A hero out of the charts
The best time to enter an unpublished history segment in the full spectrum of the full saga is surely the one between Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi and Episode VII: The Awakening of Force, while the faction that has to tell it becomes the empire, kneeling from the death of Emperor Palpatine with the overwhelming victory of the rebels at Endor and the resulting destruction of Black Death.
Iden Versio, a talented commander of the Empire, Admiral Garrick’s daughter, and starred by the fascinating actress Janina Gavankar, becomes the protagonist of the offline campaign of Star Wars Battlefront II, a highly sought-after single player experience that fans combine a movie director a gameplay full of possibilities .
In the mission we tried we left on board a TIE fighter to defend Star Destroyer against a sudden attack of the rebellion, then infiltrate the enemy flag ship to destroy it from within. Available skills (such as drone use) make the experience fluid and enjoyable, while in some sections we even chose whether to stealth or launch into the melee against the full-fledged enemy.
It’s impossible not to notice the inverted parts: if the movies have used us to a bad goal by the storm trooper, the rebel fighters give them a twist when it comes to countering Iden, capable of knocking down an entire flagship ship alone with a simple blaster.
Apart from this detail (surely adjustable with the difficulty level) the continuity between gameplay and cutscenes is well-studied and immersive, while the promise of some missions at Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker’s commands make the hype rise even more.
Universal Chaos
At the level of the multiplayer of the first chapter, Star Wars Battlefront II responds with much larger maps and divided into three stages with different goals for each of the two factions. In “Assault on Theed,” the map we tried, we were given the task of defending the throne while our opponents were trying to break.
The battle system is based on four classes : Assault, the most balanced, Heavy, with heavy shields and heavy weapons, Officer, weak offensive but able to support the team and place towers, and finally Specialist, able to place traps and hit by distance with precision rifles.
By earning points in battle, you can unlock more powerful troops, drones or heavy wagons that are able to drastically change the fate of the battle, as well as hunters and heroes that come back with more and new abilities.
Action and adrenaline dominate all phases, but after the first round of killing back in the midst of combat often results in instant death, as the clashes in focus are gradually focusing on the same points and create skirmishes where the heroes of each faction throw out more opponents at a time.
Everything is based on timing in deploying troops and their ability to exploit them: To save Battle Points to call a hero could be too long-term tactics, and in any case ineffective since it can only be invoked one at a time, while playing at the most of the forces at all times.
The result, however, is aesthetically excellent, with blaster rays flaring the whole map while the heavens strike fights between hunting, not counting the heroes’ performance that really make the difference.
The new classes allow anyone to adopt their own style, while the equipment is the same as the single player campaign so you can immediately find your favorite weapons. Finally, star cards are enhancements to the equipment and skills that can be improved by accumulating experience points, from “common” to “epic” level, showing a true leveling system of online multiplayer.
