Star Wars: Battlefront Impressions: Learning to Survive or Die Together

Star Wars Battlefront

The new and upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront game is not only about Revel vs. Empire multiplayer battles, but much more. As it was revealed at this year’s E3, the game will have a cooperative multiplayer mode, this is where up to two players can work together to take on waves of incoming Stormtroopers. Shack News used their teamwork skills during the EA Summer Showcase in New York City.

During the beginning of the match the players get to pick out their equipment, like your main weapon and a star card. The star card will tell you what your special equipment load out is. The first is used for defensive play and also includes an Ion Torpedo that closes in on enemy vehicles like the AT-ST. The second card is for offensive players and it has the Barrage grenade launcher and Ion Shot. The Ion Shot temporarily enhances your blaster, which makes it more effective against other vehicles.

The scenario was, two Rebels crash landing on Tatooine and players must survive against incoming waves until help arrives to come get them. The area has tons of rocks and ridges for you to run or jump on and enemies have opportunities to come from all sides. This mode uses up to two players in either split-screen or online. You can also choose to play the solo mode. There isn’t very much to the mode, general terms. You and your teammate will have to stay alive while a huge number of Imperial forces come at you. There is always a certain number of lives that are shared between you and your partner.

Stormtroopers have some of the same gadgets that you have and some will run their personal shields as soon as they see you. Every now and then, you will have a certain task to do, like scanning a nearby drop pod for supplies. When you do successfully scan one, your character will receive a special weapon like calling in an orbital strike. The special weapons that you do get will carry over to the next wave.

During the final waves, AT-STs started to come out. Sometimes it can feel like the Ion Torpedo takes a long time to lock on and it can also take more than one shot to bring down the AT-STs. It seems that you will end up dying quite a bit, but you should eventually be able to survive all 10 waves.

The cooperative mode is more simple but the developers of the game are promising that more mission modes will be available. Each Survival match will have two Rebels fighting against ten different waves of Imperial Stormtroopers. If you play in co-op mode it will contribute to your characters progression.

Star Wars Battlefront will arrive on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on November 17.