By: Reece Funderburk, Contributing Writer
If you are like me or just about anyone else on the entire planet, you are probably looking forward to seeing the brand new Star Wars movie, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” coming out Dec. 14. If you are also like me, you probably can’t get enough Star Wars in your life right now, so why in the world haven’t you gone and picked up a copy of “Star Wars: Battlefront” yet for whichever console you choose to play it on? Currently receiving an 8/10 from IGN, Battlefront is a first or third person shooter that allows players to visit their favorite worlds from the Star Wars universe and explore every area with fantastic high quality graphics.
“Star Wars: Battlefront” gives everything that a fan of the series would want in a shooting game; however, fans of the original series back on older consoles will miss quite a few things as well. Space battles and campaigns were noticeably left off from this game, while it seems most of the effort was put into multiple ways to play online multiplayer games, something new to this series. Survival mode is now the main way to play by yourself, but you can always go online if need be. The game does feature a variety of playable modes, nine to be exact, from “Heroes vs. Villains” and their own version of team-death-match in “Blast,” with both sounding exactly as they are played: blasting everyone for themselves with your team vs. the opponent, or picking up three main characters from the series, ranging from Luke Skywalker and Han Solo to Darth Vader and Boba Fett, and having an all-out battle royale that a five year old kid with action figures couldn’t even imagine, “Star Wars: Battlefront” has at least one thing that every fan could enjoy. The game is also user friendly, with the game working in conjunction with your console, automatically putting you into a group with whoever is in your party chat that will stay together in online play.
There are draw backs though as nothing is perfect. As much I love the graphics, details to music and explosions, there are cracks that begin to show if one becomes frustrated with online play. The lack of diversity in solo games becomes apparent after only a few attempts at the survival mode and most of the diversity in objectives comes only from online play, where you can switch modes from shooting anything in sight to trying to bring down a massive walker traveling across the battlefield. At the core of all nine of its modes though is still one thing –shooting whatever comes near.
Overall though, the game gives fans what they love most about the Star Wars universe, a chance to escape into the universe. Players get gorgeous landscapes that are massive, allowing players to explore worlds and escape into supersized battles thought only feasible in our imaginations. You can play in massive forests on “Endor” with trees the size of skyscrapers and then immediately move over into the icy artic of “Hoth,” where you scale hills of snow while monstrous walkers stomp all over the area. And while there are some aspects lacking, the multiplayer details from the servers never lagging to the high quality of the graphics can’t get much better. Star Wars: Battlefront is worth your time and money. It gets a 3.75/5.
