Star Wars Battlefront Review Round-Up

It feels like everyone is going completely gaga for Star Wars lately, and a big part of that is down to EA and DICE’s relaunch of the Star Wars gaming universe, with Star Wars Battlefront. Sure, The Force Awakens is looking very promising and will hopefully do enough to satisfy fans of the films, but only in videogames such as this can you step into the boots of a Stormtrooper, don the robes of the Emperor and do battle across a variety of classic locations.

With a beta test in the not too distant past, it’s time for the reviews to roll out and see how the game has fared in the eyes of the critics, starting with our own.

TheSixthAxis – 7/10

“Undeniably, if you’re a Star Wars fan, Battlefront remains one of the year’s most essential purchases – and you can probably add an extra point to the score below – but you will have to rely on, and invest in, DICE’s future plans for it to be an experience you’ll return to time and time again.”

Destructoid – 6/10

“Star Wars Battlefront feels authentic in many ways, but that authenticity is aggressively pursued at the cost of gameplay, and is often tacked-on. If you’re in the mood for a relatively shallow shooter with caveats you likely won’t be disappointed, but I wish that DICE had a little more time to polish it and add more substance.”

Polygon – 8/10

“This in a game where you crest a frozen ridge on the surface of Hoth and see a thousand lasers turn the sky into a disco and an AT-AT into scrap metal. If a little of the fat has to be trimmed for more people to have that experience, then blaster holes for bullet points seems like a fair trade.”

Gamespot – 7/10

“If nothing else, Star Wars Battlefront is an exercise in pure spectacle, laid out in all of its neon glory. I can’t help but smile when the Boba Fett guns down three fighters in a row from his Slave I ship, or a snowspeeder careens past with flames trailing in its wake. The first 10 hours are packed with these moments, and it’s worth playing just to watch them unfold.”

GamesRadar – 4/5

“A beautiful recreation of Star Wars, and a solid if simple shooter. This is a game you’ll love intensely albeit for a short space of time.”

Metro – 8/10

“It’s not the ultimate Star Wars game, it doesn’t do anything revolutionary for the online shooter genre, and it’s certainly not very deep or complex. But it is an enormous amount of fun. Which seems perfectly fitting considering the movies it’s based on.”

Giant Bomb – 3/5

“There’s a whole lot of Star Wars seeping out of every pore of Battlefront, and no amount of forced fan service took away from the fact that some moments in this game reminded me of the many things I love about the film franchise. […] Battlefront initially checks all of the boxes for being a great Star Wars game, but its limited amount of content and lack of meaningful progression kept me from wanting to return for more than a brief visit.”

God is a Geek – 8.5/10

“At its core, Battlefront is a great shooter. Add in a perfectly crafted Star Wars dressing and an impressive amount of cinematography and you have my favourite multiplayer shooter in years. Accessible, well made and full of really, really cool moments, it’s hard not to love it.”

Videogamer – 7/10

“Star Wars Battlefront, then, is one of the best experiences of the year, if only for a short while. Completionists may stay with it to unlock figures for the in-game diorama which shows how many challenges you’ve completed, but others will find their interest has waned long before that. Too limited in its maps and modes to keep people hooked, it will nevertheless provide enough fun to jump onto once in a while, hear that famous score and maybe take down an AT-AT. Those who wanted a Battlefront III, however, will have to wait a little while longer.”

IGN – Review in progress

“Star Wars Battlefront captures everything I love most about Star Wars. It’s playful and imaginative, driven by a sense of adventure and fun above all else. By embracing this, and improving on the classic original Battlefront, developer DICE has made almost exactly the Star Wars multiplayer shooter I’ve always wanted. The catch is that this revival comes with baggage, and doesn’t always know what to do with itself.”

Eurogamer – Review in progress

“In modes like Supremacy – a spin on Battlefield’s staple Conquest mode – and Walker Assault, a 40-player rumble that’s the perfect meeting point between Star Wars fan service and DICE’s trademark all-out online warfare, there’s a happy symbiosis. Elsewhere, though, the simplicity of Battlefront sits less easily with the appetites of a modern shooter audience, where the pared-down gunplay and systems are chewed up and spat out without providing much in the way of satisfaction.”