First details and screenshots on Star Wars Battlefront have come out of the Associated Press and Game Informer.
The game, developed by Battlefield studio DICE for a November 17 release across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, will focus on shoot-outs between up to 40 players portraying the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire forces. The AP cites a demonstration of the game’s multiplayer mode, which showed “a team of jetpack-equipped rebels were shown carving their way through the woodsy Endor while Stormtroopers charged at them on foot, on speeders and within walkers, including a hulking AT-AT war machine.” Players will be able to switch between first and third-person viewpoints at will.
Other locales teased for the game include the snowy Hoth, sandy Tatooine, and lava-spewing Sullust, which was first reference in the 1983 movie Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
Players will be able to become characters such as the bounty hunter Boba Fett and the Sith lord Darth Vader himself on the battlefield.
“You can storm in as the Dark Lord himself,” design director Niklas Fegraeus told the AP. “You can wield a lightsaber. You can Force choke the rebel scum, which is fun. Basically, you are the boss of the battle. This means that you, as Vader, can lead your team to victory — if you play well.”
In addition to ground-based battles, players will also take to the skies with TIE Fighter, X-Wings, and Millennium Falcoms in air-based dogfights. According to the AP, “the developers were coy about how battles would alternate between ground and air combat.”
Executive producer Patrick Bach told the outlet, “We wanted it to feel authentic to this universe. You can get into these vehicles, from speeder bikes to X-wings, TIE fighters, AT-STs, AT-ATs. There’s a wide range of vehicles that we wanted to realize. The difficulty with a game is that they need to be balanced with the troops on the ground.”
There will be a single-player mode called “Battlefront Missions,” but according to Game Informer, “it sounds like it will be the same battles from the multiplayer experience with different missions layered in.”
On December 8, EA will release a free downloadable level for Battlefront set on Jakku, the desert planet showcased in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie’s teaser trailers. Pre-orders will get it a week early on December 1. The add-on is dubbed “Battle of Jakku” and will explore the moment following Return of the Jedi when the New Republic confronted Imperial holdouts on the Outer Rim enclave, which is unseen even in the new movie.
Game Informer’s preview is much more in-depth than AP’s, on which this post is based, so be sure to check out their write-up for further information.
The above screenshots are also available at the gallery.
A trailer will be released later today. (Update: Watch the trailer here.)
