

IGN STAR WARS FREE TO PLAY RELEASED UPGRADE
Or, if you buy or upgrade to the Celebration Edition of Battlefront 2, every paid cosmetic, emote, and victory pose is unlocked from the very beginning. It’s a good, fair system, and thankfully entirely separate from progression – that makes these boxes exciting to open because the cosmetics don’t come at the cost of character upgrades and unlocks. Star Cards are completely gone, leveling is now based on linear XP gains, and all heroes are open from the beginning.Īlternatively, you can earn these cosmetics through loot boxes you can’t pay for. Today, the only things you can buy are cosmetics like new outfits and emotes, so there’s no hint of pay-to-win in play. Fast forward a couple of years, though, and, all of that’s now been removed as well. Thankfully, EA listened to feedback and removed those just ahead of launch, but the grindy progression remained. Star Card upgrades were locked behind similar time-sinks and pay walls that made multiplayer feel like more of a chore than a game. If you didn’t want to grind for hours to unlock playable heroes then you had to pay actual money. Shortly before Battlefront 2 officially launched in 2017 it was filled with egregious microtransactions that were not only greedy, but disruptive to the game as a whole. Coordinating attacks between the practicality of the standard troops and flashiness of heroes is a lot fun and makes Battlefront 2 feel special. In between the main classes and the big hero units are specialty units like Arc Troopers that get electric mines and dual pistols, or rolling Droidekas with heavy armor and deployable shield domes. It’s excellent for suppressing fire, especially if you’re on the defending end of the final phase in Capital Supremacy and need to keep the enemy back at all costs. I gravitated towards the Heavy troopers because of their powerful LMG-style weapon, mobile shield, grenade, and a special that let me shoot continuously like a minigun without overheating. Since there are no ammo counts, just cool downs, it changes the dynamic a bit and definitely feels unique.

They feel about as distinct as any other classes in a multiplayer shooter, although none of them have a dedicated secondary gun to swap too. And even though every weapon shoots similar-looking bolts, they all feel extremely distinct out of the box and can be customized further.Ĭrucially, DICE absolutely nailed the basics.For ground troops, the four main classes are Assault, Heavy, Officer, and Specialist.

Take the mechanics of firing a blaster: It feels just a bit chunky, as it should, with that signature sound bursting with each shot. Whether you’re fighting on the ground with a blaster in your hands, cutting down troops with a lightsaber, or dogfighting in space, Battlefront 2 is an immensely entertaining ride through a galaxy far, far away.Ĭrucially, DICE absolutely nailed the basics. Most of them play wonderfully and they all ooze that classic Star Wars look and feel on an unrivaled scale. Setting aside the overly safe, short, and disappointing single-player story, there’s a wealth of wave-based co-operative maps and a litany of online competitive multiplayer modes. Taking in all Battlefront 2 now has to offer at once is honestly a bit overwhelming. After over two years of updates and changes, EA and DICE have redeemed this gorgeous shooter and turned it into one of the best multiplayer adaptations of the Star Wars universe to date. So, in an ironic sort of way, Battlefront 2 is a better Star Wars game because of its initial fall to the dark side and subsequent journey back to the light. Almost since the beginning, Star Wars has been a story of redemption from darkness.
