Star Wars Battlefront II Beta Early Review

Star Wars Battlefront II has offered up it's beta version for early users.  I was a big fan of the first Battlefront that came out a couple years ago, so I was one of the first to pre-order and play the beta version.  It's a kick in the pants.

There are two glaring obvious changes when you first start playing the beta version.  It has to do with different classes of soliders or ships, and the vast improvement to the star fighter situation.

Let's start with the character classes.  When you play multiplayer you can pick a different class each time you spawn, and they all have unique abilities.  This is very similar to Battlefield 1 and how it works.  You then are put into a squad and you all score points together if you play together.  The more points you earn, the more vehicles and weapons you can unlock.  This is a great improvement over it's predecessor.  It's nice to have some control over what vehicle you can use, besides just trying to get lucky finding a power up somewhere on the map.  Bravo, Battlefront II.

Now let's get to the best part:  star fighter multiplayer.  In the first Battlefront, I was very disappointed in the fighter squadron multiplayer.  It felt like an after though that they added to the game.   Improvements were made with the Death Star add on, but it was still lacking what it could be.  With Battlefront II, they've made it great.  You have more options of classes, and you can even fly a Y-Wing bomber.  That's fun!  The ships handle drastically different, so there is a learning curve.

They've also finally figured out a decent targeting system for dog fighting.  The old auto lock on targeting system was revamped already once with the first Battlefront, introducing the targeting computer cool down.  (I hated that).  Now it's simple.  You lock on if you want to shoot a torpedo, otherwise you can shoot manually at a guided cross hair that leads your target.   It's nice to be able to shoot manually and not completely blind.

The maps for the ships are far more complex and immersive.  There are now orders to follow and targets to defend or attack in order.  It helps you play with the team, and once again you earn more points if you stay with your squad mates.  Oh, and you can fly in and out of ships with lots of structures, which will really get you to learn how your ship handles early on.

To sum it up, I love it so far.  I can't wait for the full release next month.