Battlefront Beta

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

So it's out... who playing?

As you might expect, there's some balance issues in this early stage. Rebels really seem to struggle on the Hoth map; the game really doesn't afford the defenders any real advantage, while the Empire of course gets tons of goodies like AT-AT gunner time and AT-STs. I've only seen Rebels win once, and that was because of a last-second instakill with the tow cable on the last AT-AT.

The cycler rifle is stupid broken. Hyper accurate at long range or point blank, can 1-shot, goes through all shields, and causes heavy damage to vehicles to boot. I've been killed by it more than by actual blasters.

[Tribble]

So it's out... who playing?

As you might expect, there's some balance issues in this early stage. Rebels really seem to struggle on the Hoth map; the game really doesn't afford the defenders any real advantage, while the Empire of course gets tons of goodies like AT-AT gunner time and AT-STs. I've only seen Rebels win once, and that was because of a last-second instakill with the tow cable on the last AT-AT.

Well, the Rebels were at a severe disadvantage in the film, and they were only trying to hold out long enough for the transports to escape. Gameplay may be unbalanced if the Rebels literally cannot win at all, but it certainly shouldn't be even odds.

And speaking of the Hoth map, I'm pretty sure that a significant point about the battle was that it was a ground assault, and the movie went out of it's way to explain why- the Rebels needed their Starfighters to escort their transports, and the Empire couldn't send in anything until the shield generator was down. So it's kind of silly watching X-Wings and Tie-fighters battle while Y-Wings bomb AT-ATs, and Star Destroyers float overhead. And it looked to me like the Empire can call in orbital bombardments??? And what about taking out the shield generator - you know, the entire reason why the ground assault was launched? Did the developers even watch the movie before making the map?

Now I'm not expecting it to be 100% accurate, but I was kind of hoping for a recreation of the battle rather than it being a "generic battle map."

[Block]

Anyone can call in Orbital bombardments. It's how you win easily as the Rebels. You wait until the Y-wing strike and the orbital bombardment takes a good 60-70% off in one round. You just have to hunt for the powerup and be smart about it.

[Tribble]

Anyone can call in Orbital bombardments. It's how you win easily as the Rebels. You wait until the Y-wing strike and the orbital bombardment takes a good 60-70% off in one round. You just have to hunt for the powerup and be smart about it.

Yes, and I'm sure it's an awesome feature for 99% of the maps in the game. However, this is supposed about the Battle of Hoth. You know, the one where the Empire was forced to launch a ground assault because there was a shield generator preventing orbital bombardments? And how many Starfighters did we see participate in the ground battle? Zero.

I know this is nitpicking but the previous games depicted it a lot more accurately, it actually felt like you were in the battle from the movie rather than in a "generic snow battle".

[Ted C]

I have seen recordings of games where the Rebels have one. Air superiority seems to be the key. Keep the sky clear of TIEs so that Y-wings can attack the AT-ATs, and hold the uplinks to call in those air strikes. The Rebels really have to coordinate to win.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I was on a team that knocked out both walkers during the initial phase, so it definitely can be done.

At any rate, the beta is over, and there will no doubt be plenty of balance changes and tweaks for release.

[Gerald Tarrant]

Ditto on the seeing rebels pull it off. A very successful first stage seems to be the best indicator, rebels usually spawn within line of site of one of the AT-AT's on the first Y-wing checkpoint, meaning when the Y-wings come in almost everyone can be putting fire on a target. I had some good success hitting a walker with the ion grenade, it seems to do around 5% damage and has a quick cool down, so provided you can get to within throwing distance and be reasonably protected you can do some pretty good damage (kind of forces the rebels to control one side or the other).

My impression of the game was pretty positive. I've got a bit of a complaint about Hoth, those central hills become prime spots for camping and controlling the other sides spawn points, it's frustrating when it happens to you. I loathe the cycler rifle. Also, I wasn't happy with the fighter controls, maybe that'll get better. Finally, the drop pod map didn't feel Warsy at all, nothing jumped out and made me think Star Wars about it.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

The fighter controls definitely have a few issues, but the starfighter combat itself I found pretty fun. There's huge balance issues with the 4 fighters that were available (plus the snowspeeder, which is terribad), but, y'know, beta.

I'm pretty much in love with the game, and as much as I dislike EA and Origin, this one's a must-buy for me. DICE just absolutely nailed the Star Wars look and feel and sound. Can't wait to try the Endor maps and speeder bikes and all that jazz.