Along with all of the new content for Star Wars Battlefront 2’s The Last Jedi season, we got three additional campaign missions for the single-player portion of the game. Titled Resurrection, this set of of missions picks up from right after the epilogue mission in the main campaign. As such, this review will obviously contain spoilers for Star Wars Battlefront 2’s main campaign, and will delve into a few details across Resurrection’s three missions. If you’re looking for our main Star Wars Battlefront 2 review, you’ll find that right over here.
Spoilers for the Star Wars Battlefront 2 campaign follow.
Resurrection doesn’t stand alone as as a good series of missions by itself, but being a free addition, it works great as an epilogue chapter, following up on some of the character development we got to see across the main Battlefront 2 campaign. The final mission of the launch game sets players into the mask of Kylo Ren, on a journey through Del Meeko’s mind to find information on the whereabouts of Lor San Tekka. This fills in some holes and sets up the backstory for the opening of The Force Awakens, and it is implied that Del and Iden were married and had a daughter. No, that daughter wasn’t Rey, as some had thought might be the big reveal.
After he gets the desired information, Ren lets Gideon Hask (the other member of Inferno Squad who remained with the Empire) kill Del Meeko and a lay a trap for Iden. Cue Resurrection’s beginning. A sad tale of loss, we’re treated to some dramatic irony where the player knows that Del is dead, yet Iden and her daughter set out to find him anyway. While I understand it’s a free addition to the game, the story suffers as it is sped along across three all too brief missions. None of Resurrection’s biggest moments have time to hit home.
It glazes over Starkiller Base destroying multiple planets, and then again over the actual destruction of Starkiller Base. They are mere backdrops instead of things that drive the story forward. Most of this story is driven by the ongoing conflict between Iden and Hask, but even that isn’t given the chance to really develop before it is quickly snuffed out. Again, Resurrection is better experienced as a continuation for the campaign, even being numbered as such in the chapter select menu and challenge milestones. It’s not meant to stand alone, but being a few decades later, I would have liked to see a little more development of that missing time than three quick missions can provide.
No Sign of The Last Jedi
Anyone hoping for deep story ties to The Last Jedi will be disappointed. There’s a small interaction with General Leia near the end, where Iden’s daughter and Shriv are sent to the Outer Rim for an “important secret mission.” It’s hard to place exactly when the communique occurs, but it’s likely at some point during the course of The Last Jedi’s story. While one might hope that this secret mission will be integral to Episode IX’s plot, chances are more likely that it’s just a way to send these characters off on another adventure and set up more downloadable story content. I’d love to be proven wrong though.
The conclusion to Iden Versio’s story is satisfying enough, especially after her predictable turn in the main campaign. The conflict between her and Hask comes a thrilling head. Hask’s line about being forced to live in Iden’s world after the Rebels’ victory, and now forcing her to live in his upon the rise of the First Order, is strangely topical to current political climates, even as the whole thing is rushed to conclusion, nothing more than a blip on the Star Wars radar. The wider series lore that we learn is simply Project Resurrection, a plan that amounts to the First Order kidnapping children and training them to be the storm troopers and cannon fodder. While interesting, it’s noteworthy that Resurrection doesn’t actually dive into Project Resurrection as much as its name might imply.
I haven’t mentioned gameplay because it’s no different than the game that precedes it. There are a couple of starfighter levels, an assault on an Imperial Dreadnought, and a visit back to Vardos. The city is an ashen graveyard, abandoned since Iden’s last visit during the main campaign and Operation Cinder. You won’t find any wildly new gameplay, but less than two months after Battlefront 2’s initial release, I wouldn’t really expect otherwise.
New Characters, New Assaults
As for the new content, I haven’t had a chance to play Finn and Phasma enough to get a real handle on their balance within the game, but they seem like fair additions when paired alongside other heroes. I do have to wonder how the increasingly adding heroes will impact the game’s balance, as already it can feel like there’s just a barrage of heroes in each match. That can be overwhelming when you’re only playing as one of the foot soldiers. It’s balanced on each side, but shifts the focus of large scale assaults to heroes versus heroes, with everyone else being cannon fodder.
The new Galactic Assault and Starfighter Assault maps are interesting and different. Crait is accurately recreated from what you’ve seen in The Last Jedi, and a unique map in that the entire first portion is out on the open and flat salt flats area. Different strategies are required here than any other assault map, pushing players into trenches and underground passageways. D’qar is a fun map simply because, in the humble opinion of this writer, Starfighter Assault is the best thing in Battlefront 2, and an addiction that I can’t get over. It doesn’t do much different in terms of gameplay and objectives, but does dress it up nicely with a tie in to the release of The Last Jedi.
You can’t beat the price of free, and for that, Resurrection (and the additional maps and characters) is a welcome addition to Iden’s story. It provides a satisfying conclusion to some of the conflicts left open during the previous story, and sets up enough open-ended arcs that the developers working on additional content can easily pull threads from. The new characters and additional assault levels help mix up an already extraordinarily diverse and varied content offering. By themselves, they may not be anything extremely notable, but they help keep Battlefront II feeling fresh and new each time I play. You can’t ask for much more when a developer is willing to provide free content updates.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 Resurrection review copy was a free update to Star Wars Battlefront 2. For more information on scoring, please read our Review Policy.
