BattleFront II

***Star Wars Battlefront II*** is a first- and third-person 2017 action-shooter video game published by Electronic Arts and developed by EA DICE, Motive Studios, and Criterion Games that features content from the prequel, original, and sequel trilogy eras from the *Star Wars* universe. The sequel to the 2015 video game *Star Wars Battlefront*, *Battlefront II* was released worldwide on November 17, 2017.

New content was regularly added to the game in monthly game updates after launch. The first major update overhauled the game's progression system, which upon the game's release was widely criticized online for forcing players to spend real-life currency to unlock characters and items in a reasonable amount of time. Later updates added playable characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, new maps like Geonosis, new game modes, as well as new cosmetics for players to equip on their characters. On April 2020, it was announced that the live-service team at DICE, which was responsible for supporting *Battlefront II*, was moving on from the game and that no new content would be added.

A permanent digital edition of the game, titled *Star Wars Battlefront II:* Celebration Edition, was released on December 5, 2019. The edition instantly unlocks all of the game's customization content, excluding a select few cosmetics tied to milestones or pre-order bonuses. Normally, all customization content would have to be unlocked by earning Credits in-game or optionally purchasing Crystals.

## History

### Pre-launch

The sequel to EA DICE's reboot of the *Star Wars: Battlefront* series was announced during an earnings call by EA's CFO, Blake Jorgensen, in May 2016. The game was announced to feature content from "the new movies" with "bigger and better worlds."

*Star Wars Battlefront II* was officially announced at Star Wars Celebration in April 2017. The first trailer was shown at the event, giving glimpses of the Imperial-focused campaign and multiplayer battles across different eras (Clone Wars, Galactic Civil War, and First Order–Resistance war) as well as space and air battles, confirming that all three *Star Wars* trilogies would be playable in both ground and space.

Shortly after the reveal, Bernd Diemer, Creative Director of *Battlefront II*, suggested that the game may not feature a Season Pass, sighting a desire to keep the community whole. In regards to what would replace the Season Pass, Diemer stated that DICE would have "something different in mind that would allow [players] to play longer." This was later revealed to be post-launch content seasons, where all players would get access to new DLCs for free.

Mark Webster, executive producer of *Battlefront II*, announced on April 15, 2017, at Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Florida, that the worldwide release of the game would be November 17, 2017, with those who pre-order getting the game three days early, and those with EA Access on November 9.

At EA Play 2017, the first multiplayer gameplay trailer for the game was unveiled, along with a livestream featuring the new mode Galactic Assault on the new planet Naboo. It was also confirmed that post-release content would be free, starting with the *The Last Jedi* Season. The new content, which would include heroes Finn and Captain Phasma and a new planet, was to accompany the release of the new movie *The Last Jedi*.

On the 5th of October, it was announced that players on PC, Xbox, and PS4 would have the chance to test out the game in *Star Wars Battlefront II*'s official open beta. The beta was downloadable on the 6th of October and was originally intended to end on the 9th of October, but due to the large number of people participating in the beta and providing feedback, EA extended the end date to the 11th of October. In the beta, players had the opportunity to play Galactic Assault on Naboo, the new mode Strike on Takodana, as well as get a glimpse on the new Star Card system.

#### Loot box controversy

On November 9, some players who were subscribed to EA Access began to complain about the game's progression system after being able to play the full game early. They criticized the prevalence of loot boxes in the game that was not apparent in the beta, and especially criticized how loot boxes were closely tied to multiplayer progression. Players also expressed displeasure with the absurdly high cost to unlock heroes because of the apparent length of time it would take to acquire the needed Credits. Some players interpreted these game mechanics as a ploy by EA to have players spend even more money on the base $60 game in order to skip the "grind." They voiced their frustration on social media and internet forums, such as Reddit, calling the game "pay-to-win" and equating the game's predatory loot box system to gambling. Many were concerned of the addictive nature of loot boxes and their presence in a game heavily marketed towards children.

As more posts about the game's loot box system circulated, various news outlets started covering the story, amplifying player's concerns. The strong negative reaction to the game's loot box system sparked government investigations into the mechanics behind loot boxes and the danger they posed to young children. Eventually, EA issued a statement on Reddit in defense of *Battlefront II*'s loot boxes and high cost of heroes, but the statement became extremely controversial and only generated even more negative press about the game and the company and industry as a whole.

Eventually, EA announced in a blog post that the cost of heroes would be significantly reduced. On the eve of the game's worldwide release, EA also issued a statement saying that microtransactions would be disabled until further notice, helping to mitigate the effects of using real money to get ahead in-game. These microtransactions were eventually re-enabled several months later when the loot box system was largely removed in the Progression Update.

### Reception

*Star Wars Battlefront II* was released worldwide on November 17, 2017 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Origin on PC.

