STAR WARS Battlefront II is DICE's take on the big-screen battles of all three trilogies, from the clone armies of Geonosis and Kamino to the walkers on Hoth and the snow of Starkiller Base. Up to 40 players fight as era-accurate troopers, pilot walkers and speeders, and step into the boots of heroes like Darth Maul, Han Solo and Kylo Ren, while a single-player campaign tells a story the films never did. Everything DICE added in the game's free updates, including the Clone Wars maps, Capital Supremacy, Co-Op and the Battle of Scarif, is part of the game.
Iden Versio and Inferno Squad
The campaign opens minutes before the second Death Star explodes over Endor. You play Iden Versio, commander of Inferno Squad, an elite Imperial special forces unit that is equally at home in a TIE fighter cockpit and on the ground with a blaster. As the Empire executes its final orders and the Rebellion becomes the New Republic, Iden has to decide what her loyalty is worth, and the answer plays out across thirty years of galactic history, bridging Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.
Along the way the story hands you the controls for Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo and Lando Calrissian in missions built around each of them, and it visits Naboo, Sullust, Takodana and Jakku from a perspective the movies only hint at. It is a tightly written few evenings of Star Wars that stands on its own even if you never touch multiplayer.
Forty players, three eras
Multiplayer is where Battlefront II earns its name. The maps and rosters are split faithfully by era, so a prequel battle means clone troopers against battle droids under a sky full of Republic gunships, while a sequel-trilogy fight puts First Order stormtroopers against the Resistance. The main modes include:
- Galactic Assault - the flagship 40-player mode, an objective-driven push across a map's most recognizable ground. Attackers escort an MTT through Theed or breach the shield generator on Hoth while defenders hold the line.
- Capital Supremacy - a free-update mode that starts as a ground battle for command posts and ends with the winning side boarding the enemy capital ship to blow it up from the inside. It became the go-to large-scale mode after launch.
- Heroes vs. Villains - eight players, all heroes, no troopers. Lightsaber duels and blaster showdowns between the likes of Yoda, Darth Vader, Rey, Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, General Grievous, Anakin Skywalker and Count Dooku.
- Ewok Hunt - a night-time round on Endor where a few Ewoks stalk a squad of stormtroopers through the forest, and every trooper who falls respawns on the Ewok side. Tense, funny, and unlike anything else in the game.
Four trooper classes (Assault, Heavy, Officer and Specialist) cover the basics, and Battle Points earned in a round unlock reinforcements, vehicles and heroes mid-match. Ride a tauntaun across Hoth, drive an AT-ST into a Rebel trench, or drop in as a Wookiee warrior when your side needs a push.
Starfighter Assault, rebuilt from the ground up
Space combat was redesigned for this game with its own handling model, weapons and customization, and it feels nothing like the ground modes. Twenty-four pilots split into fighter, interceptor and bomber classes, then chase objectives through an asteroid field over Ryloth, the Imperial shipyards at Fondor, and the skies above Kamino and Endor. Hero ships including the Millennium Falcon, Slave I and Poe Dameron's X-wing are unlocked in-match, and the whole thing builds toward taking down capital ships one system at a time.
Make the heroes and troopers your own
- Star Cards
- Every trooper class, reinforcement, hero and starfighter has a set of Star Cards that modify its core abilities: longer-lasting shields, faster cooldowns, extra damage on a lightsaber rush. You earn and upgrade them by playing, so a well-built loadout is a mark of time spent, not money spent.
- Appearances and emotes
- Troopers and heroes can be dressed in different Appearances, from clone legion markings to Luke's Bespin outfit, and given emotes and victory poses to show off at the end of a round. Credits earned in matches unlock them at your own pace.
- Progression that rewards play
- Since DICE's 2018 overhaul, progression is linear and tied entirely to playing the unit you want to improve. Level up your Heavy by playing Heavy, level up Darth Maul by playing Darth Maul, and the Skill Points you collect go straight into that unit's cards.
Play with friends or on your own
Co-Op puts four players against waves of AI in the large-scale modes, complete with heroes and vehicles, which makes it an easy way to learn a map before jumping into PvP. Arcade and Instant Action let you set up battles against AI entirely offline, with the same trooper, hero and starfighter roster and the same progression, so the credits and cards you earn solo carry into online matches.
If you have ever wanted to hold a trench on Hoth with 19 other Rebels, fly a Y-wing through a Star Destroyer's hangar, or find out what happened to the Empire's best after Endor, this is the game that lets you do all three. Pick a side and get on the battlefront.
