Battlefront 2 (2017) (Mainly the Campaign)

Happy New Year!

As usual, things have been pretty hectic so writing these posts have not been as frequent, however, I just made a list of things I want to get written before the end of January, either because I watched (or in this case, played through) them in January, or they're hold overs from Christmas Break. We'll see how many I get through but I thought I'd start with a relatively easy one.

Battlefront 2 came out in 2017 and is the second Star Wars video game to come out since the restructuring of Star Wars canon. In case you're not aware of what happened, when Disney bought Lucasfilms, they put out a blanket statement that the movies and The Clone Wars TV show were the only things that were considered canon and everything was moving over to Legends. I think this hit the video game community hard because a lot of the best stories of Star Wars outside of the films came from the video games.

Knights of the Old Republic, Jedi Knight, Rogue Squadron, and the Force Unleashed all created really rich characters in the Star Wars universe and those characters were beloved by fans. So for Disney to say that they weren't canon was a hit for fans so I think a lot of us were waiting to see what kind of video games they'd come out with.

Well the result was not heavy on story and instead they focused on an old reliable in the Battlefront reboot. It is an on the ground war fighter game that had very little story and just gets you back playing in the world of Star Wars. The first Battlefront was a fine enough game and people enjoyed it for a first go, but were definitely expecting something more in their next game. Well very quickly, EA released Battlefront 2 and this time it would have a campaign and was supposed to be a more expansive game then the first one.

The result was met with mixed reviews. There was a story, which I will get to, but it was very short, there was no return of the notorious Galactic Conquest, where it was less of a story and rather a giant military campaign across the galaxy. Furthermore, the game was disliked because of its loot crate system and its a ways by which you earned heroes and other elements of the game.

Personally, I waited for quite a bit of time to get this game because aside from a real story, it seemed like the same game. You play as foot soldiers in combat, you fight to win battles. It was good in Battlefront 1, there was nothing really new worth paying 60 bucks for. And then the news about the point system and the loot crates made me have no interest in this game whatsoever. When I finally got it (for a lower price), I figured out my worries were right and the game is pretty much the same. Aside from some new hero characters like Rey, Finn, and Keylo Renn, the game feels very much the same and if you have the first one, you have the second one already.

That is, except for the story.

The story has you take control of an Imperial special forces team starting just before the Battle of Endor during Return of the Jedi. You play as Iden Versio (voiced and motion captured by Janina Gavankar), the commander of Inferno Squad, an elite covert Imperial infiltration team.

Initially, Inferno Squad is tasked with carrying out a secret contingency plan of the Emperor in the wake of his death at the end of the Battle of Endor code named Operation Cinder. But after some time, the team realizes the evil of the Empire, changes sides, and joined the Rebellion in the battles leading up to the surrender of the Empire and the rise of the New Republic.

But you don't just play as Versio, you also play as some of the classic heroes from the original trilogy like Luke, Leia, Han, and Lando as they participate in battles leading to the end of the Empire. Part of why I enjoyed this campaign was because it incorporated stories that take place after Return of the Jedi that the films wouldn't be able to do unless they were willing to do them without Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford. These are the days and months directly after Return of the Jedi and portray these heroes while they're still young, bringing about the New Republic and squashing remnant Imperial forces.

I realize that a lot of those stories they're telling in novelizations and I guess it means I'll have to start reading some more, but there is something about a visual medium like a video game or a television show that I think could have been done a lot better.

There are politics and intrigue that could be portrayed in the lead up to the New Republic, factionalism in the crumbling Empire that this game really only scratches the surface of that could be amazing to see play out. I understand that Disney and EA probably thought that those stories in the direct lead up after the Return of the Jedi would be incomplete without characters like Luke, Leia, and Han, but I point to The Mandalorian in proving that belief false. Battlefront 2 is another example of how Disney is still not totally confident in their handling of the source material and they're not sure if we're going to like Star Wars properties unless they blast Luke, Han, and Leia at us. But even in their own game they're wrong about that.

Whether some of the character drama and their expansion of the Star Wars mythology was intentional or not, I really liked the utilization of Inferno Squad as an elite force of the Empire, even as its coming to the end. At the beginning of the game, Versio and her squad mates believe in the Empire and fight to keep it alive.

