Bothan spies have managed to scurry away with critical intel on the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront from DICE. This can be taken as no more than a rumour for now but it seems we’ll be living through the original Star Wars films.
We’ll have some battles to play in from the prequel trilogy, such as the Clones fighting the Separatists, but otherwise the big focus is on a very lengthy campaign from A New Hope to The Return of the Jedi.
However there will be something taking us into The Force Awakens, the new movie due out this December from director J.J. Abrams. We wouldn’t get anything that would spoil the plot or future direction of the new trilogy in the works, but there’s rumoured to be enough to whet our appetite.
The very last section of the campaign is part of the opening to The Force Awakens, and either side lets us play as actual characters that will be appearing in the films. DICE has been scanning in actual movie props and the like from Pinewood Studios.
Multiplayer will scale up to 64 players in huge battles, which would make a worthy sight indeed when a certain little scuffle kicks off on Hoth. Certain game modes will support space-to-land battles, presumably confirming you can enter the atmosphere of a world to then land and fight, and vice-versa.
A ‘hero’ system returns, much like in the previous Battlefronts, where you can spend accumulated points to play as a hero character, which are extremely powerful and have special abilities. DICE has yet to nail down exactly how this will work but almost everyone in a match can play as one.
DLC is of course on the drawing board and some of The Force Awakens characters will appear later. All those we’ve seen thus far in trailers for the film will be available at launch, including the new TIE Fighter and X-Wing. That goes alongside loads of new vehicles and ships.
Each new DLC will feature at least 3 new maps, more hero characters and new vehicles and ships. Confirmed maps are Hoth, Endor, Alderaan, Coruscant, Yavin, and Tatooine from Episode I, IV and the new VII.
Star Wars: Battlefront releases on PC, Xbox One and PS4 later this year before The Force Awakens.
