‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ is Changing Multiplayer Completely

It’s fair to say that 2015’s Star Wars Battlefront was, well, an underwhelming experience for most players. Luckily, the sequel, which was announced during the Star Wars Celebration in Orlando earlier this year, is going to make some major changes. As Electronic Arts revealed ahead of E3, instead of sticking to a simple multiplayer formula this time around, the development teams at DICE, Criterion, and Motive are working to flesh out Battlefront II’s content offerings with the addition of a single-player campaign, reworked progression systems, and a completely new class system fans can enjoy regardless of their preferred way of play.

EA gave prospective gamers a closer look at what’s coming in Battlefront II’s multiplayer towards the end of its EA Play presentation, showcasing roughly 30 minutes of live footage while answering common questions about the game’s development. Naturally, there was a lot to unpack, which is why we’re here to help. Here’s a breakdown of everything coming to Star Wars Battlefront II’s multiplayer, and why each major change is so important from a gameplay standpoint.

The Introduction of Battle Points

In Star Wars Battlefront, players had to run across the map and locate special pickup tokens to unlock some of the game’s most powerful vehicles, characters, and weaponry to use against the enemy team. These tokens spawned in certain locations on each respective map with timers, which meant that if you were hoping to sneak in some time as Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker you’d have to sit next to a token and wait for it to be available for pickup.

To solve this problem, Battlefront II is bringing a new system called Battle Points to the game. Whenever a match starts you won’t have many to spend, but as you kill enemies and complete objectives with your team you’ll earn more and more – allowing you to purchase reinforcements like droid starfighters, AT-RTs, enhanced units like the B2 super battle droids, and heroes such as Darth Maul whenever you respawn.

Classes Are Coming Back

While Battlefront experimented with the idea of an open system where players could essentially play with whatever weapons they wanted, Battlefront II is taking a step back towards a squad driven combat experience revolving around four unique classes. Now players will pick to play as Assault, Heavy, Officer, or Specialist with each subsequent respawn, which each have differing roles on the battlefield.

Assault is your standard frontline character, armed with blaster rifles and a deadly shotgun. You’ve also got Heavy, which are built for fire support with rapidly firing blasters, defensive shields, and explosives. Officers are lightly armed with pistols, but provide valuable buffs to nearby teammates and can deploy gun emplacements your squad can use. Then there’s the Specialist, who’s designed to use longer range weaponry like sniper rifles accompanied by traps.

Heroes Have Been Redone

Heroes are obviously a massive part of every Star Wars experience, and Battlefront II is looking to improve upon the relatively basic system from the original game. This time around you won’t be unlocking heroes by picking up a token on the battlefield, you’ll unlock them using the game’s new currency called Battle Points at the respawn menu. Once you’ve picked your favorite hero, you’ll then spawn on the map as usual

What’s more is that each hero available in Battlefront II is now built to fulfill a specific role, meaning that they feel less like an invincible force and more like a strategic unit who can work with the new classes to push objectives. Now, Boba Fett won’t simply be able to wipe out entire rooms without using cover or his jet pack, and Darth Maul can’t just run into a room of 12 players swinging his lightsaber aimlessly without being taken down.

Downloadable Content Will Be Free

One of the biggest problems with Star Wars Battlefront back in 2015 was that the community was constantly separated due to the introduction of paid downloadable content maps which continued a year past release. This prevented older members of the community from playing with their friends who just picked up the game, and didn’t allow new players to truly enjoy the experience without being barraged by those with more unlockables.

Now, with the release of Battlefront II, DICE is determined not to make the same mistake again – which means that every piece of downloadable content released for the game will be free, including all new maps and game modes post-launch. As you might expect, you’ll still be able to pay to boost your progress in-game per usual, but the important thing is that you won’t be encouraged to drop $50.00 for a season pass on day one. This decision will more than likely keep a unified player base throughout the game’s lifespan, and prevent the separation issues of the original Battlefront from kicking up again.