EA and DICE have been busy with Star Wars Battlefront II today. Not only is it launch day, but they’ve been scrambling to put out fires and clean up the damage created by the discovery that some popular heroes like Darth Vader would take an insane 40 hours to unlock. To their credit, the issue was quickly addressed and locked hero costs have been drastically reduced.
In the press release detailing the changes to hero costs, they also added an interesting tidbit regarding the free Battlefront II single-player chapters that will be releasing on December 5 (alongside new characters and maps for the multiplayer).
WARNING: Mild spoilers follow for the conclusion of the Star Wars Battlefront II campaign.
Titled Resurrection, the single-player DLC will have three additional missions that immediately follow the conclusion of the campaign’s epilogue chapter. This will put the campaign parallel to both the events of Episode VII and VIII, which makes sense given the tie with the first season of free additional content and the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
We also wanted to share a quick note…on the Star Wars Battlefront II single-player DLC, Star Wars Battlefront II Resurrection. The DLC features three new chapters of Iden’s story and picks up after the campaign’s epilogue. In Resurrection, Iden is on a quest to search for her missing husband, when she stumbles across a First Order conspiracy that crosses paths with both Star Wars The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi film timeline.
Though we haven’t officially released our Star Wars Battlefront II review yet, we thought very highly of the story. Here’s a quick sneak peak of what we thought about the campaign.
New to Battlefront II is a dedicated single-player narrative campaign. For all intents and purposes, the campaign is Star Wars Episode 6.5. Though it focuses on Iden Versio as an Imperial commander and what she goes through following the destruction of the second Death Star, her path crosses with many other familiar characters, occasionally providing a chance to play as them. I was expecting a lackluster side story that barely touched on the greater canon, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a compelling narrative arc, distinct characters, and a story that is wholly Star Wars through and through. One particular scene shows the exceptionally Nazi-like regime of the Empire from the inside and creates a pretty fascinating confrontation for the characters involved.
Iden and the other members of Inferno Squad are far from two dimensional characters, and each interaction with well known players from the Star Wars canon feels like meaningful moments rather than fan service. The central lore of the Skywalker saga is so central to the Battlefront II campaign that I would not be surprised to see elements seeded here that come to fruition in the Episode VIII and IX films. Despite being on the shorter side of shooter campaigns–taking me only five hours to run through on normal difficulty–the production values are impressive and show that the single-player was not a tacked on addition just to appease fans. It’s a legitimate piece of the Star Wars fiction. It will also be further expanded through additional story chapters released free with future DLC content, yet another impressive piece of EA and DICE’s content release plans.
Are you excited for more Star Wars Battlefront II campaign missions?
