10 Things Star Wars Battlefront 2 Must Include

source// EA

The rebirth of Battlefront was something many fans had been eagerly awaiting for years. While Battlefront 3 was speculated for a long time, nothing was all that official and things were quiet for far too long to believe anything would actually happen. Then E3 happened, and fans were gifted to very minimal footage of a new entry in the series being made by DICE, but now it was official and out there - we were getting a new Battlefront.

What fans were given though, was nothing like they were expecting. Fans had built the original Battlefront games up to an almost mythical status, which to be fair could have never been matched. However, the bare-minimum seemed to be given out. No campaign and a seemingly small pinch of content had fans bored within a week. Also let's not forget the painfully overpriced season pass which cost almost as much as the game at full retail. All of this doesn't take away from the fact that what we were given was good. It wasn't a lot and it certainly wasn't worth the money, but it was good. It was also the best looking game to be released at the time and still is one of, if not THE most beautiful games on current-gen systems.

However, the small amount of content left a lot to be desired, and for Battlefront 2 to be received as well as the originals and like an actual Battlefront game, a decent amount needs to be added in.

10. In-Game Voice Chat

This might be a feature a lot of people didn't even realize wasn't included in DICE's Battlefront, but there was no option for in-game voice chat. If you wanted to strategize with players you'd have to go through a system party option rather than just lobby chat. While a lot of people don't even bother with in-game chat anymore, there's definitely those out there that still use it. A competitive, first-person shooter without the ability to form a strategy and plan with the people on your team just seems odd.

This may not be a feature high up on anyone's list, and it may not even be on the majority of those lists, but there's no denying there's some people out there who were p***ed about its exclusion in the last game. It's just a feature that is almost a guarantee when it comes to these types of games, especially ones with such a huge and heavy focus on multiplayer.

If there was no in game chat in Battlefront 2 would it ruin the game? Absolutely not. But there's zero harm in including the feature; all it will do is help in the long run.

9. Split Screen Multiplayer

I'll go ahead and say it before I even justify it: this will not be included in Battlefront 2 and if by some long shot it actually is you can color me surprised. Has there ever even been an EA multiplayer game that included a split screen mode for the offline portion of the game? It used to be a feature in the majority of online first person shooters. Now it feels like almost no game includes the feature. Yes, I know I'm being over dramatic and there are certainly games out there which include split screen multiplayer, but damn what happened to the days of couch co-op?

Battlefront did include split screen co-op for the missions in the game, but that was only a tiny fraction of the game, not to say there was a lot to it. Yes, the majority of people play online with their friends, but what about those people who don't and don't want to pass a controller back and forth after each game? What about the people who want to play with roommates, or with their buddies who come over or, hell, even if they want to play a couple matches with a girlfriend or boyfriend?

They might not be the majority, but it's a feature that would help immensely. It's also a good way to get your friends to try the game and convince them to buy it. It's yet another feature that will do no harm to include.

8. An Overhauled Token System

The token system was awful, I'll go ahead and say it. Especially in modes like Walker Assault and Supremacy, where your ability to either get in an AT-ST, Tie Fighter, X-Wing, or use the on-a-rail AT-AT was dependent on your ability to seek out and collect spawning tokens.

The hero aspect of the token system was okay simply for the reason that there's really no fair alternative to it. It could be made so everyone had a chance to be a hero after a certain amount of time, but that would over-saturate the game with too many overpowered heroes. Or the first person to get to so many points or kills on a team becomes the hero, but that's too unfair to many casual players.

So the hero tokens get a pass, but they need to be re-worked. Have each hero token spawn at one of three set locations for each team, only able to be picked up by that team - so no doubling up on heroes for a single team. Give a warning and have it show up on screen for every player, no matter how far from the token they are. Too many times it's easy to miss a hero token on Battlefront simply because you aren't in a close range to it. On the other hand, the vehicle tokens and weapon tokens need to go away.