At launch, the game received mixed reviews, with most of the praised elements of the game being overshadowed by the loot box controversy. IGN gave it a 65/100, calling the game "beautifully detailed", but noted that its campaign felt "disjointed" and the progression system "one of the worst." Polygon scored the game a 7/10, describing the campaign feeling "rushed" but praised Janina Gavankar's portrayal of Iden Versio. Forbes gave the game 5/10, praising its gameplay, graphics, and sound design, but bemoaning the progression system.

The game received massive, widespread criticism for its loot box "pay-to-win" progression system and for certain heroes being locked behind in-game credit paywalls that took a long time to unlock. Shortly before the game launched, DICE lowered the cost of locked heroes as well as disabled the ability to purchase loot boxes with the game's microtransactions currency in an effort to mitigate the impact of loot boxes on progression.

### Post-launch

#### *The Last Jedi* Season (December 2017–January 2018)

The first season for *Battlefront II*, *The Last Jedi* Season, began three weeks after the game's release and featured content inspired by the movie *The Last Jedi*. Beginning December 4 and ending January 14, the season allowed players to side with either the Resistance or First Order and complete faction-specific challenges to obtain Loot Crates with special rewards. The second week of the season saw the release of two new heroes and one new hero ship: Finn, Captain Phasma, and Tallie Lintra's RZ-2 A-Wing; three new campaign missions; as well as two new maps, Crait: Abandoned Rebel Outpost and D'Qar: Resistance Base Evacuation. No new content was released for the remainder of the season, but faction-specific challenges and special map playlists continued to appear every week until January 14.

Small content updates followed after the end of Season 1. The 1.1 Patch released on January 16, 2018 and added Abandoned Rebel Outpost, previously limited only to Galactic Assault, to the Blast map rotation. Additionally, Iden Versio's TIE/ln Fighter was added as a hero ship for the Dark Side, increasing the amount of Dark Side hero ships available in Starfighter Assault to five hero ships.

In February 2018, the 1.2 Patch added the game's first limited-time mode, Jetpack Cargo. A twist on the original Cargo mode from the first game, Jetpack Cargo has all players spawn as an Aerial unit as they try to score a point for their team by delivering Cargo to the enemy team's side.

#### Progression system overhaul (March 2018)

The release of the 2.0 Patch, also known as the Progression Update, in March 2018 marked the complete removal of Loot Crates affecting multiplayer progression. The update introduced class-specific XP and Skill Points, allowing players to level up any class or hero by simply playing as that class or hero. Additionally, in the same update, the Credit requirement to unlock heroes was removed, allowing any hero to be played right away. The update also added the planet Bespin to multiplayer with the addition of the map Administrator's Palace.

In April, the Night on Endor Update brought with it the game's second limited-time mode, Ewok Hunt. Set on a slightly changed Survivors of Endor map from *Battlefront*, Ewok Hunt allows players to play as an Ewok as they hunt down a team of Stormtroopers trying to survive their night on Endor.

#### The Han Solo Season (May–June 2018)

The second season, The Han Solo Season, began in May and ran until June in conjunction with the release of the film *Solo: A Star Wars Story* and included the new planet Kessel, the return of Jabba's Palace from *Battlefront*, the return of the mode Extraction, the new mode Hero Showdown, the new hero ship Lando and L3-37's *Millennium Falcon*, and new younger Appearances for Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and Chewbacca based on how they appear in *Solo*. A month later in July, the new Hero Starfighters mode was added, allowing players to play as their favorite hero ship.

#### Clone Wars content (October 2018–September 2019)

At EA Play 2018 in July, the first set of new content based on the Clone Wars, which had been heavily requested by the community, was finally unveiled with the first roadmap, and a month later in August, DICE announced that seasons were being dropped in favor of monthly updates and introduced the first clone trooper Appearances.

In September 2018, the Squad System Update overhauled the squad system, allowing players to spawn on each other in permanent squads. During this time the first sets of Community Calendars and roadmaps were released.

The series of Clone Wars content, starting with the General Grievous Update, was released from October 2018 until September 2019 and included new heroes General Grievous, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Count Dooku, and Anakin Skywalker, the new planets Geonosis and Felucia, the new game modes Capital Supremacy and Co-op, the return of the mode Instant Action, the new TX-130 vehicle, the new Infiltrator reinforcement class, the new ARC Trooper, Commando Droid, Droideka, and Clone Commando reinforcements, and a plethora of new Appearances for the Republic clone troopers, Separatist droids, and heroes.

#### *The Rise of Skywalker*, Age of Rebellion content, and end of support (December 2019–May 2020)

In August 2019, DICE announced that focus was shifting towards the other eras starting in October starting with a rework to Ewok Hunt in the Another Night on Endor Update. This includes new content inspired by *The Rise of Skywalker* featuring new reinforcements, a new planet from the film, and the first few reinforcement Appearances.

