"Allow me to introduce you to Stan, Michelle and Zane, three very different gamers. After spending multiple hours playing Battlefront, they have differing opinions about Battlefront for a diverse set of reasons. Which one can you most relate to?
Meet Stan. Stan is a hard-working guy who is totally focused on providing for his wife and two kids. Gaming used to be Stan's main hobby, but as his career and family has grown his gaming time has dwindled to a few limited hours per week (if he's lucky). Stan is also a massive Star Wars fan, never passing up the chance to watch one of the movies with his kids (who are also major fans) or to talk about the lore with his co-workers. When he first saw Battlefront's commercial a few months ago, he immediately became ecstatic about playing in his favorite Star Wars battles like in many of the older Star Wars games he remembers fondly. After picking up an X1 and getting started in Battlefront, Stan can't stop playing Battlefront when he does get his precious game time. He appreciates how easy it is to pick up the game and play. When Stan tried some of the popular shooters in recent years, he quickly grew overwhelmed at the various weapon perks, progression paths, challenges, etc., and loves that it has all been streamlined in Battlefront to be a simple list of unlockable weapons, in-game Star Cards and basic appearance options. One of his favorite things about Battlefront is that it's so easy to grasp he can play with his kids -- giving him a few extra hours each week to play his favorite mode, Walker Assault. There's no question in Stan's mind he made a great and fun investment. He and his family will be enjoying Battlefront for the foreseeable future.
Meet Michelle. Michelle is an unashamed gamer, spending multiple hours each week on her PS4 in addition to other hobbies and her day job. While Michelle's game library consists of a variety of genres, she is no stranger to Shooters and regularly enjoys a decent KDR in Battlefield and Call of Duty. Being someone who grew up on Star Wars, she instantly remembered her fun early gaming days of Battlefront I&II on PS2 when she first read about DICE developing a Battlefront re-boot. She was excited, yet cautiously reserved, knowing the recent rocky trend of Shooters being Multiplayer-only focused with developers awkwardly balancing a $60 game with Season Passes/DLC. Still, she played the Battlefront Beta and was pleased with the simple gameplay. So pleased, she pre-ordered and continued to enjoy the full game upon release. While Michelle is comfortable with and can get wrapped up in the deep progression and customization of Shooters like Destiny and Call of Duty, 2014-2015's constant release of Shooters makes her find Battlefront's barebones approach very refreshing. She appreciates the arcade-like feel, and her past experience with Shooters made her quickly excel among other players online. Still, after a few hours she has a few concerns. Michelle doesn't like how there are only a few maps in the biggest modes, Supremacy and Walker Assault, despite there being 12 maps advertised and only more accessible on the smaller game modes. In addition, though she found several of the smaller modes like the Domination-esque Drop Zone and Heroes vs. Villains to be a blast, some of the other modes felt like tacked on derivatives with not much depth. Despite her concerns over the content being light compared to other recent Shooter releases, Michelle has no doubt she'll put 30-40 hours into Battlefront easily, even if it doesn't end up as her favorite Shooter of 2015.
Meet Zane. Zane's only hobby is competitive gaming. He owns a PS4, X1 and a gaming PC that he frequently enjoys playing Counter Strike and Battlefield on. He has been in a competitive clan for a number of years that regularly practices multiple days (if not everyday) each week. Zane likes Star Wars, but isn't a major fan. He remembers loving the original Battlefront games, and upon seeing DICE's gameplay progress on the game, Zane instantly became skeptical. He felt it looked way too accessible, and he was very angry that DICE would alienate Single Player gamers by not including a complete Single-Player campaign. When the Beta came around, he only played a few hours before writing it off. There wasn't enough progression. There wasn't any deep way to customize your loadout, and Zane hated that if your blaster overheats you don't have a true Secondary to use in tight situations. Have I mentioned he felt he died too easily? Zane admits a skill gap is present, but it's not as precise or competitive as CoD or CS. When Battlefront released, he borrowed a copy from a friend and felt the same way. Engagements felt the same. Zane felt DICE really screwed the pooch on the amount of maps for the bigger modes. He was very happy to get back to his clanmates and wrecking kids in Black Ops 3, never looking back at Battlefront.
-----
I hope you enjoyed my review and felt one of the above gamers were ones you could relate to in a way that shares your feelings on the game or will help in your decision to buy or not buy Battlefront. DICE built a multiplayer game that is designed to appeal to everyone, being as accessible as possible. By nature it will put off highly competitive, "hardcore" gamers.
My review focuses on MP as I have not played any Survival Missions yet. Will update this when I get a chance to do so."
Amazon.com: Star Wars: Battlefront - PlayStation 4 (Digital Code): Video Games
