Star Wars Battlefront Alpha (now featuring leaks)

lol

Leaked alpha footage is being removed by YouTube pretty quick and people are being banned, so unless you’re quick you won’t get to see it. I do have some footage of my own, where I get to try out almost everything in a round, and I may post this as a private video at some point and control access to it, but tbh it’s not really necessary.

Now this is obviously breaking the NDA, so don’t tell anyone I told you about this please, however the information is more or less in the public domain already so I’ll just summarise what I’ve read so far on this game, and provide a few anecdotes of my own.

First and foremost this is not battlefield dressed up as star wars, this seems very close to the original battlefront games (according to what people tell me), and it is nothing at all like bf3 or 4. Those games are first person shooters and this is a strange hybrid of 1st and 3rd person, which I’ve never really played before. The ADS game is completely different here, and 3rd person is often the way to go. The gunplay mechanics are simple, with no recoil to really talk about (I may have detected a little on some high ROF guns), and the most you need to worry about is overheating. You have unlimited ammo but guns overheat after maybe 30 s
bullets of sustained fire.

There are no classes in the game, and instead you choose one of 4 guns of various accuracy, damage, and ROF, and then crucially one of two card sets. The cards are abilities which are activated, then enter a cooldown period before they can be used again. One ability of both card sets has a limit on its use, requiring respawn or pickups to resupply. The cards play a massive role and dictate your style of play.

One set includes barrage which is a noobtube style grenade launcher which launches a barrage of three grenades. This is currently OP as fuck imho, as are all grenades, but that is largely due to how quick it can recharge. Basically the game atm involves dying to and dodging a lot of grenades, however this is alpha so put that aside for the moment. The other two abilities on that card set include a jet pack which is basically a single use thrust (prior to recharge), used to get out of trouble or get onto the tops of some rocks which are otherwise inaccessible, and the final ability is an ion charge thing which damages vehicles and shields. The second card set includes a thermal detonator which is just a grenade, an over shield type ability which can save your life or allow you to cross contested areas provided you don’t take too much damage, but you cannot fire your gun with this active. The final ability is an ion shot which is a lockon rocket launcher which is best against ground vehicles or stationary turrets… It doesn’t work against infantry and barely works vs air.

These card abilities need a bit of tweaking, and I’m sure they’ll get it. Grenades in particular dominate the game, but everyone has them. The guns and cards are currently identical for both rebel and imperial sides, but again this is alpha.

Vehicles are a death sentence, you may as well suicide, however I have seen a few ppl dominate the entire game in tie fighters, I don’t know how. Vehicles are accessed via “power-ups’ across the battlefield, which respawn when someone loses one. The AT AT is accessed the same way, but it is over rated, as it is almost impossible to pick out targets when in the guns. You are on a timer when you get into the AT AT, but I’ve not been in one enough to know exactly how this works other than I’m normally backbone the ground after a minute or two.

The AT ST (two legged walker) is easier to get kills with but the amount of AV on the field means it dies very quick. There also appears to be no way to exit a vehicle so you enter one then die to get out.

The game mode is similar to rush in battlefield in that there are various stages, but the targets to be destroyed belong to the attackers, and defenders must activate the “bombs”, which are not bombs but uplinks, which the attackers have to deactivate. The two AT AT’s are on a path the destroy the power/shield generator on hoth as in the battle in empire strikes back, and there are three stages basically. The defenders activate the uplinks on each stage and try to keep active for as long as possible. If kept online they complete a cycle every minute or so which stacks up a Y-wing bomber/queues it for an attack at the end of the stage, which is also timed (approx five min). The empire contest these uplinks to try and reduce the number of Y-wings which attack at the end of stage. When the stage ends the Y-wings are automatic and take down the shields of the at at’s, leaving them vulnerable to everything, the more Y-Wings, the longer the rebels have to shoot the AT ATs. The goal is to kill them before the final stage, and normally this is achieved as they haven’t quite tweaked the game mode enough. I’ve seen them killed at the first stage too, but normally you get to the 2nd or 3rd stage when the battle feels fairly even. The mode currently heavily favours the rebels though.

Squad play doesn’t exist yet, with people assigned to a partner, and this can be useful, but as it is random ATM, they are usually shit. It really helps to have a partner who backs you up though and can stay alive when you die, as that provides a respawn, like in bf squads.

Anyway, overall my impression is positive, it is a fun game, especially the trench warfare at the final stage. It is a simple shooter but i am finding some subtleties to it which may suggest some long term skills can be developed. The atmosphere in the game is fantastic, the audio and gfx incredible, and it works fine on my pc which is min spec for it. It is also the most polished alpha I’ve ever seen, almost ready for release tbh. It is not going to be a game which will interest all of us, as it is very fast paced and involves gameplay mechanics which I think are dated at best, simplistic at worst. I have however had that feeling since I first played a round, and although that is basically a case of all my worst fears being confirmed, I still wake up in the morning, or come back to my PC after a break and want a game. It is definitely fun, and I will definitely get this on release. The prospect of new maps, game modes, alternative weapons, and customisable loadout, genuinely excites me, so despite my concerns, I think that says it all.

I’ll edit this later for typos, on phone.