Vehicles should be located on the map, free for anyone to get into and when destroyed, and respawn after a timer - like the way vehicles are handled in the Halo series. Weapon tokens should be treated like an ability. Every so many minutes, let's say five, you can use one thermal imploder, after which it goes back on a timer to the next time you use it. For one, it'll make you more cautious and strategic about when you actually use these things as they will be more scarce. It would feel more balanced, and it would make a lot more sense than picking all these things up from random token pick ups.

7. The Addition Of Class Types And Removal Of Loadouts

It's understandable that DICE made a first person shooter with a create-a-class mechanic: every game out there features it. However, this wasn't a feature in the Battlefront games fans came to know and love. And truthfully, this feature added nothing to the newest addition of Battlefront.

Yes, certain guns felt different from other guns, and some definitely outclassed others (*cough* DL-44 *cough*). Everything felt too flat, with little to no dynamic aspect to it. A jump pack was one of the only things that made your class feel like it was anything other than a simple assault class. Even the "snipers" in the form of the cycler rifle and pulse cannon didn't make you feel like a sniper.

Create-a-class functions are not bad, in fact they can be awesome in some games, but in the Star Wars universe it just doesn't seem to fit. Battlefront 2 needs to revert back to the ways of, well, Battlefront II from 2005. Battlefront II had four soldier types: heavy weapon, sniper, infantry, and engineer. All had further unlockable classes based on performance in-game. So you'd start the game as a level one infantry and work your way up to a level three infantry soldier if you so choose. The best part about this was it made it feel like the character you chose, and the weapons you had mattered. It also gave way to allow for optional characters to be played - for instance the Dark Trooper or a Wookiee.

This was a gameplay mechanic that just fit for Battlefront, and it was what fans knew and loved gameplay wise for the series. The addition of create-a-class just made things feel off, and a revert back to the old ways would be welcomed back from all those who know and love the old.

6. Content From The Prequels

Everyone hates them, and we are venturing into a brand new trilogy, so it's understandable as to why they were left out of the reboot. However, there's just too many possibilities to be explored. Who cares if having characters from the original trilogy square off with characters from the prequels is not canon? There's nothing canon about Han Solo fighting Emperor Palpatine on Hoth either. Even if everyone hates the prequels, you can't say it wouldn't be awesome to control Darth Maul with his double-sided lightsaber, or General Grievous as awful as he was. Also, aren't Maul's robotic legs considered canon now? Give us a robot legged Maul to control for the love of God.

There's also a little something that would fit in the whole first person shooter thing very well from the prequels: The Clone Wars. How one of the biggest conflicts in Star Wars history, where hundreds of clones slaughtered one another, could not be included is crazy. The Clone Wars was almost a war written for video games. How do you explain hundreds of people who look exactly the same dying in one battle? Clones. Clone Troopers fighting against Storm Troopers, why the hell not?

If we learned anything from Battlefront a year ago, it's that sadly the original trilogy might not have enough content in it to fuel this franchise alone. Eventually DICE is going to have to realize the good they could do with the prequels.

5. Single Player Options

One of the major things that Battlefront was missing was the ability to do almost anything offline or alone. Yes there was the training missions as well as the survival missions, but the training missions were at most about five minutes each and were only there to teach basic gameplay mechanics, while the survival missions were simply boring.

Battlefront 2 needs to give players the ability to play the game outside of the competitive multiplayer. Of course, a campaign would definitely add something to the game, and would add a depth of play value that the competitive multiplayer couldn't bring to the first. There's so much content in the Star Wars universe, adding a campaign with any type of story would be easy. It doesn't need to be canon either: just make it fun and engaging.

Other than a campaign, a good addition would be the ability to play games with bots. This should have been a feature in the first and should be a feature in all competitive multiplayer games. Let players control the difficulty of the bots so they can use these matches to figure out a strategy or just simply learn the maps. Sometimes it's just fun to go into a match with easy bots and absolutely lay waste to every single one of them.

Something, anything, needs to be done about the lack of content from the first and how stagnant it felt so quick. Adding in the ability to play the game alone would just keep players around longer. It would also open up the field for future DLC to be either story related or something of the sort instead of simply map packs with a couple of new characters.

