While it was a truly wonderful experience to pick up a blaster and dive into the numerous conflicts of the Star Wars universe with Battlefront back in 2015, there’s no questioning DICE’s take on the classic series had a few serious shortcomings lying within. Even though the development team paid a phenomenal amount of attention to the small details and the authenticity of each respective sound from the original movies fans would appreciate seeing in-game, Battlefront lacked many of the core concepts which made both Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 feel like an epic Star Wars experience over a decade ago.
Now, with the official reveal of Star Wars: Battlefront 2 just around the corner at Star Wars Celebration, we thought it a good opportunity to look back at some of the major improvements DICE needs to bring for Battlefront’s sequel to let the revived franchise soar to new heights.
Reworked Vehicles
In 2015’s Battlefront, DICE opted to create a set of mechanics which allowed players to remain involved in the combat on the ground with enemy infantry and seamlessly swap into vehicle combat as they picked up one of several designated tokens laying around the map. Naturally, this design choice was largely successful in keeping both infantry and vehicle combat intertwined, but it often caused most of Battlefront’s players to group up around token locations waiting to pilot a powerful vehicle instead of capturing the objective to win the match.
By removing this token system entirely in favor of a system which allows players to just spawn into an air or ground vehicle once it’s available, DICE could reduce the competitive clutter for picking up a token and make sure players interested in infantry would instead be focused on the enemy in front of them rather than the token behind them.
Galactic Conquest
One of the best game modes available in the original Battlefront games, Galactic Conquest was a single-player experience which allowed you to conquer the galaxy planet by planet, continuing to fight against the opposing faction until you held every planet available on the galactic map. Every planet you defended or attacked had a few battles for you to win before you could take it over, and would then reward you for your efforts with new unit types, more powerful soldiers, and additional equipment to use throughout your campaign.
The concept of building up the power of your own faction while working to conquer the entire galaxy fit all too well with the Star Wars universe, especially when epic space battles kicked up as you encountered enemy fleets pushing your positions while navigating the galaxy. Bringing Galactic Conquest back would be a great move for Battlefront 2, provided that both a single-player and multiplayer element were available for fans to dive into while playing the game as their favorite faction.
More Complexity
Whether you enjoyed the relatively simple, streamlined approach DICE took with Battlefront’s playable characters, weapon types, vehicle engagements, and pieces of equipment or not, it was a design choice which severely limited the strategic element present in the original games. Essentially every aspect of 2015’s Battlefront was built to be highly accessible to newcomers and veterans alike but at the expense of the depth that many players hope for in the game’s sequel.
By adding back in many of the more complex elements from the original games such as classes, squads of more than just two, additional locations with more varied environments, and less linear-driven map designs across the board, DICE would effectively bring strategic gameplay to Battlefront like they have in Battlefield, adding a much-needed layer of depth to keep long-term players engaged well past release.
Seamless Space Battles
If there’s one thing many fans took away from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story last December, it’s that space battles intermixed with large-scale engagements on a planet’s surface make for one hell of an experience, one which truly lives up to the epic scale we’ve come to expect from entries in the Star Wars franchise. Originally Battlefront really lacked any sort of larger engagements in space or on the ground, but by working to combine the two with a seamless transition between space and a planet’s surface, DICE could create something which felt like a next-generation experience in video games with a Star Wars backdrop to work with.
The key here would be to build intricate scenarios like those in the original Battlefront games where players would be able to participate in space battles, board enemy starships, and then eliminate them before heading down to a planet’s surface to help their friends finish off the resistance. By having both space battles and planet battles happening at the same time, Battlefront 2 would bring the massive engagements at the core of Star Wars to life for players to experience firsthand.
While Star Wars: Battlefront II has seen its fair share of controversies, it’s also gotten a pretty stable audience of players, particularly on the multiplayer side of things. The developers at DICE is going all out to satisfy them – and that may include re-introducing a classic mode from its previous games to enjoy in its latest effort.
Design director Dennis Brannvall recently stopped by the Star Wars: Battlefront II forumsto talk with fans about upcoming content for the game. Nothing major was confirmed during the discussion, but there was an interesting point that was brought up and explored – Conquest Mode.
Fans of Battlefield will be quite familiar with this mode, which works as an open-ended type of game, and it’s one that devotees truly recognize. Back in November, Criterion producer Pete Lake noted that the mode was a possibility, but it depended on community demand.
