The first installment of DICE and EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront franchise was an exciting time as it was the resurrection of bringing back Star War’s intergalactic fighting into the palms of gamers hands. Though, the lack in content, absolute lack in weapon balance, and the obvious feel of DICE’s Battlefield 4 ruined the potential of what could’ve been DICE and EA’s new Triple-A title.
Now, two years later, with the release of Battlefront 2 right around the corner, DICE has listened to the SW:BF community and has promised more base game content as well as more DLCs in the games near future while also making DLC free, no longer needing to buy Premium Passes, which usually cost as much as the games itself. This was very unusual of EA to do; give out free year-round content to a game. Obviously, there has to be some kind of catch, right?
Guess what? There is. Crates. These Crates contain weapons, attachments, credit (in-game currency), Star Cards used to give your player a power boost, Emotes, Outfits, and Victory Poses. All either earned by playing the game, or purchasing a large amount of them with real money.
This was first realized while playing the beta version. Crates contained all the materials mentioned above. Material that could go untested and be very over powered. These crates could cost as much as Battlepacks do in Battlefield 1: ranging from $1.99 for one crate to $29.99 for 20 to $54.99 for 40. DICE and EA aren’t the first gaming companies to implement pay-ro-win transactions like this.
Activsion has made their past three of the past four Call of Duty games pay-to-win with supply drops containing overpowered weapons, and 2K games having implemented full VC purchasing to grow your player into their latest NBA game.
Though this is a large negative to the game, there are still aspects that could make SW:BF2 good. Whilst playing the beta, the graphics were obviously astonishing, no matter the Frames per Second, DICE has always made clear they have one of the best game graphics and game engines in the industry with FROSTBITE 3, if not the best. This almost confusing the human eye of virtual reality and actual reality.
Gameplay and mechanics have improved, with movement feeling a bit heavy and swift at the same time and more realistic, as well as being arcade-y. We also see the return of 1st and 3rd person views, and the addition of weapons with only a hip fire zoom-in option.
Some weapons do have scopes, though it may just obstruct your aiming. DICE have included four classes into Battlefront 2 that have their unique roles that help a team win games, if played properly. This is very similar to their Battlefield Franchise. These classes are called Assault, Heavy, Officer, and Specialist. The Assaults are your rushers.
They are very mobile with close to medium range weapons and are usually front lines, like the Marines. The Heavies are slow and hard-hitting with their LMG-like weapons and can suppress the enemy and take a bit of laser power form them as well. Officers are power boosters.
They provide their teammates in their radius with extra health, faster cool downs, firepower, and more. They are the strategists who hold a handgun-like weapon for self-defense. The Specialist are your snipers, providing covering fire and picking off enemy hard to see on ground.
DICE has also added a scorestreak system into Battlefront 2, where your points build up with every kill, assist, or play you make on the objective and you’re able to purchase score streaks from the class menu and have more of an impact on the game. These score streaks can be an air or land vehicle that you manually operate, an upgraded Stormtrooper, or a Hero like Han Solo or Boba Fett.
Battlefront 2 has the potential to be a good game. Yet, the path EA and DICE have taken for their micro transactions is going to hurt the game to where it may be unplayable or not worth the consumers’ time.
DICE has released a statement about the crate system and how they will be tweaking it throughout the games life cycle, and hw it is the beta and nothing is final. Yet, it could be too late as some have already considered this game “dead on arrival” all because of its pay-to-win feel.

Current Rating: 4/10