star Wars fans getting caught up in a gameplay loop that favors economics over fun—which can still be poisonous without money, depending on how you view loot-box mechanics' similarities to slot machines , but that part of BFII will only be worse should the real-money economy issues return.

If EA flattens the game's economy so that players start out on a more equal footing, then we may be on to something. Even then, there's still the issue of online combat that favors cheap BP gathering, lone-wolf slogs, and boring tactics over either satisfying tactics or down-and-dirty arcade fun. I will keep my eyes on the game for any major, tide-turning changes that could redeem the game's solid, glossy bits. Until then, EA's talk is cheap, and its product feels even cheaper. Avoid Star Wars: Battlefront II.

The good:

DICE combines its Frostbite engine and its visual design chops to make the most beautiful Star Wars game yet.

Fan-service nuggets, solid acting make the plot's best bits must-see stuff for any series fan.

The bad:

THUNK. That's the sound of a giant binder landing on a table to explain the game's cockamamie economy at launch.

Star Cards, as they currently function, prevent new players from learning and appreciating high-level gameplay systems.

Flying segments thrill at first blush but continue to lack enough tactical or control options.

Our pre-release tests revealed some hilarious visual bugs while testing on Xbox One X.

The ugly:

The fact that half-cooked, trying-to-please-everybody combat will still be there, even if EA fixes the game's economy issues.

Verdict: Avoid.