Apparently, the demand is there. When a fan by the name of HypergamerMk2 asked about the possible debut of the mode in Battlefront – or a variation of it, at the very least – Brannvall noted the team was looking into it.
Nothing was confirmed mind you, but he did say that DICE is “definitely working on satisfying that request,” and the developer is more than aware that fans want it.
In addition, Brannvall was asked about possible customization options for the game, which were once again confirmed but not given any sort of release date. An upcoming playlist based on The Clone Wars is also being worked on, but, again, not yet dated.
Finally, the progression system was discussed, as some fans were wondering if loot crates would be dropped entirely and the option to just buy content would be available. Brannvall simply noted, “We’re working on an overhaul of the progression system,” although EA has made it known in the past that it intends to bring back Microtransactions to the game,although it hasn’t given a time frame for that just yet.
We’ll have to see what happens over the next few months, but hell yes, we’ll take a Conquest mode. Make it happen.
Star Wars: Battlefront II is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Origin PC.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 didn’t age as well as I had thought it did. What I remember as chaotic scenes of blaster fire are now revealed to be smooth landscapes filled with simplistic AI. Previously thrilling space battles are rote exercises in destroying the same weak points against the same backgrounds, time and time again. “Heroes” are slippery creatures with underwhelming abilities whose sense of power was projected by my young mind’s amazement at being Luke Skywalker.
I’m not the only one playing the original Star Wars: Battlefront 2 in 2019. A recent Games with Gold promotion brought the game into the digital libraries of every Xbox Live subscriber. Battlefront 2 seems to keep finding ways to reach new audiences, whether that’s the backwards compatibility of Xbox One, or GOG updating the PC version with online server support. Unlike othergames I’ve written about for Polygon, I’m not discovering an underrated game from the past. But I am taking off my own rose-tinted glasses and finding something far more interesting than an undisputed classic.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2, flawed though it may be, gave its players a taste of the future as resilient as the game itself, and it’s all thanks to the Galactic Conquest mode.
How to compete (when you don’t have the time)
It’s important to recognize the context surrounding the development of Star Wars: Battlefront 2. The first few releases by its developer, Pandemic Studios, features prominent real-time strategy elements near the twilight of the genre’s heyday in the early 2000s. That and, uh, the baseball game Triple Play 2002.
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Pandemic then launches Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2002, which is a vehicle-based licensed tie-in that puts players right in the heart of the action. The studio wouldn’t release another game until 2004, but the results are stunning when they do.
Full Spectrum Warrior, the original Star Wars: Battlefront, Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, and Destroy All Humans!were all released between the beginning of 2004 and the end of 2005, and each one is special in its own way. Battlefront 2 itself is released a mere 14 months after the first, in November of 2005.
A sub-14-month development cycle is absurd for a game of this scale, even without considering issues with releasing post-launch updates on console at the time, the physical sales pipelines, or the need to press a master disc well before the release date (on top of the other factors).
The developers of Star Wars: Battlefront 2 added starship combat, with the ability to land inside the enemy capital ship and fight on foot, in less than 14 months. They added playable Star Wars heroes, characters you could only spawn as computer-controlled units in the original game, in less than 14 months. They added an objective-based campaign mode with voice-overs, you guessed it, in less than 14 months.
Given this perspective, the design of the original Galactic Conquest mode for the first Battlefront and its update in the second seems like necessity as much as genius. How are you supposed to compete when you have so little time, and single-player campaigns of all shapes and sizes dominate the landscape? You have all of these Star Wars assets, but how do you make a replayable experience outside of the nascent online multiplayer community that was only beginning to grow on console?
Galactic Conquest is the answer to all those questions.
A theater stage, not a sandbox
Galactic Conquest is a turn-based, modular campaign mode. I choose a scenario set in a significant era of Star Wars conflict and drop into a star map occupied by two factions. Both factions have one, or several, capital ships they can move around the map, as well as a number of planets they currently control. Controlling a planet gives me a certain number of credits each turn, which can then be spent on temporary battle bonuses — like regenerating health — constructing a new fleet, and buying new unit types for my army’s permanent use.
They added an objective-based campaign mode with voice-overs in less than 14 months
I can move one capital ship in a turn, which initially feels restrictive. Reaching a single enemy planet could take three turns or more, depending on my route. Three turns in which nothing ostensibly happens, as I slowly move my proxy from one place to another.
