It was, according to Electronic Arts, the biggest beta test in the publisher’s history. Over nine million people turned out this week to try an early version of Star Wars: Battlefront, the online multiplayer shooter set for release on 17 November. Most came away with some fun stories and a few huge questions.
One thing pretty much everyone agreed on was that this game nails Star Wars. The recreation of Hoth is visually astounding, with its glittering snowscapes and bustling rebel base – and the design of the storm troopers, the guns and the spacecraft is near perfect. The audio too, is wonderful, capturing all the well-known sound effects, from the whine of a swooping Tie-Fighter to the almost mournful laser blast of the AT-ST walkers. There is also thrilling use of the John Williams score, bringing in the main theme at certain points and never failing to produce a rush of adrenaline and nostalgia.
“Star Wars – what’s bigger?” says Niklas Fegraeus, design director at developer Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment (Dice), speaking to us on the eve of the Beta’s launch. “One of the main goals of the game is to be a Star Wars experience – that’s a huge thing. The whole franchise is enjoyed by so many different types of people – of course we want to give them something to enjoy, we want them to be able to just jump into the game and have fun.”
This brings us to the key complaint coming out of the beta experience: that the combat is too shallow. The four available laser guns, though exhibiting different specs, all look and feel the same, and success seemed hugely reliant on levelling up and grabbing the better items, rather than learning the maps and figuring out how to coordinate attacks with teammates. Right now, the distribution of power-ups over the map surface, which give access to sentry guns, defence shields and other goodies (replacing the genre’s now conventional “kill streak” style rewards), takes away the usual rhythm and sense of progress within a bout.
Of course, what the beta also lacked was the character progression element of the full game, which will hopefully allow players to personalise their avatars with specific skills – perhaps along the traditional lines of medic, sniper and assault – thereby fleshing out the strategic play. But then Dice keeps stressing that this isn’t a Battlefield game for Battlefield fans, it’s a Star Wars game for Star Wars fans. In truth, as we mentioned after playing the game at E3, the dynamics of the combat do very much reflect the feel of the Battlefield series – just with many of the more complex load-out options, progression systems and tactical elements (like squads and commanders) removed.
Fegraeus assures us however, that there will be something there for the more dedicated gaming audience – though that does seem to come down to the breadth of game modes, rather than the depth. “It’s just this large palette of experiences very closely tied to iconic Star Wars stuff that you can play,” he says, “I think that gives not only a big appeal to a lot of people - that’s the intent, we want Star Wars fans to feel like this is something for them - but at the same time, if you’re an advanced player and you want to be very tactical or competitive or whatever, there are modes for that too. It gives you options and choices when it comes to what you want to play.”
There were two key multiplayer modes available in the beta: the snappy Drop Zone, set on the new planet of Sullust; and Walker Assault, the more in-depth 20 vs 20 conflict on the surface of Hoth. Drop Zone is a take on Battlefield’s standard Conquest mode in which teams compete to secure key areas of the map – except here, the areas are escape pods that drop on to the surface in random positions, forcing a much more fluid, improvisational approach. Also, participants set the capture process off by holding down a button, but they don’t have to remain in the immediate vicinity for long, making defence more open and tactical. During the beta, this is where most players started out, engaging in the quick skirmishes and levelling up their characters to unlock the better guns and equipment such as grenades, one-shot sniper rifles and jet packs.
Walker Assault, however, was the beta’s true showcase mode. Here, two sides – rebel and imperial – face off in a recreation of the Empire Strikes Back’s opening assault. The rebels are required to reach a set of uplinks and get them running, in order to triangulate Y-Wing bomber strikes on the advancing might of the imperial AT-AT walkers. The Empire has to stop the rebel scum, while slowly watching its walking mega-tanks plod into the battle.
It’s a simple setup, but it proved exciting. With so many people involved, so much going on and so many options in attack or defence, it’s hard not to get caught up in the spectacle. Sure, manning a turret and blasting at distant enemies isn’t anything remotely original in an online shooter. Yes, it’s the sort of thing where there are objectives most players will ignore, leading to a quick defeat. No, you can’t have full control over an AT-AT.
That wasn’t the only problem some beta players had with the Hoth experience. Some felt 40 players (and no AI soldiers) isn’t nearly enough to recreate an epic battle. Others pointed to the currently borked spawn system that often shoves you into the game mere centimetres from an enemy, thereby ensuring your quick demise. The hero system, which lets you grab a power-up to transform into Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader, is fun, but again, there’s no sense of progressing toward the chance to experience this honour - you just have to be in the right place at the right time to pick up a token.
