Star Wars Battlefront II- PC

Love the game

I think this is a fabulous game and I read the MIN requirements. I thought that I had at least 8 GB of RAM … I have a pretty new desktop HP computer console. I also understood that there is NO REFUND option. With that said, it took quite awhile to download, then it wouldn’t run due to an AMD error. I researched this and the message said that I needed at least 18.1 for the graphics card. I have 19.1; however, upon having my computer repair guy check things out, I don’t even have the correct graphics card at all. So, although this is supposed to be an awesome game, and my grandson was so excited, it just wouldn’t work. My advice, be sure you UNDERSTAND all the MIN requirements, UNDERSTAND what your computer has, and probably have a ‘gaming computer’ and study what will run and what won’t on your computer. Sad, but it is my own fault for not checking further. Complex games are not for the faint of computer knowledge. 🙁

A beautifully rendered but deeply and fundamentally flawed game which provides an absolutely aggravating player experience. It is truly awful!!! After playing for a few days I am done. In many ways BF1 was a superior game, which is sad to say. Some of the biggest drawbacks are;

1) Progression & Loot-boxes- Each class has it’s own lengthy progression for weapons. This was clearly setup as a cash grab for loot-box slot machines which are amply discussed in other reviews. Even with the micro-transactions “temporarily removed” the entire progression system is fundamentally flawed. There are 3 types of crates; Trooper, Hero and Starfighter. Drops are completely random. In a Trooper crate you get Hero and/or Starfighter and/or duplicate upgrades. Why bother having different types of crates?! Additionally, crates cost 4000 credits and you earn about 200 per match. Do the math.
2) Weapons – Overall, weapons were vastly superior in BF1. It takes many hits to defeat another player yet only 1 for them to send you back to the loading screen. After about 3-5 trigger pulls expect your weapon to overheat and/ or lock for several seconds. This most likely results in death. Don’t expect to stay on target, ever… it’s funny how laser weapons which showed little to no recoil in the movies act like real life firearms. Plus, it takes 50, 150 or 200 solid kills to unlock mods or the next weapon. It literally takes days if not weeks to unlock a single complete weapon of which there are 3 per class.
3) Armor – There is none. If you play this expect to be constantly one shot killed while struggling to finish off another player. No armor upgrades are available. Expect to be insta-killed from behind or somewhere you didn’t see coming constantly.
4) Spawn Points & Squad Synergy – A challenge to any fast action shooter is spawn points. However, what makes it extremely aggravating is that several enemies will spawn a few seconds after you do and directly behind you. Plus, there is no squad communication and therefore no synergy whatsoever. It’s just everyone running around like a coked out squirrel at random hoping to flank an opponent and catch them unaware before the same thing happens to you.
5) Turrets – Slow to deploy. Slow to fire. Do minimal damage and frequently explode instantly when deploying. Useless!
6) Arcade mode (single player) – Really disappointed here. For a game touted as being 3x the size of BF1 I expected at least a dozen maps to choose from in single player mode. Nope there are just six and 2 are Force Awakens locations. No Death Star. No Hoth, No Bespin. No Endor. No Geonosis. Also, I expected several different single player game modes like Survival in BF1. Nope.
7) Multiplayer – Map randomization and limited modes. Want to play a dedicated game as the Empire? Forget it. Want to play on the Death Star? Don’t hold your breath. After 5 rounds of Galactic Assault I have yet to see an AT-AT. In multiplayer there is no ability to choose what faction or where you play. Once again, BF1 although very imperfect was superior in this respect. In Blast you frequently end up playing as droids vs clones in Theed palace. At least Jar-Jar isn’t there.
8) Load screens – There are numerous time consuming loading screens, timeouts and connection errors. Even returning to the main menu after cancelling the auto-continue of the current game mode takes excessive time and often results in connection error #327. On a i7, 64gb, 50mbps connection, it’s not my system that’s the issue.
9) Customization – The layout of the customization screen is quite poor requiring excessive navigation to get a complete view of your load-out and progress. The Ability and Boost (think Star Cards) selection is very cumbersome. This was yet another way in which BF1 was superior. Furthermore, other than class selection, there appears to be no way to select player or weapon skins, etc. Expect to be in a cookie-cutter format the whole time based on whatever faction is randomly assigned.
10) Play Testing & Corporate Greed – Clearly this game was not play tested or was only done in-house by EA/DICE. There is no way this game should have made it to market. Yet, EA did so to meet their holiday sales goals with an unethcial pay-for-play/win business model which treats players as an ATM. They use the exact same model they use with SWGOH! Personally, I am glad to see EA’s stock price took a significant hit due to this game and their subsequent response. Also, I am very proud of the SW fan community who has voiced their disgust of the rampant corporate greed which ruined this game.

What’s the point??? The whole point of the game appears to be a mind-grating grindfest of surreal frustration to unlock weapons / mods. And, even if you get them, so what? The inherent deficiencies do not go away with unlocked weapons. Unlike what EA says, there is no “sense of accomplishment” or enjoyment from playing this game only aggravation. It is not the “ultimate SW experience”. Overall, this game is incredibly shallow with little to no entertainment value. I am extremely disgusted how EA / DICE could take the wonderfully rich content of the 40 years of the Star Wars universe and largest global fan-base in the world and present this rubbish.

They did away with the loot-box system. And by that, I mean progression is in NO WAY based on loot-boxes anymore. You level up character classes as you play them, and loot-boxes, at least as far as I can tell, have no impact on gameplay.

The game is extremely well executed, with gameplay feeling fun and intense. It is fast without being overly twitchy, with each round consisting of multiple different levels of progression, meaning the objective changes as you play. Kills feel satisfying. Losses are much less frustrating than they are in other games, and with a few different modes of gameplay conducted along a variety of interesting maps, I assure you that it has become a very worthwhile investment.

I am one of the guys who was outraged by the innitial announcements about this game, but the bottom line is that their model has changed, not only in this game, but in Anthem, and other games coming down the pipeline. We spoke. They listened.

Bearing this in mind, I would venture a guess that most of the one-star reviewers had an ax to grind (and rightfully so). It’s a good game, though, much better than the game they announced. My advice is to pick this one up and have fun with it.