E3 2015 - Star Wars Battlefront Hands On

There was no doubt that Star Wars Battlefront would take a large portion of Electronic Arts Press Event and for good reason, it's a game that many people are looking towards. But the one thing that I was concerned about was if it was as fun to play as it was nice to look at.

I was lucky enough to be able to play the game at E3 and while my time with the game was brief it was long enough to get me excited for the full release. We were given no details of what to expect when we sat down, on went the headphones and I picked up the controller and I started playing and I got lost so fast. The game through so much at me at once, firstly the visuals are amazing, the snow under my feat left foot prints behind me and it would fall from rocks as explosions went off around it.

I was on the rebels side of the conflict, I had a nice blaster and while there is no looking down the scope, you can pull the left trigger for a more focused view. The fun comes in when you pick up bonus abilities through the match, there were holographic rebel symbols around the map, that when collected, if you pressed the bumpers or L1/R1, you could activate it, for most of the time I got a rocket launcher, but there was one time I scored a Snowspeeder.

Piloting the Snowspeeder was pretty straight forward, though unlike past Star Wars games, there was quite a challenge in using the tow cable, when you are close enough the prompt to activate it appears and then if you are still close enough and it connects you then need to start flying around in circles to ensnare the AT-AT, which is where the hard part comes into play.  Flying around was pretty simple,  but you still need to be aware of the enemy all around, some will shoot at you with their blasters, others with rockets and then there are those in Tie Fighters.

The game was chaotic and fun, so much so that I almost completely ignore the objective of keeping the uplink enabled, I turned one on once, but died soon after so I never bothered again. I had more fun going around, using the jetpack for jumping long distances and then blasting the empires soldiers. The game has a battlefield essence, which is understandable given its developer, but there is no question it is more Star Wars, from the sounds of the weapons and vehicles to the chatter of the members of your squad. Even the explosions are more movie like than anything, a lot of sparks and very little fire, just like the movies.

My team lost in the end, but I somehow came first, I was even praised by one of the developers for the score I had obtained, which made me smile and while I did not get the chance to play as one of the hero characters, I still had a lot of fun.

If the entire game shows as much attention to detail and care about everything placed into the world, Star Wars Battlefront could be an amazing gaming experience, though the lack of story might hurt it, the co-op missions might just do well enough to cancel that out. November is going to be a busy month for games but I know Battlefront is going to lead the charge for me.