Star Wars Battlefront 2 Review - The sequel's rebooted sequel
“You can’t spell “hate” without “EA”. Thanks for taking my favorite thing of all time hostage.” That’s what I wrote on Facebook and that’s what I wrote to EA’s customer support, because it’s impossible for a “minnow” like me to contact them. Speaking of impossible things, I cant refund my pre-order of the game I paid $65 for. Why? Because EA took off the “refund” button on their website. So I guess I’m stuck with it. Star Wars Battlefront 2, the first one, is empirically my favorite game. Back when I had a PS2, I spent hundreds of hours on Battlefront 2, plus the hundreds of hours spent on Battlefront 1.
So, now that my credentials are in order, let’s begin the review. Because I bought the game, Battlefront 2 automatically receives the base review score of 1/10. As a pre-order bonus, I have awarded 3 “Review Cards”, which gives a bonus percentage of a review score, based on the roll of a totally random die roll. And the numbers rolled are: “+.3”, “+.7*”, and “+.1”. The “*” indicates that the score can only be added once the review score is already above a certain number. Currently, the review is a 1.4/10, with a bonus “+.7” once the review score passes a “6”. Now, EA can always purchase “Review Crystals” which can be used to unlock more “Review Cards”.
Other ways of earning higher Review scores can be through countless hours of crafting. Crafting a fun combat system, a vibrant and unique set of environments, crisp soundscapes, and a compelling story. Hundreds of hours of grinding and coding and play testing can yield the highest review scores!
However, in order to ensure a sense of real accomplishment, it will require 40 hours of development to receive 1 “Review Crystal”. That way, EA will feel like it truly achieved something.
Normally, I’d delve into the rest of the game here, but I just can’t review the rest of the game until the review score increases to a "5". Some might call this “gating”, but I promise, it’s solely just to provide a fair balance to the full review. The implementation of "Review Crystals" will not give an "unfair advantage" over games that choose not to buy them. ; )
Don’t worry, this review is in a constant state of development. **UPDATE** Let me respond to the concerns of the EA community feedback. I hear you! My review is unfair and not biased! After careful consideration, I decided to reduce the amount of time to earn “Review Crystals”. Instead of 40 hours of development and hard work crafting a video game to earn 1 “Review Crystal”, it will now just take 20 hours to earn 1 “Review Crystal”. It’s such an easy fix this late in the review process and I’m glad there’s so much passion for wanting a video game to be a video game and not a gambling platform, or a Ponzi scheme. Final score: 1.4*/10
**ACTUAL UPDATE**
"Dear EA, I did some math for you. 650,000 angry Redditors x $60 minimum price for a video game = $40.5 million in lost revenue. I got a refund and won’t buy Battlefront 2 until the bullshit is PERMANENTLY CLEARED!"
That was my Facebook status three days ago. I held off on posting this a couple days. I stand by that until it's permanent, I will not repurchase the game. I don't care if the loot crate system is gone. As quick as they turned it off, they can turn it back on.
This is a real blow to gamers, Star Wars fans, and most importantly, me. But I really hope that the drop in stock and sales sends the message loud and clear for the future of the video games industry.