But once again, Fegraeus makes the same point: this is the Star Wars “battle fantasy” that Dice wants Battlefront to convey. Away from unlocking better weapons and grenades, the idea is that everyone gets a go at the fun stuff – the cool vehicles and the classic characters.
“We have lots of experience when it comes to these large scale designs, so we use a lot of that experience,” says Fegraeus of the overall Hoth experience. “But at the same time, it’s a great challenge for us to make something that really speaks Star Wars, being in that universe and working in that universe’s rules.
“... It’s been the really exciting part of the challenge – just diving into this universe and learning its ins and outs and kinks, and trying to make something that speaks to that, so it becomes a true Star Wars experience. We really started with this foundational idea of ‘let’s let people jump in to their Star Wars battle fantasy and play it their way’,” he says, “That has been the guiding principle, and that hasn’t changed at all.”
If that’s the guiding principle, then the beta is definitely a success of sorts. Taking control of a TIie Interceptor, carrying out strafing runs on fleeing members of the New Republic; swooping low and fast in a Snowspeeder (while dropping in the odd “I’ve found them, repeat, I’ve found them”); prancing about in full control of an AT-ST walker - there’s always plenty going on and plenty to do (even if the controls of the flying craft are currently a little unintuitive and weird, so dog-fighting with an X-wing can often feel a bit like trying to parallel park a Reliant Robin with two flat tyres).
Star Wars: Battlefront, then, is true to the source material; everything it does fitswith what you would expect. The problem could be that the underlying action is so familiar – we’ve had over a decade of the Call of Duty and Battlefield titles now, and they have rigidly defined the military FPS experience that Battlefront adheres to. It’s risky to draw too many conclusions from what is essentially a technical test not a demo, but if the beta is anything to go by, those who aren’t utterly seduced by the chance to fight as rebels or stormtroopers raiding Tatooine and blowing up snow bases may even – gulp – find themselves tiring of a highly recognisable shooter.
Perhaps the plan with Star Wars: Battlefront is to use it as a platform for future bolt-ons and additions; a constantly updating and evolving world of online Star Wars shooter-playsets, riddled with settings and characters from the entire franchise, old and new. In other words, the Destiny model. Indeed, we’ve already discovered that the season pass, which gives access to four forthcoming expansion packs, will cost $40. When you consider there’s no single-player Campaign experience beyond a series of short missions, it’s a relatively high price to play for those Star Wars fans unused to the dynamics of the online multiplayer marketplace.
On the subject of downloadable content (DLC), Fegraeus reminds us of what we already know – Battlefront is getting a piece of freebie in December, offering players a look at the battle of Jakku. But he won’t say more. “We wanted to have something that acted as a bridge, something that tied into the new Star Wars that’s coming,” he says. “The DLC is essentially the events that led to the way that planet looks in Episode VII. You’ve seen it on the trailer, with the huge crashed star destroyer in the desert. We’ll support the game post-launch, and we’ll listen to what the community says.”
Battlefront is going to do well, we all know that. It will see plenty of DLC and it will be a whole new franchise for publishing giant EA to exploit. But the real question is whether or not it will offer more than just a Star Wars skinning of Battlefield Lite.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 – five things we've learned about the campaign
It’s just a month until Activision unleashes the latest title in its blockbusting Call of Duty series. And while we’ve seen plenty of information on how Black Ops 3 is tweaking the multiplayer experience, there’s been much less focus on the single-player campaign mode.
Set 40 years after the events of Black Ops 2, the world is now divided into a patchwork of international alliances, all investigating advanced cybernetic and bio-augmentation technologies. The narrative follows a group of robotically enhanced super soldiers, investigating the disappearance of a CIA operative in Singapore, as well as a huge data leak of military secrets.
During a reveal event in April, developer Treyarch announced that the campaign would be a four-player co-op mode with large, open environments – it even promised a more complex story in which multiple playthroughs may be required to get the full picture.
But how does this play out in practice? Recently, we got to play a demo of the Campaign mode – here’s what we discovered.
It turns out, co-operative play isn’t just an option – playing with up to three friends, or with others online, will be the core campaign experience. It’s the first time co-op has featured in Call of Duty since World at War, and this time each player will be bringing in their own individual rank progression and class customisations as well as the game’s new features: tactical rigs (which provide physical boosts like longer jumps and sprinting times) and cybercores (which provide special skills).
