Expect heroes to be more tactical in EA’s Battlefront II
Ever since the Battlefront II reveal on April 15, EA has been pushing how they’ll revamp heroes from their first Battlefront.
Recent comments by the game’s community manager, Mat Everett, echoed other statements regarding heroes and perhaps shed some new clues on how they might work.
“I think you need to keep in mind, even in the movies and stories heroes didn’t just run out and get slaughtered,” he wrote on thread in the official forums requesting non-weak heroes in Battlefront II. “They were tactical and mindful of their situations. Maul was never running out and taking on 19 other troopers and a Jedi. He was smart and decisive.”
Despite the need for players to be more tactical, heroes will still be able to be an impactful force during the match.
“Overall heroes will still be very much amazing things to have on the Battlefront, but you will need to be mindful of their abilities, how they play and use them to the advantages they bring to the table,” Everett wrote. “Can opportunities arise in being able to slaughter your opposition, sure, but you need to be tactical about it.”
Everett then noted:
“As we reveal more about the heroes and how they play, you will get a deeper understanding of their value.”
In a different thread asking to make lightsaber blocking “more useful” in the sequel, Everett added that balancing heroes is of paramount importance to the development team.
“The team is really looking at how we balance out heroes,” he wrote. “This very much includes lightsaber users, we will reveal how the system works once the team is ready.”
Everett’s words played off recent statements from Bernd Diemer, the creative director on Battlefront II. Diemer told PC Gamer that class-based gameplay would give infantry players “more tools” to combat heroes on the battlefield. This change came about because players can expect “more heroes in the match at the same time”, so the development team had to come up with a way to counter that.
However, it’s also worth mentioning that the game’s design director, Dennis Brannvall, said in a post-reveal question-and-answer session that heroes will be “a lot more physical” and that “you’ll feel stronger and more powerful” when running around as one. This is because EA/DICE reworked the hero combat system “from the ground up” after it “leaned on a lot of tech” carried over from the Battlefield franchise.
For me, the big takeaway is that the hero combat system will be revamped from EA’s first Battlefront. Hopefully heroes will be more intuitive to play as and we won’t see annoying stun locks or clunky lightsaber handling. Personally, I would love if hero combat was just a bit more fluid; combat in EA’s first Battlefront can be fun, but something always felt a bit off to me.
It’s also important to note that a) we’ll be getting multiple heroes at once (likely for those big modes similar to Walker Assault) and b) players will need to be more tactical when playing as a hero. Comments regarding how powerful heroes will be or won’t be are somewhat meaningless at this point. We’ve got nearly seven months until the game releases—the power levels of heroes comes down to balancing, something I’m sure will be tweaked numerous times until release. Of course, balancing is the tricky bit and fingers crossed that EA/DICE can deliver on that front.
Battlefront II will release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on November 17. Stay up-to-date with the game’s progress by following SWGO via Twitter or Facebook.
