Star Wars: Battlefront‘s reveal trailer has shot it into the spotlight during the past few days. That spotlight is not as positively charged as EA was hoping for. Instead of its hype mimicking that of the The Force Awakens, it’s become an object of skepticism and sometimes scorn among gamers.
Related: Everything We Know About Star Wars: Battlefront
As much as I’m willing to give Star Wars: Battlefront the benefit of the doubt, after watching its reveal trailer a few times I feel that my perception has a much more negative tone than I would have ever thought. Below I’ll go over seven reasons I’m not yet sold on the game.
7 Things Star Wars Battlefront Doesn't Have That It Should
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Campaign Less
If you were to ask me why I love Star Wars so much, I would reply "story" without hesitation. This is why the lack of a campaign in Star Wars: Battlefront is so troubling to me. This will be the very first Star Wars game to land on current-generation consoles, and we won't be able to experience the universe properly. Star Wars: Battlefront is also the first new Star Wars game to be deemed "canon" by LucasArts following its announcement that virtually all previous games have been labeled as inconsequential.
On the plus side, there will be an offline mode where you and a friend can team up against. It's a small move that ensures it won't suffer from the same online-only problems as Titanfall.
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Fully destructible environments
When I hear the word Battlefront I think of lasers whizzing by, stormtroopers, and big explosions. Given that the game runs on the Frostbite 3 engine, the same one as Battlefield 4, you'd think that it would have fully destructible environments. But it doesn't. Instead, only select portions of each level can be destroyed. I wish I were kidding.
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Properly large-scale battles
Star Wars: Battlefront is a large-scale, epic multiplayer shooter. Apparently that means 40 player capacity. So, within its "huge" maps you will have 20 versus 20. As we learned from Battlefield 4, that number doesn't exactly evoke a feeling of large-scale combat. 64 would have been a much better number.
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A pure Star Wars vibe
I don't think anyone can shake the feeling that the reveal trailer felt much more like Battlefield than it did Star Wars. Unless something drastic changes, I am expecting the vibe to be that of a Battlefield game wrapped in a Star Wars skin. After playing Battlefield: Hardline, this makes me sick to my stomach.
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Space battles
Few AAA games allow you to take to outer space, and if there were one that would benefit most from it that'd have to be Star Wars: Battlefront. Space combat is an important part of the movies, and should be an important part of its first AAA game on current-generation consoles. Sadly, it's been confirmed that space battles will not be a part of the game, not even in DLC.
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Fully controllable vehicles
Star Wars has some of the most thoughtfully crafted vehicles of any IP. Casual and hardcore fans alike want to be able to pilot these vehicles just like in the movies. Sadly, several of them are being designed to run on rails, including the gargantuan All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT). This vehicle will predictably move in a linear and predictable fashion as the opposing team works together to bring it down. It sounds like it would get repetitive after the first time playing.
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A proper gameplay trailer
I'm baffled that the reveal trailer didn't include a large portion of direct gameplay. Instead, we were treated to what was obviously a pre-scriped, film-like trailer that gave virtually no indication of what the game will be like to play. This will change at E3 when a proper gameplay trailer is put on display, but for now I can't help but feel that EA isn't confident enough in its product to show what it's really like.