The latter are pretty interesting. There are three different categories: Cybercore Chaos is all about destruction, with options such as Immolation, which uses enemy explosives like grenades and enables you to destroy robots; Cybercore Martial is more about the player – Active Camo, for example allows you to become invisible for a short amount of time; finally Cybercore Control is all about hacking, allowing you to, say, take control of an enemy robot or aircraft. The latter means you’ll be able to undertake aerial raids whenever you want, not just when the scripted mission demands it.
Furthmore, each player’s configurations will be based on the decisions they have made throughout their campaign experience: the more you play, the more cybercores, weapon attachments and other pieces of equipment you’re able to unlock and utilise. What we’ll hopefully see then are parties of players with very different experiences and abilities, having to use those disparate skills together – almost like an RPG guild.
To emphasis this sense of cooperation, more experienced players will be able to lend advanced weapons to their friends, allowing them to compete in missions that they aren’t yet equipped for. Once the level is over, the gun is returned. It’s an interesting attempt to encourage social play beyond simply turning up at the start of a mission with a bunch of strangers and no intention of working together.
The DNI (Direct Neural Interface) is a major new feature
Black Ops 3 is set in 2065 and there have been a major advances in robotic and bionic technology since the Black Ops 2 timeline – as we saw in the “Ember” trailer. Direct neural interfacing, part of a new Tactical Mode accessed via the d-pad, let’s you tap into the visual stream from any of your team mates. In other words, you can see what they see. The idea is, it’ll allow you to identify enemy types and dangerous locations on the map; it will also show, via an augmented reality HUD, where your grenade will land at the current throwing angle.
What we found from the demo is that it could well open a whole new level of tactics. If you want all your teammates to see the location of every enemy in the area, you can place one of your team on a high vantage point – they can then move safely through the area or at least figure out the best way to engage every situation. It’s also possible to find out which enemies can see you, based on the colour layered over the area you’re in. This could prove especially useful on higher difficulties as you’ll know key areas to avoid altogether.
Again, the idea is to get players thinking together, rather than simply making separate run-n-gun forays into each mission. The problem is, that’s kind of how a lot of people play Call of Duty – this isn’t Ghost Recon, after all. Treyarch seems to be aiming for a big culture change in CoD play – it’ll be interesting to see if the level design and co-operative tools are really sophisticated enough to bring this level of strategic planing into play.
The Safe House is a fun extra – with hidden features
Before players enter each mission, they access the Safe House, an area in which they can customise their character, set class loadouts, learn more about the upcoming objectives as well as show off achievements to friends.
Within the Safe House every player has their own “Bunkroom” which contains a wardrobe for character customisation, a little like GTA Online, and a Medal Case, which holds awards you’ve earned after completing tasks in the campaign. You also have a trunk to stores collectible, which you can use to personalise your Bunkroom. Any of your co-op friends can work into your room and view your customised layout. It’s another little RPG feature, which doesn’t add huge amounts to the actual gameplay experience, but just enhances that sense of playing alongside other people, and actually having an existence within the game’s universe.
Each safe house also contains a computer terminal, or PDV, like the computer found in Black Ops 1, giving access to background information (in fact, it houses 100 times more files that its predecessor). There’s background info on the events between Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 3, as well as hidden Easter egg’s and a few surprise game modes. There was an arcade-style zombie mini-game in Black Ops 1, so could potentially expect something very similar to that...
There’s a whole new difficulty setting
Forget Veteran, in Realistic mode, players will only have a single point of health, meaning the slightest damage will bring you down, whether that’s being caught on the edge of a grenade blast or taking a pistol round that’s been fired through a wall. Of course, the whole notion of ‘realism’ is rather stretched in a game set forty years in the future and featuring bio-augmented super soldiers battling intelligent robot tanks, but this is going to be a major challenge for fans. What next? Call of Duty permadeath?
You can skip to the end of the Campaign mode if you like
Set 40 years after the events of Black Ops 2, the world is now divided into a patchwork of international alliances, all investigating advanced cybernetic and bio-augmentation technologies. The narrative follows a group of robotically enhanced super soldiers, investigating the disappearance of a CIA operative in Singapore, as well as a huge data leak of military secrets.
During a reveal event in April, developer Treyarch announced that the campaign would be a four-player co-op mode with large, open environments – it even promised a more complex story in which multiple playthroughs may be required to get the full picture.