4. Galactic Conquest

Speaking of single player content, remember Galactic Conquest from the original Battlefront games? It was essentially a glorified game of Risk where you fought to control a portion of the galaxy. You'd go from planet to planet, fighting for control.

It was an awesome concept and was a lot of fun. It's a mechanic a lot of fans would like to see come back, and with the power the consoles have now, it could be made into an even bigger mode with more planets and more players.

Yes, this would be a good addition to allow players to play offline, but this feature would be awesome for online competitive play. Being able to be in a game with another player as you play against one another would add a level of strategy. Making the mode support up to four players would add even more playability. Players could form factions and work together to wipe out another player, or it could be every man for themselves as all four go to total war trying to capture every planet.

Personally, this is the addition that I think would add the most to the game. The management and strategy aspect of it would be something very different from the first person shooter gameplay. Of course, the first person shooter matches would still be incorporated as you fight for a planet, but the overlaying structure of the mode would catch the eye of a lot of new players and would please plenty of the older ones.

3. Content From The New Movies

When Battlefront came out, The Force Awakens was yet to do so, so its exclusion from the game is more than logical. However, it being brought in as DLC was more than a possibility, but was still something we still didn't see other than the Battle of Jakku being added in for free.

By the time Battlefront 2 comes out, The Force Unleashed will have been out for at least a year. But that's if Battlefront 2 comes out this year, which it more than likely will not because DLC is planned for Battlefront through the end of the year.

We have yet to see content from the new movies in games, and it would be refreshing to see 100% brand new scenarios come into these games we've never seen before. The options are endless as well: Heroes could be added like Kylo Ren with his very unique lightsaber, Rey with either a lightsaber or her staff, Poe Dameron and his X-Wing could be added to fighter squadron, or even an aged version of Han Solo or Luke Skywalker. The possibilities for brand new content from the most recent movie are almost limitless.

2. More Planets And More Maps

I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record, but god damn Battlefront just had so little content. We're going to need a lot more in the next one to not feel like we were screwed over again. At launch, Battlefront only had what felt like a handful of maps on four planets (excluding the free DLC of Jakku). Game modes like Supremacy and Walker Assault only featured four maps in the rotation at launch. Within an hour you could have played all the maps in the mode, leading to things feeling stale pretty quickly. Some maps from the new movies could include the battle at the cantina on Takodana, or even a battle on the Starkiller base as it's becoming unstable and exploding.

Seriously, the options are endless. Planets like Naboo, Dagobah, Coruscant, and Kamino are just to name a few. There's so many options that for the first game to only include four planets at launch is embarrassing. If the focus is going to stay on the multiplayer, we're going to need a reason to stick around and a plethora of content is going to allow for that. If things don't feel as stagnant as they did in the most recent installment, it'd be easier for fans to have a reason to come back as they'd feel like there's still something new to see. 

1. Space Battles

Ask anyone, ask absolutely anyone who played the original Battlefront games what was missing from the reboot and they will all tell you the exact same thing: space battles. For the love of god the game is from STAR WARS, how is there not a war in the stars? Space battles were without a doubt the best part of any Battlefront game ever. Its exclusion from the reboot was something a lot of fans were not happy about. So many aspects of the game could be fixed by putting them back in.

For one, it could help revamp the Fighter Squadron mode. The space battles would be a combination of Fighter Squadron and Supremacy as you fight in X-Wings and Tie Fighters outside command ships but also have the ability to land inside said ships and fight on the inside while you sabotage them for the overall victory. This would also add in land-to-air and air-to-land combat, which would also fall in line with the overhauled token system. This could be an immense mode as well as it could be either 32v32 or even bigger. It would actually feel like all out war, and it would call for strategy.

It sounds a little crazy to say this mode could be the make or break for Battlefront 2, but honestly it is. The addition of space combat would fix so many little gameplay mechanics highlighted in this article, as well as bringing back an old audience who fell in love with the original Battlefront games who were let down by the reboot. Space battles alone would make Battlefront 2 a better game, and it's one of the most fun modes to ever be included in a shooter thanks to how dynamic it is. If Battlefront 2 would just go balls-to-the-wall like it should, it could be just as good if not better than the originals.