But then I have a realization: The emptiness has a purpose. Something is happening.
Galactic Conquest is a context-generation machine. I’m not playing as an army, or even a commander. I’m playing as the march of war itself. Inevitable, trudging war, which switches from drawing battle lines across the stars to personally thumping blaster fire into Kashyyyk defenses in a moment.
A planet I leave open to attack on the razor’s edge of neutral space transforms into bait — the first step in a brilliant tactical feint. A set of white nodes that happen to be occupied by my ships turns into a blockade. Buying a bonus that drastically reduces the integrity of enemy vehicles while my forces desperately need ground support makes perfect sense, because the next time I meet my enemy I plan to do so in space.
Play transitions to a typical battle view when I reach an enemy planet or encounter another capital ship. Whether in space or on the ground, me and my AI companions attempt to complete objectives under shifting circumstances, both sides deploying bonuses in a competition for survival.
The scale of these conflicts doesn’t quite compare to those in my memories, but the tangible, instantly understandable consequences remind me why I love the game. A single battle results in a divvying of credits that impacts my continued strategic moves on a galactic level. Losing a fleet is crippling, because a capital ship is a defensive measure as well as an offensive one. They are both threat and promise fulfilled.
What separates this from a typical campaign is the sheer amount of potential content left aside. My role as the Actual Embodiment of War only needs the barest of scaffolding to work effectively — any more than that strangles the conceit.
Planets get one-line descriptions, as do soldiers and bonuses. The starting point of my chosen scenario is given a 15-second explanation that frames the conflict, and I’m conveniently left alone for my remaining hours on the map.
Ea Star Wars Battlefront 2 Galactic Conquest
Think of the mode as a stage more than a sandbox; you get a background, a box of props, some costumes, a crowd of panicked extras, and a piece of paper that says “Disney owns all of your intellectual property going forward.” Instant fun!
As a game developer, I can’t emphasize enough how brilliant of a production gain this mode represents. A replayable game within a game, built almost entirely from existing assets without feeling cheap or repetitive? It’s a virtual miracle, not least of all because of the time in which it arrived.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 Galactic Conquest Release Date
Fidelity has an escalating, exponential cost that touches every part of a title. A dissonance emerges if I increase the detail of my 3D art, but the animation remains at a certain level. Making some dialogue options in a choice-based game arbitrarily inconsequential compared to others begs certain questions that, if I don’t have justifications, can invoke resentment.
The basic polygonal battlefields of Star Wars: Battlefront 2 work in its favor here. Everything in Star Wars: Battlefront 2 exists at a level that evokes its sources, but can’t quite replicate them, thus the success of its minimal, emergent prompts and hooks.
I genuinely don’t know what Galactic Conquest would look like today. However, I am fairly certain that the basic template presented by Battlefront 2 in 2005 would feel jarring if shoved wholesale into the 4K detail of its modern incarnation. The original makes the best of what it has, which is part of why it’s so special.
The developers of the Galactic Conquest mode looked forward, creating something that exists and is enhanced by its own limitations, intentionally or not. In the process, they also set a standard many other games now follow.
Modular, structured game experiences outside of the typical level-and-cutscene concept are becoming quite common in AAA titles. Dragon Ball FighterZ has a campaign mode with a series of node-based strategic map battles given a context in the multiverse. Ditto for the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate “World of Light” campaign, which substitutes single maps for a sprawling isometric world, and replaces bacta tank bonuses with the harvested spirits of beloved characters. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare applies its AAA bombast to its own modular galactic campaign filled with optional content, bonuses, and storytelling moments.
I can call on a small army of growing examples that use a mixture of unique content and repeatable structure to drive emergent single-player content, with Battlefront 2 as an early entry among them. In certain respects, with its short-form runs and permanent consequences, you can even see Galactic Conquest as a roguelite, which is yet another common genre today.
I wouldn’t lay the development of these genres and modes at the feet of Star Wars: Battlefront 2, however. Each game approaches this challenge differently, and the umbrella of what constitutes a modular or replayable campaign is too wide to note a single inspiration for all of them.
Regardless, what Pandemic accomplished still resonates today. Emergent storytelling, playable fanfic maker, and production-friendly content generation all in one delicious licensed package, there hasn’t been anything exactly like Galactic Conquest since. Download gta 5 para pc. It’s easy to see why people remember the mode so fondly.
They got a taste of the future in 2005, and they want that feeling back.