But how does this play out in practice? Recently, we got to play a demo of the Campaign mode – here’s what we discovered.
It turns out, co-operative play isn’t just an option – playing with up to three friends, or with others online, will be the core campaign experience. It’s the first time co-op has featured in Call of Duty since World at War, and this time each player will be bringing in their own individual rank progression and class customisations as well as the game’s new features: tactical rigs (which provide physical boosts like longer jumps and sprinting times) and cybercores (which provide special skills).
The latter are pretty interesting. There are three different categories: Cybercore Chaos is all about destruction, with options such as Immolation, which uses enemy explosives like grenades and enables you to destroy robots; Cybercore Martial is more about the player – Active Camo, for example allows you to become invisible for a short amount of time; finally Cybercore Control is all about hacking, allowing you to, say, take control of an enemy robot or aircraft. The latter means you’ll be able to undertake aerial raids whenever you want, not just when the scripted mission demands it.
Furthmore, each player’s configurations will be based on the decisions they have made throughout their campaign experience: the more you play, the more cybercores, weapon attachments and other pieces of equipment you’re able to unlock and utilise. What we’ll hopefully see then are parties of players with very different experiences and abilities, having to use those disparate skills together – almost like an RPG guild.
To emphasis this sense of cooperation, more experienced players will be able to lend advanced weapons to their friends, allowing them to compete in missions that they aren’t yet equipped for. Once the level is over, the gun is returned. It’s an interesting attempt to encourage social play beyond simply turning up at the start of a mission with a bunch of strangers and no intention of working together.
The DNI (Direct Neural Interface) is a major new feature
Black Ops 3 is set in 2065 and there have been a major advances in robotic and bionic technology since the Black Ops 2 timeline – as we saw in the “Ember” trailer. Direct neural interfacing, part of a new Tactical Mode accessed via the d-pad, let’s you tap into the visual stream from any of your team mates. In other words, you can see what they see. The idea is, it’ll allow you to identify enemy types and dangerous locations on the map; it will also show, via an augmented reality HUD, where your grenade will land at the current throwing angle.
What we found from the demo is that it could well open a whole new level of tactics. If you want all your teammates to see the location of every enemy in the area, you can place one of your team on a high vantage point – they can then move safely through the area or at least figure out the best way to engage every situation. It’s also possible to find out which enemies can see you, based on the colour layered over the area you’re in. This could prove especially useful on higher difficulties as you’ll know key areas to avoid altogether.
Again, the idea is to get players thinking together, rather than simply making separate run-n-gun forays into each mission. The problem is, that’s kind of how a lot of people play Call of Duty – this isn’t Ghost Recon, after all. Treyarch seems to be aiming for a big culture change in CoD play – it’ll be interesting to see if the level design and co-operative tools are really sophisticated enough to bring this level of strategic planing into play.
The Safe House is a fun extra – with hidden features
Before players enter each mission, they access the Safe House, an area in which they can customise their character, set class loadouts, learn more about the upcoming objectives as well as show off achievements to friends.
Within the Safe House every player has their own “Bunkroom” which contains a wardrobe for character customisation, a little like GTA Online, and a Medal Case, which holds awards you’ve earned after completing tasks in the campaign. You also have a trunk to stores collectible, which you can use to personalise your Bunkroom. Any of your co-op friends can work into your room and view your customised layout. It’s another little RPG feature, which doesn’t add huge amounts to the actual gameplay experience, but just enhances that sense of playing alongside other people, and actually having an existence within the game’s universe.
Each safe house also contains a computer terminal, or PDV, like the computer found in Black Ops 1, giving access to background information (in fact, it houses 100 times more files that its predecessor). There’s background info on the events between Black Ops 1 and Black Ops 3, as well as hidden Easter egg’s and a few surprise game modes. There was an arcade-style zombie mini-game in Black Ops 1, so could potentially expect something very similar to that...
There’s a whole new difficulty setting
Forget Veteran, in Realistic mode, players will only have a single point of health, meaning the slightest damage will bring you down, whether that’s being caught on the edge of a grenade blast or taking a pistol round that’s been fired through a wall. Of course, the whole notion of ‘realism’ is rather stretched in a game set forty years in the future and featuring bio-augmented super soldiers battling intelligent robot tanks, but this is going to be a major challenge for fans. What next? Call of Duty permadeath?
You can skip to the end of the Campaign mode if you like
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