While the reinforcement appearances - those pertaining to Clone Wars reinforcements - arrived with The Celebration Update, released at the same time as the *Battlefront II* Celebration Edition, new content from *The Rise of Skywalker* arrived with The Rise of Skywalker Update, released the same week as the film itself.

The first two months of 2020 were dedicated to the Sequel era; new content included the expansion of Capital Supremacy and Instant Action to the sequel era, and the new heroes BB-8 and BB-9E.

A Community Transmission confirmed that new content from the Galactic Civil War will come to *Battlefront II* very soon, including the expansion of Supremacy and Co-Op to that era, and the return of Scarif from the first game; the latter planned for March.

The new Age of Rebellion content arrived with The Age of Rebellion Update, and the introduction of that era to Supremacy and Instant Action, along with Scarif, arrived in the Battle on Scarif Update in April (originally scheduled for March).

The Battle on Scarif Update, released April 29, 2020, was the last major content update for the game.

While the Battle on Scarif Update was the last major content update for *Battlefront II*, the last update for the game coincided with the May 28th Patch and the alteration of the special events in the game to follow a rotation.

On May 9, 2020, the former community manager of *Battlefront II*, Ben Walke, said on the *Star Wars Battlefront* Subreddit Discord, that a small patch in May is planned, which includes fixes to bugs, and tweaks to the Old Master milestone to make it easier to achieve.

On June 11, 2020, the Celebration Edition version of the game was released on the Steam platform, alongside the first game.

On August 26, 2020, a patch was released with further bug fixes.

On January 14, 2021, the Celebration Edition of the game, alongside the first game's Ultimate Edition, was released on the Epic Games Store, and as part of the Epic Games Store's weekly free game initiative, *Battlefront II* was made free for the first week of its availability.

Around October 2021, a supposed glitch has been reported that makes all players - including AI - in a game immortal. There was not much information of the error, only that damage can be caused to the opponents up to a maximum of 1 HP and that it is still possible to eliminate enemies by crushing them with vehicles. At the beginning it was only visible this glitch in Heroes vs. Villains but it spread to bigger modes such as Galactic Assault; this glitch also occurs in the Co-Op game mode. Suspicions were centered that it would be a group of hackers but there is nothing confirmed yet. In addition, DICE and EA had not given a statement of what happened to date, until this statement was released on the *Battlefront* subreddit, confirming the team is looking into a fix. The glitch/hack has been fixed as of February 2022; the changes are located here.

## Gameplay

### Singleplayer

#### Campaign

*Main article: Campaign of Star Wars Battlefront II (DICE)*
The campaign of *Star Wars Battlefront II* follows Iden Versio, commander of Inferno Squad, an elite Imperial special forces unit. Upon witnessing the destruction of the Death Star II, Versio's squad members look to her for direction.

The campaign spans thirty years, beginning in the waning months of the Galactic Civil War and concluding around the destruction of Starkiller Base.

There are also segments in the campaign where players can play from the point of view of characters other than Iden, such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and Kylo Ren.

#### Arcade

Arcade allows players to play against AI bots across most maps in the game, either singleplayer or co-op, and does not require an Internet connection. Modes in Arcade include:

* Custom Arcade
* Battle Scenarios
* Tutorial

Split-screen gameplay is only available on the console versions of the game.

#### Instant Action

Added in the Cooperation Update, Instant Action, named after Pandemic Studios' Instant Action, is an offline singleplayer game mode set throughout all three major *Star Wars* eras, which allows players to battle in Co-Op and ground-phase Supremacy matches with and against AI troopers, reinforcements, heroes and AI-controlled vehicles. Like Arcade, Instant Action does not require an internet connection.

### Multiplayer

Unlike the previous game, this installment includes four playable classes: Assault, Heavy, Officer, and Specialist, each with different strengths and weaknesses. As players progress through a match, they accumulate Battle Points, which can be used to spawn as reinforcements: special units, vehicles, and even heroes.

#### Progression

At launch, progression was largely randomized; while blasters and blaster mods were, and still are, unlocked by accumulating kills in-game through milestones, players could collect Star Cards through Loot Crates, which were purchasable with both in-game Credits and the game's microtransactions, Crystals. Additionally, Star Cards could be crafted by choice through Crafting Parts which could be found in Loot Crates.

Due to its massive controversy, however, microtransactions were disabled at launch and the progression system was entirely redesigned, with the new progression system released in the 2.0 Patch. Progression is now linear; players earn Skill Points for each class by playing as that class in-game and leveling it up, earning one Skill Point each time the class is leveled up.

