Up until very recently I was an unquestioning devotee for the fan club of Star Wars. I watched all the films, consumed all ancillary media and played all of the games. I was the obsessed fan stereotype that marketers dream of creating. I didn't care about value or quality, I just saw a product with Star Wars iconography plastered on and I had to have it. It was almost like an addiction, only I didn't want to kick it. As such, It should come as no surprise to learn that I am incredibly familiar with the Battlefront franchise.
I don't just mean I've got the first two, or even the latest two. During my fandom, I managed to purchase every single Star Wars Battlefront game ever released, including the PSP exclusives. Who else has enough history with this franchise to remember the good old times with Renegade Squadron and Elite Squadron? Despite their technical limitations, those game were some of the most ambitious Battlefront games ever. Their Galactic Conquest gameplay was some of the most advanced of the series, their single player storylines bordered on feeling genuinely cinematic and they were the only games that implemented the, much requested, feature of space-to-ground combat. (Although I will admit that Elite Squadron made a pretty big mistake in adding Jedi powers as high-tier unlockable in general customization. It made online battles feel a little bit one sided.) But I am getting off track, I'm not here to big-up the lesser known games of franchise but to compare the reboot with the original and see if there's any hope for the future of Battlefront.
The original Star Wars Battlefront was an absolute obsession for me back when it released in 2004. I remember seeing all of the commercials and magazine ads selling me a game that was supposed to bring the epic battles from the movie to life. Point me to one self respecting Star Wars fan who could fail to be excited at such a proposition. Who didn't want to storm the trenches of Hoth, kill teddy bears on Endor or... slaughter the Gungan army as the Separatists? Sign me up! In all seriousness, there is no way I can accurate convey the giddiness I felt when I saw that purple Gungan shield in the first story mission. You know what I'm talking about: That giant huge purple glowing dome projected from the backs of those giant Elum-looking beasts. (Might be an animal cruelty case to be made there.) It may sound odd to hear that it was those shields that set off the butterflies in my stomach, but maybe it'll just go to show you how much of a Star Wars nerd I was. "Just like the movies!" I cried more than once.
Until 2015 rolled around that is. In October 2012, real-life mega corporation, Disney fulfilled their 'troubling monopolising' quota for the year by purchasing Star Wars for a tidy $4.05 billion. This has resulted in a whole slate of new movies, shows, merchandise and the exclusive gaming rights to Star Wars being sold to EA for 10 whole years. Now, I've made my feelings on this deal very clear in the past, it's baloney. Before 2013 us fans received at least one Star Wars game a year whereas now we are lucky to get one every 3 years. But this deal did broker in one pleasant surprise for us old school (Or perhaps more Secondary School) Star Wars gaming fans; a brand new Star Wars Battlefront helmed by DICE.
It seemed like a match made in heaven. Afterall, DICE are the ones responsible for maintaining the Battlefield franchise and, as a rep for DICE once rather snidely commented, Battlefront was a game that was very much inspired by Battlefield. Pandemic even went so far as to adapt Battlefield's capture mechanics to fit their own game. Fans were giddy, thinking 'If DICE, with their years of experience and huge budget, got ahold of this franchise just imagine how far it could propel these games. To the stratosphere and beyond, surely!'. Turns out that we were being a little bit too hopeful.
Star Wars: Battlefront turned out to be the first game in a distinct downwards trend for the quality of DICE games, and fans that were expecting the world out of this crossover, came away sorely disappointed. Content wise, the game actually featured less to do then the original Pandemic games; and whilst it is true that the new Battlefront's graphical fidelity and impressive sound design is practically incomparable to the original games, no one picks up a Star Wars game just to look around and go "Doesn't it look pretty!" Board posts popped up online with comprehensive lists detailing all the omissions DICE had made when rebooting the franchise: Most of the planets were missing, the clone wars era was MIA, No space battles to talk of and a lackadaisical approach to providing single player content.
The most sorely felt omission to me was that of Galactic Conquest. As a huge narrative-RPG nut, no mode in Battlefront appealed to me more than the original Galactic Conquest. That was because it offered something that Instant battle didn't, it provided context. Context that could transform a random skirmish over Bespin into a desperate struggle to hold back the tide of the Empire. Context that made a ridiculous 10 vs 100 battle (That was actually possible in Renegade Squadron's Galactic Conquest.) into a legendary battle hearkening back to David and Goliath. Context that a turned a simple war game into a rudimentary but arresting tactical experience. DICE did away with that in favour of more online content, their bread and butter. Later they did add some special battles with progressive narratives attached, but nothing could ever compare to the stories that we made up in our heads back when we were provided the tools with which to do so.
Responses were ultimately mixed. People loved the presentation of the new game but balked at the execution. What was the point of playing DICE's fancy new featureless product when the originals still existed. For my part, I was still willing to give them a chance. DICE's Battlefront came at the tail-end of my Star Wars fandom so I was still willing to give the game more leniency than it rightly deserved. I stuck through all of the poor excuses, like how it would require too much workload to design space combat, and played through all the DLC, like that one DLC in which they added Space Combat. After it was all said and done, I had managed to wrangle up some enjoyment out of the game, but it didn't hold a candle to the cherished memories that the original invoked. Too many concessions were made, too many necessities were omitted and there was too little stuff to do. All that would be fixed, DICE and EA promised, with the sequel. Oh, how little we knew.
