The Star Wars Battlefront Beta ended yesterday, and according to EA, over 9-million people tried the game out during it’s availability. That’s a huge number of people. Considering how smooth the multiplayer experience was (mechanically speaking), I have no doubt that the day-one launch will go smoothly. Unless something dramatic changes in the meantime.

By Origin’s count, I spent 13 out of the Star Wars Battlefront Beta’s 120-hour life, in-game. I have a lot to say about the game, so I’m just going to jump right into the five biggest impressions that the Star Wars Battlefront Beta left on me.

 

1. The Sights and Sounds

This is really what everyone is talking about the most, so I’ll say the least: Star Wars Battlefront’s visuals look amazing and the audio effects are even better.

From the authentic Star Wars sounds of blaster-fire, TIE-fighters roaring overhead, even down to the muffled voices of stormtroopers, to the impressive visuals of blaster bolts exploding into bursts of sparks on contact, the heavy screen-shaking footfalls of an AT-AT, or the menacing red glow of Vader’s lightsaber off his obsidian armor, every single detail in Battlefront is spot-on.

Purists may complain as to some of the smaller details, like why Luke is wearing his Return of the Jedi outfit during the Battle of Hoth, but even I, a super-Star Wars nerd, was able to push aside these inconsistencies for the sake of having fun. I wasn’t about to let the fact that I watched a Rebel soldier melee Darth Vader into submission ruin the fact that I was having fun.

 

2. Up In The Air

While the new Battlefront doesn’t feature actual space combat (unlike Battlefront II, which did), air combat in Battlefront is still a big portion of the gameplay experience. You won’t be in outer space, but you’ll certainly be high enough in the atmosphere where you won’t necessarily have to worry about clipping the ground. Just watch the above gameplay trailer for an idea of what you’ll be working with.

With the Open Beta, I was given access to X-Wings, A-Wings, Snowspeeders, TIE Fighters, and TIE Interceptors to play with in the Hoth battle.

In Battlefield 3, flying jets was my forte. I spent almost as much time in the air as I did on the ground in most gameplay sessions. So I was very eager to check out air combat in Battlefront.

One of the first things I noticed was that the flying mechanics are really, really watered down. You can only control the movement of the ship with the mouse, which is pretty imprecise. F1, F2, and F3 are evasive maneuvers, so doing a barrel roll or corkscrewing away is as easy as tapping a button. When an enemy ship is in range, you can hold down the right mouse button and your aiming system will lock on and you’ll have some pretty lenient auto-aiming capabilities, never mind the fact that you can shoot guided missiles following a short lock-on sequence, as well.

While it is super casual, which goes along with the rest of Battlefront, there was one glaring issues that I just could not look past.

When you call in a ship, you’re stuck watching a sequence where your ship flies in and then you have a few seconds where you’re just watching your ship fly straight over the map, completely locked out of controlling it for whatever reason. It is cinematic, but it is also very problematic; the enemy ships are coming in straight at you from their spawn points. It turned out that about 90% of the time whenever I’d spawn in a ship when a player on the enemy team did, they would just fly straight into me as they held down the lock-on and spammed lasers and missiles.

I did not like flying in Battlefront one bit.

Hopefully it’s a design flaw on just the Hoth map. If that’s the case, I hope it gets fixed before the game releases.

 

3. Heroes Need Not Apply

The Hoth map featured Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker as the hero units for the two teams.

While it was certainly cool to prance around as Luke Skywalker and ominously trudge through the snow as Darth Vader, the heroes were woefully underwhelming. Unless you cornered a gaggle of enemy players in the hallways of Echo Base, fighting more than one opponent at a time was a chore since nearly every player was bouncing around with their jetpack. Needless to say, as the hero, you’re a walking laser magnet. The result of a hero entering the battle was like a bug to a bug zapper light: as soon as the Imperials saw that bright green lightsaber, that’s all they wanted to shoot at. Same for the Rebels and Vader’s bright red lightsaber.

When you have half the enemy team lighting you up, you don’t last very long until your hero runs out of health and you’re sent back to being a lowly grunt again.

On my best runs as a hero, I’d be lucky to get ten kills. If I was fortunate enough to find myself slashing through the traffic jam that is Echo Base, that number might double. Might.

There is nothing quite as satisfying as Force-choking a member of the enemy team, but when you drop dead thirty seconds after you walk out onto the field as the mighty Darth Vader, the heroic factor fades very quickly. By ten hours into the Beta I was already dismissing the presence of Vader and Luke…they were more of a bother, than a true threat.

 

4. I Don’t Know…Play Casual

Star Wars Battlefront is meant to be played casually. There will be times when the game just is ridiculous (like the Echo Base traffic jams) and times it will test your patience (the spawn system needs some adjustment; it’s too easy to get behind the front-line and pick off the enemy team who is spawning in, looking the other way), but you just have to remind yourself, you’re not playing Battlefront like you would Counter Strike, or even Battlefield.

Take your super intense FPS mentality, stuff it in an escape pod and launch it into the depths of space. This is Star Wars Battlefront, it’s going to be ridiculous and you’re going to die a lot. Just deal with it.

Because the game is so focused around just swarming wherever the front line is, sometimes it’s best if you run right at the enemy, firing like a madman, attempting to push the front-line forward a little bit. Sure you’ll die, but maybe the two troopers behind you will make it to cover and provide covering fire for more teammates to make it up to the front line.

Take a deep breath, you’re allowed to have fun.