What Happened to the Star Wars Battlefront Series?

Image from Pandemic Studios on Steam

The Star Wars Battlefront series is beloved by many people, me included. I remember playing the originals on the ps2 a lot as a kid. The games could easily be replayed and the campaign in the second game was great. Then EA got the rights to Star Wars games and remade them. They received very different reviews than the originals. Without further delay let’s take a look at what happened to the Star Wars Battlefront series.

Star Wars Battlefront

Star Wars Battlefront was developed by Pandemic Studios when George Lucas still owned Lucas Arts. Star Wars Battlefront has highly favorable reviews with a 82 Metascore and a 8.7 user score. These scores are from the ps2 version. This game was a unique Star Wars experience letting players choose from several modes such as Campaign, Instant action, and Galactic conquest. The campaign starts with the Clone Wars where you play through a smaller scale story of the Clone Wars battling against the Separatists. Each battle takes place on a different planet and they have separate objectives to complete. There is also another campaign which is the Galactic Civil War between the Rebels and the Empire. Where the game truly shined was Galactic Conquest. In this mode you chose a faction such as Separatists or the Republic. You choose planets to attack and can buy bonuses to help your troops in battle. When attacking a planet each side has a set number of troops around 250. At the start you choose a command post to spawn at and choose a class for example a regular storm trooper with a rifle. Each side also has heroes like Obi-Wan Kenobi or Darth Vader that you can control if you get enough kills. This game also had split screen local multiplayer. Below is some game play from the listing on Steam.

Star Wars Battlefront 2

After the success of Battlefront 1, Pandemic studios developed Battlefront 2. This game improved upon the original by having updated graphics as well as new heroes that you could play as. All the game modes from it;s predecessor carried over to this game. The biggest added feature was space battles. You can choose from several different ships and leave your flagship to engage your enemies in combat. If you were feeling courageous you could fly into the enemies flagship and disable certain features from the inside like shields, or if you’re more cautious you can attack from the outside.

Battlefront 2 has a 84 on Metacritic and a user score of 9.0. This is for the ps2 version. Things looked good for the series, but Battlefront 3 never reached consumers. Below is some game play of Battlefront 2.

What Happened Between the Originals and the Remakes?

Between the originals and the remakes came the acquisition of Lucas Arts by Disney in 2012. Disney would soon give EA exclusive rights to make Star Wars games the following year. The first game from EA using their new found rights was a reboot of the Star Wars Battlefront series. This would mark a notable shift for the series as EA doesn’t have the best reputation when it comes to games fans love, just look at what happened to Banjo-Kazooie.

Star Wars Battlefront Reboot

When EA announced that they were rebooting the series I was excited as it had been years since Battlefront 2. A whole console generation passed since the last game. My excitement was quickly gone after playing the game. I have never played such a bare bones game before. The original games had several different modes to choose from while this reboot had missions or online multiplayer. They should have made it an online online game as their was essentially no single player content to explore. The best thing about the game was the graphics. The score on Metacritic sits at a 73 with a user score of 5.1. These scores are from the ps4 version. This is a far cry from how the original did on when it came out. This is a trend that continues to their Star Wars Battlefront 2. A word of warning for the footage below, this video is not representative of the final product that was available to players. I have no recollection of the cut scenes such as Darth Vader and Han Solo fighting being present in the game.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Reboot

This game saw the return of a campaign mode and unfortunately due to game issues I did not finish. I enjoyed the brief return to a more story driven experience in the Star Wars Universe. The error I experienced while playing was a constant stuttering and freezing of my game. It wasn’t a disk error as I had the game digitally. Other than the campaign the only other single player content was the same bare bones experience from the first. What both reboots lacked that made the originals so beloved was the Galactic Conquest mode mentioned earlier. The original games had multiplayer but still had a good amount of single player content so one didn’t feel forced to play online. The score on Metacritic sits at a 68 and has a user score of 1.5. This is from the ps4 version. This game has the worst score out of them all.

What Happened

What I believe happened that ruined this series was EA and their trend of micro transactions. If you aren’t familiar with EA they always try to find ways to add micro transactions into a majority of their games. The way they were going to be implemented in Battlefront 2 was completely ridiculous, forcing you to spend over 100 hours for one character or buy them. These micro transactions did not sit well with the community and the scores reflect that. I do believe that EA made these games look amazing, but that’s about it. Their monetization practices sucked any life that was left out of this franchise. They stripped the series of what made it truly great in the eyes of many. Now that any company can make Star Wars games only time will tell if we will see this series rise from the ashes.

Conclusion

Bear in mind that despite my criticisms I am not telling you that you should feel one way or another about these games. If you liked them or hated them that’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. As always thank you for taking the time to visit and read my post. What do you think caused the decline in the scores for the Battlefront series? Let me know in the comments below.