Straight away EA DICE made it clear that Battlefront 2 was going to right the wrongs of it's predecessor, through oodles of content. Not only were we getting the chance to play the clone wars era once again but DICE were going to add the new era from the latest Star Wars Films. With that came a whole host of new playable hero's, Space combat out of the box, a class-based system like the originals and customization. (And still no Galactic Conquest.) That last one was the real kicker, fans would be able to customize their characters to their liking through a skins system. This was something that people merely shrugged off as an innocuous feature, never suspecting what that system might herald in.
No expansions pass, DICE announced, fishing for applause. Every new map would be available for free for every player, DICE's way of not splitting their own fanbase. I mock them for this transparent marketing move but in truth it did garner some respect from gaming critics. Split playerbases is a problem that has been killing online play ever since COD's heyday so this seemed like a positive move in the right direction. I remember how at the time some people, like myself, were jokingly wondering what they might replace it with. Afterall, EA has a reputation for anti-consumer practises that sacrifice player experience for a few extra bunks. There's no way they could just abandon a potential profitable marketing gimmick without replacing it with another one could they? Unfortunately, we were right.
I have been playing coy, but I might as well come out and say it. You all already know about it anyway. Those cosmetics that we were expecting in the game, were relegated to be obtained practically exclusively from randomized loot boxes. Yes, you could earn them if you kept grinding through the game like it was your literal job, but the rate of progression was skewered to force players to focus on purchasable lootboxes. This also reflected onto heros who required a ridiculous amount of credits in order to unlock them. Grinding to unlock both Darth Vader and Luke would take several hundred games straight. Several hundred games that could be circumvented with the roll of the virtual dice through lootboxes. It was a bad look to lock so much content behind a in-game mechanic that could be exploited with real world funds, but that wasn't the worst of Battlefront 2's woes.
The cosmetics were bad, but the cards were infinitely worse. You see, Battlefront 2 offered cards that applied buffs to different character classes. These stat boosts were significant enough to really change the tide of combat for the player, and they were the way in which DICE intended to keep recurrent players. Nothing locks players in like providing a worthwhile endgame and DICE thought that grinding for buff cards would be suitable enough. The problem with this was that those buff cards could also be acquired through their loot boxes. This meant that items with tangible game play advantages were being sold to players through a random-chance system, effectively skewing the balance of gameplay towards those who forked out the most on lootboxes. This is a textbook example of pay-to-win and, as I have previously stated, players hate pay-to-win.
Backlash was immediate. Players were up in arms over the fact that EA DICE had the audacity to try to swindle their player base like this. For the first time in a long while, a major AAA studio had stepped too far over the line and they reaped all the chaos for it. Community managers were overwhelmed by the vitriol that their charges spewed over social media. It was around about this time that somebody, likely a overworked intern who was consequently fired, tried to defend the lootboxes on Reddit by saying that they provided players with a sense of 'Pride and accomplishment'. That comment soon became the most downvoted in Reddit's history. 'Nuff said, really.
Things apparently got so bad that Bob Iger, head of Disney, is said to have called up EA to tell them to get their ducks in a row. Whether that story is true or not, what we can say for sure is that Disney were not happy with the fact the EA was devaluing one of their prize cash cows. And so EA stopped publishing foot-in-mouth statements and straight up just removed all that game's lootboxes for a time. The official statement spoke about rebalancing and retooling but the truth was that the company just wanted some breathing room for the whole thing to blow over. It worked for the short term. Lootboxes are currently alive and well in Battlefront 2, but the subsequent government oversight that has ensued is entirely their consequence. But all that is a story for another blog. (One which I published a while back.)
Nowadays, Battlefront 2 is reportedly in a good place. Their staggered-release single player is finally out and whilst it won't win any rewards for storytelling, people seem to like it enough. Post launch content has been steadily provided to the game and balancing has meant that much of the grind that players initially complained about has relented to some degree. Battlefront 2 still feels like an inferior copy of the Pandemic games, but at least the game is not so offensive that it is tarnishing Pandemic's legacy. Anymore. However, All of this nickle and dimming has sunk the gaming community's respect for the Battlefront franchise. Battlefront 2 underperformed for EA and now they are complaining about the whole Star Wars license deal, arguing that they've received the short end of the stick in the deal. I still haven't given Battlefront 2 a try, although that might just be a consequence of me falling out of love with Star Wars as much as it has to do with EA's shenanigans.
Pandemic isn't around anymore, having disbanded back in 2009. But I'll bet that those ex-employees must look at where the Battlefront series has gone with some degree of disappointment. Battlefront 3's loss was a huge blow for the gaming community, it remains one of the most shocking cancellations ever. (Only topped perhaps by Star Wars: 1313.) Everyone wanted the moon for DICE's series revival, but all we got was a pretty launch that ultimately feel short of it's goal. I find myself thinking about the Battlefront debacle more and more as get closer to the end of the Skywalker saga this December. Don't get me wrong, I've long since lost interest in the films, I just wonder what this will mean for the games. More specifically, what this will mean for Battlefront. Given that the DICE deal is ending in 2023, if they don't get a renewal then EA will only have time to make one more Battlefront game. But will they even try? The headache that Battlefront 2 has caused reverberated around the AAA gaming community, perhaps EA will just chose to shelve the title for good going forward, as one last 'stick-it' to the fans. Honestly, I wouldn't put it past EA. So maybe this is the end for Battlefront, or maybe DICE will give it one last shot next E3. I do know one thing for certain; if they do drag the Battlefront franchise out once more, they darn well better bring Galactic Conquest with it!
No comments:
Post a Comment