I apologize if its spoiling anything but its easier to discuss this game with no preconceived notions of spoilers, and there are still things I won't discuss that won't be spoilers, but the big one is that they eventually turn over to the Rebellion and help out. While I would have liked to see the opposite side of things and maybe put some humanity into the foot soldiers of the Empire just following orders or lied to by propaganda, it was good to have these characters see the errors of their ways and eventually fight side by side with the known heroes, even if it feels gratuitous at times.

Its interesting because at times, the game feels very much like it is well written and expands the lore of Star Wars, and sometimes it just feels like its checking the boxes to make it profitable and run parallel with the known story. In that way, it feels very confined in a world where business interests can't let it go too over the top. We can't let some of these imperial generals or commanders be too over the top because that might contradict the end goal of the empire finally falling at the battle of Jakku which they've set in stone. But again, I do find myself caring for Iden very much.

So much that it was fun to jump straight into her story 30-some years after the events of the first campaign into Resurrection, the DLC and continuation of her story. Something really funny of note before I go onto that is that I played these one after another and never really thought at any point they were going to connect to the movies because the movies had all come out and connecting it to a video game that not that many people played would be silly. But I guess there were some theories that elements of the new movies, notably Rey's parentage, would be connected to this game. That seems silly now, but I do understand that in retrospect, anything was possible, especially after The Force Awakens, which Resurrection takes place somewhat during.

And again, its half gratuitous, half well done. It has one foot in parallel with the events of the movies with a scene where you play as Kylo Renn, but a lot of it is focused on Iden and her daughter Zay, and when the story is centered on her and her fight against her former squadmate Gideon Hask (voiced and motion captured by Paul Blackthorne)

The game doesn't do anything in explaining the origins of the First Order (I guess that's all done in the books) but it incorporates them in and creates a pretty personal story surrounding this character you do get attached to, especially by this point in the narrative.

So much that I'm pretty bummed it seems like this story isn't being continued. Even though the story ends on a seeming cliff hanger of Iden's daughter being sent on a secret mission by General Leia herself, there doesn't seem to be any DLC that I know of in the works for a third part.

I imagine they may wait until The Rise of Skywalker is in circulation to incorporate the story from there, but even in the story that they have given so far, it just seems like none of this is planned, it just being winged.

Instead of letting artistic directors take the stories where they want to go, the video games AND the movies need to link up with a larger story that seems to be driven by producers and executives who want to make sure the world is consistent.

I don't believe there is a consistent story meant for Versio and her family because it is driven by the story of the movies and any deviation needs to be properly sanctioned because it goes into a vault of canon that is being securely monitored. I want to do a longer post about how this, not Rian Johnson or JJ Abrams, was the problem with the movies, but its a consistent problem of not having a consistent vision, and not understanding that the Star Wars universe is huge.

So is the Battlefront 2 campaign good? Sort of, but the parts where it is good, I don't think it truly knows it is or at the very least those elements are being underappreciated.

The most interesting parts of the story weren't just the fact that you got to play as Han Solo at Maz Kanada's bar for some reason, it was the relationships between Iden and her father, a hard line general in the Empire. It was discovering that even in death, Palpatine had a plan for his Empire (even if it was conceived before the executive big wigs at Disney knew Palpatine was coming back).

The most intriguing parts were when we were able to discover more of this expansive galaxy far far away and not be handcuffed by, "WELL WHAT ABOUT THE MAIN CHARACTERS".

I'll probably expand on this more in my overarching Star Wars franchise post, but the greatest part about The Rise of Skywalker is the position Disney is in that they no longer really have to be beholden to the existing properties anymore. They can go nuts and create movies that occur years before or after the existing movies. And I'll say it, they can even have movies that take place during the existing movies and never touch on the events of those movies because it is a GALAXY far far away. Its okay for two things to happen at the same time without those things affecting one another.

I'll talk about that a little more in my next Star Wars video game review, but the overall thoughts I have on Battlefront 2 as a whole is that I would not pay full price for this game. The game play is exactly the same as its predecessor and the story, while it has its moments of greatness, really handcuffs itself to corporate profit driven interests. I hope we don't get a Battlefront 3, not for a long time, and if we do, its really got to distinguish itself from the rest and bring something new, both in the regular game play, and the story. Otherwise, it just feels like EA is gouging us for money because we like the brand.

But those are my thoughts on Battlefront 2. What did you think? I'm interested in when you got the game. Did you get it from the start and watched it unfold, or did you do it like I did and played it when all the outrage calmed down? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films, TV shows, or video games I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!