I’ve been playing a ton of Star Wars Battlefront 2 lately thanks to the addition of its new mode, Capital Supremacy, and I’ve been starting to think a lot about how much this game has changed with the post-launch support it has received. The development team has really done a phenomenal job of giving fans of the series, either old or new, a reason to keep playing the game well after its initial launch back on November 27, 2017. I’ll be going over some of the things I think the team did really well, as well as some of the reasons I continue to play the game as often as I can.
What Star Wars Battlefront 2 Does Well
As someone who always loved the original Battlefront 2 for its ability to play as just about any character from Star Wars, EA’s Star Wars Battlefront 2, in its current state, manages to satisfy that craving for me. Now you may not be able to play as every single character you love, but with additions like General Grievous, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Count Dooku, and the chosen one himself, Anakin Skywalker, the game feels a lot more rounded out. In comparison to launch, which featured 14 Heroes, the game now boasts a total of 20 Heroes, covering just about every important character a player could want. I say just about because certain iconic characters are still missing. It feels weird playing on Clone Wars maps and modes without the iconic purple saber wielding Jedi bad-ass, Mace Windu. DICE, if you’re reading this, please add Mace into the game in the future.
Another reason I keep playing the game is thanks to its most recent patch. It managed to drastically, and I mean drastically, improve the lightsaber combat within Star Wars Battlefront 2. The days of slamming into your opponent like two action figures at a childhood friend’s house are finally over. The lightsaber combat isn’t perfect, but it is miles ahead of where it sat before. The new changes make the Hero gameplay much more satisfying, and a lot less frustrating for the player. You are now able to attack a blocking opponent without recoiling back two feet every time, meaning you can apply pressure to the opponent and actually attempt to deplete their stamina to open them up for an attack. It sounds like a small change, but trust me when I say that this tiny change made all of the difference in the world!
Star Wars Battlefront 2 Ability Changes
Now let’s look at some of the other changes the team has made in terms of abilities. Battlefront 2 has always had issues with certain characters’ abilities being way too powerful. Stun grenades were just one example of this. If you’re playing as a Jedi/Sith, you shouldn’t have to worry about a character using a Stun Grenade to freeze you in place, only to then murder you instantly with a barrage of gunfire. It feels cheap, and it requires absolutely zero skill to accomplish. In one of the game’s recent patches, the team addressed this issue by lowering the amount of time a player could be stunned by these grenades, as well as limited the number of Stuns on a character at any given time. This means that you will no longer be stunned, only to be stunned immediately a second time. This change fixed one of the issues that plagued me, and many others, for too long. Now it is a lot more fun to play modes focused on Heroes.
My biggest pet peeve with Star Wars Battlefront 2 though was how certain characters couldn’t block. Now I understand that someone like Han Solo who makes use of a blaster can’t block, that is fine. What I don’t understand is how someone like Darth Maul, or Jedi Grandmaster Yoda, can’t block simply because DICE felt that they were too powerful with a traditional block. This issue has not actually been fixed yet at the time of writing this article, but the developers behind the game have been tweeting a lot about this lately, and have confirmed officially on Twitter that Darth Maul and Yoda will be receiving a traditional block. Finally, no more running around with a giant “Shoot Me” target on your back when you play as Maul. My main issue with the lack of a block for both Maul and Yoda is immersion. Darth Maul blocked literally all the time, the same can be said for Yoda. It always irked me that both of these characters weren’t able to block in-game, when we’ve seen them do it plenty of times. Thankfully, this won’t be an issue much longer, and if it improves gameplay even more, I’m not complaining.
The Force is with DICE
Overall, the team at DICE has changed many of the larger mechanical issues I had with this game, and the result is a much better experience now in 2019, then that of 2017. I am pleased to see that EA decided to use this time to actually fix the experience, as opposed to just leaving it by the wayside in favor of jumping to the next game in the series. I will continue to play Star Wars Battlefront 2 for the foreseeable future, as it is noticeably more enjoyable than it was before, so hats off to the team for all their hard work. Hopefully with the Star Wars Celebration event coming up, we will see some new announcements in regards to future content coming to the game, but at this point, it might just be wishful thinking on my part. With the recent news that Capital Supremacy will be getting new maps, I remain hopeful that we will see more content come to the game in time.
What do you think of the changes that have been made to Star Wars Battlefront 2 since launch? Were they enough to keep you around? Perhaps you stopped playing the game a long time ago? Let us know in the comments!
