Star Wars Battlefront Beta: First Impressions

Yesterday I managed to snag a Star Wars Battlefront beta key for some early access beta (thanks to @asd81_) and needless to say, I've never played a game like it.  I wasn't exactly sure what to expect and I'm glad I didn't, because it was incredibly fun and exciting!

There's currently a multiplayer and a story type mission, but I have only jumped into multiplayer at this time so I'll provide my first impressions on that as I only played for a few hours yesterday.

Firstly, the max rank is only 5 and you're very limited on the blasters you have.  You also have star cards which you can use for your hand, with a total of 3 cards (one being an energy card) you can roll into battle.  My typical load out after getting to level 5 was using the heavy blaster along with a grenade, jet pack, and a personal shield.  However, in the first game I played, it was similar to hard point from Call of Duty.  A pod would appear on the map, you capture it and then defend it against the opposing team.  There's no super awesome or interesting things about this, it seems like it's just a warm up that you do until about level 5 when you're ready to go to Hoth.

Once you reach level 5 you're able to unlock all the items without having to worry about points or credits for the most part.  So I reached that point with ease and went into the bigger 20v20 match.  This match was much more intense as there was ground troops, X-wings, Tie Fighters, AT-AT's, AT-ST's, and even heros!  That's right, the Imperial forces had Darth Vadar, and the Rebels had Luke Skywalker.

All over the map there are power-ups around.  My usual first choice was a ship so I could fly around, take down enemy ships, and provide some ground support as I shot fiercely into clusters of troops from the opposing team.  The power-up system is simple, you run over one, hit L1+R1 and you're off.  Well unless you get shot while trying to call in your ship which happened more times than one.  But when I did manage to get in a ship it was incredible.  The system for flying was so much fun that it's all I wanted to do the entire time.  As soon as someone managed to shoot me down, I was finding the first power-up to give me another ship to get back into the sky's.

Of course I participated in the ground troop action where our objective was to either activate (Rebel) or deactivate/keep the transmitters off (Imperial).  Now, I'm typically use to an FPS with guns that shoot bullets.  I'm talking guns that will shoot a lot of bullets which travel at an extremely high velocity.  So as I'm trying out this beta, I can't help but get frustrated when I'm shooting and the blaster continues to shoot behind someone.  This is due to the speed or velocity at which the blaster round moves.  I'm told it's something I will get use to, but it's very frustrating and difficult to adapt to on the fly with no prior experience.

Either way, I would say it was a blast (pun intended).  I managed to get plenty of kills, and learn a lot about how the spawning system works.  Typically spawning isn't too bad, until the hanger on Hoth.  Feel free to check out my Twitch stream from the other night to see certain times where it's just a massacre.  But all in all, it was a ton of fun and I was extremely impressed.  Not only was I impressed by the game play and how authentic it felt being a Star Wars game, but the graphics were just amazing even on the PS4!

Now the open beta actually starts on Thursday which isn't even a full day away at this point, so I hope you're excited, because you're going to have a lot of fun if you like Star Wars, or shooting people with blasters, or flying, or force choking Rebel scum.  Today I plan to play some of the mission/story mode to see if it's any good, and then I will be jumping right back into multiplayer to get back into the amazing aerial acrobatics you can do while flying!

Overall first impression: this game is amazing but I probably won't buy it.  Would I recommend it to someone who would play it, yes.  However, I will most likely not be purchasing the game because there's too much else to play.  I will more than likely be playing Fallout 4 while waiting for Rainbow Six | Siege.  But if you like Star Wars and were looking forward to the game, I can promise you will not be disappointed!

Please feel free to leave a comment, like, or share this post with your friends or family.  Until next time, may the force be with you!