Star Wars Battlefront 2 E3 2017 Impressions

Star Wars Battlefront II was one of my most anticipated games going into E3 this year and I immediately ran to it when I got into EA Play as press. The game thankfully delivered and has the potential to be one of the best shooters ever. I say this after being somewhat disappointed with the lack of content in the first game despite finding it fairly sound for the shooter aspect. What greeted us this year was a colorful and realistically bright take on the series. We were given a special battle taking place on Theed, Naboo where the CIS battle droids needed to take what is essentially a tank to the gates of the palace. It's not entirely historical in the Star Wars sense, but that helps to show that this game is about epic battles within the universe which is what it should be.

Battlefront 2 is absolutely stunning, we were playing what the devs told me was 1080p resolution at 60fps (believe PS4 Pro, hard to tell as it was boxed away) and it was gorgeous. Not only in terms of capturing the distinct and authentic look of Star Wars, but exceeding the benchmark set by the first. The lighting for the environments was perfect casting real glows to create such a real scene and then combat was colorful. Blasts fired both ways majestically, things were destroyed and it felt like a real battle within the Star Wars universe.



I placed alright being within the top three of my team and enjoyed the victory we worked together to achieve. I was on the clone team so we were on the defensive for this scenario. It was staged like Rush from Battlefield where each distinct area had waves that were allowed for the attacks or health for their tank. It worked well and I can see this being one of the primary modes to play when the game launches. It was great, it seems like they've really fixed any of the issues I had with the first one not only with scope but also the smaller refinements.

The weapon overheating system has been tweaked for the better, I love the prequel environments and the combat was spectacular. I moved down the streets finding flanking routes and blasting away droids. There was a nice mix of enemies from the new class system and it worked well. I also liked how certain abilities or vehicles are now skill based and I was able to work towards getting Rey twice. She's incredibly badass splitting apart droids and using her mind abilities to mess around with folks. I found Maul to be slightly more effective though as I watched him decimate teammates and even ran from him at one point.

It's just so great to be excited about this game as the expectations for Star Wars Battlefront 2 are so high. I really did find it authentic to Star Wars while also being something that was fun to play with very refined gameplay. As a mostly shooter based gamer I truly believe that this could be one of the best shooters ever releases. It was not only enjoyable, but felt well balanced while incorporating all portions of the action to make it feel like this could be a scene from one of the movies.

Read our CoD: WWII Multiplayer Preview (E3 2017)
Our E3 2017 Hub