Skill Points can be used to unlock and upgrade Star Cards for that class. Skill Points are also unlocked for reinforcement classes, including heroes and vehicles. Crystals can only be used to purchase cosmetic items, such as appearances, which can also be purchased with in-game credits.

Loot Crates are now only used to reward credits and cosmetics. As of the Cooperation Update, Crates only existed within skin bundles; some time after The Rise of Skywalker Update, weapons and their attachments, alongside customization options, was made obtainable only through Crates.

Two types of Star Cards exist: Boost Cards which are used to upgrade certain abilities or elements of a class or hero, and Ability Cards which are used to swap out abilities with other abilities. Only the four trooper classes have Ability Cards.

#### Modes

*Main article: Game mode*
Game modes are divided among three main categories: Supremacy, and Heroes and Villains, and More. Since the Another Night on Endor Update, Co-Op Missions is a separate game mode, originally part of the more category. Co-Op Missions can currently be found in the "play" menu alongside multi- and single- player.

In addition to the permanent game modes, some game modes are only available for a limited time and are on rotation with other limited-time modes, swapping out with them periodically; they can be found under More.

Supremacy:

* Age of the Republic
* Age of Resistance (added in the BB Update)
* Age of Rebellion (added in the Battle on Scarif Update)

Heroes and Villains:

* Heroes vs. Villains
* Hero Showdown (added in The Han Solo Season)
* Hero Starfighters (added in the Hero Starfighters Update)

More:

* Galactic Assault
* Starfighter Assault
* Strike/Extraction (Extraction matchmaking merged with Strike in the Cooperation Update)
* Blast
* Ewok Hunt (added in the Night on Endor Update)
* Jetpack Cargo (limited-time; added in the 1.2 Patch)

Co-Op Missions (added in the Cooperation Update):

* Galactic Republic
* Separatist Alliance
* Resistance (added in The Rise of Skywalker Update)
* First Order (added in The Rise of Skywalker Update)
* Rebel Alliance (added in The Age of Rebellion Update)
* Galactic Empire (added in The Age of Rebellion Update)

## List of content

### Maps

*Main article: Maps*
Maps are based on planets that appear in all three cinematic eras of *Star Wars*: the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, and the First Order–Resistance war. Nearly the full size of the maps are playable in larger game modes such as Galactic Assault while sections of the larger maps are playable in the smaller game modes such as Strike.

Some planets also feature more than one map, some of which can only be played in smaller modes. Space and high atmosphere maps are separate and can only be found in Starfighter Assault. Most of the maps are also playable in the offline modes Arcade and Instant Action; in the latter's case, all maps that are introduced into Supremacy will be available there.

**Prequel trilogy era:**

* Geonosis (added in the Battle of Geonosis Update)
	+ Trippa Hive
	+ Pipeline Junction West (added in the Capital Supremacy Update)
	+ Separatist Dreadnought (added in the Capital Supremacy Update)
* Kamino
	+ Cloning Facility
	+ Research Outpost (space map)
	+ Republic Attack Cruiser (added in the Capital Supremacy Update)
* Kashyyyk
	+ Kachirho Beach
* Naboo
	+ Theed
	+ Palace Hangar
* Ryloth
	+ Lucrehulk Battleship (space map)
* Felucia (added in the Cooperation Update)
	+ Tagata

**Original trilogy era:**

* Bespin (added in the 2.0 Patch)
	+ Administrator's Palace
* Death Star II
	+ Command Sector North
* Endor
	+ Research Station 9
	+ Death Star Debris (space map)
	+ Ewok Village (only in Ewok Hunt)
* Fondor
	+ Imperial Shipyard (space map)
* Hoth
	+ Outpost Delta
* Kessel (added in The Han Solo Season)
	+ Coaxium Mine
* Scarif (added in the Battle on Scarif Update)
	+ Scarif Beach
* Tatooine
	+ Mos Eisley
	+ Jabba's Palace (added in The Han Solo Season)
* Yavin 4
	+ The Great Temple

**Sequel trilogy era:**

* Ajan Kloss (added in The Rise of Skywalker Update)
	+ The Klosslands
* Crait (added in The Last Jedi Season)
	+ Abandoned Rebel Outpost
* D'Qar (added in The Last Jedi Season)
	+ Resistance Base Evacuation (space map)
* Jakku
	+ The Graveyard
	+ Resurgent-class Star Destroyer (added in the BB Update)
* Starkiller Base
	+ Command Center
* Takodana
	+ Maz's Castle
	+ MC85 Star Cruiser (added in the BB Update)
* Unknown Regions
	+ Resurgent Star Destroyer (space map)

### Weapons

More weapons are unlocked as a player accumulates more kills with a class. The E-11D, T-21, DL-18 and Cycler Rifle in particular can only be unlocked in Co-Op.