I'm not too impressed by the Star Wars Battlefront beta

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But I’m not disappointed either

There seems to be a healthy amount of skepticism surrounding the upcoming release of Star Wars Battlefront, and I don’t blame people. After all, EA is involved — always lurking in the shadows, ready to strike at consumers.

This week however the publisher not only confirmed that microtransactions are out, but also dropped the beta on press, with a wide release for consumers in two days. Sure there’s still a bit of pre-order fuckery, but all in all I don’t think this iteration ofBattlefrontis going to be a disaster in any sense of the word.

Today, I had the chance to play the beta on PS4, and I came away with some mixed thoughts. Right now in the beta there are three modes available: Drop Zone, which supports 16 players, Walker Assault, which supports 40, and Survival (a two-player gametype that can be played offline or online).

The former is a gametype that sees two teams of eight battling it out for pods, which randomly drop from the sky and inhabit the battlefield one at a time. It’s up to each side to locate the pod, capture it, and maintain ownership until a timer runs out. Once it’s done, power-ups will pop out, and it’s onto the next one. I actually liked the objective-based feel of Drop Zone quite a bit, and the timers feel spot-on to add some form of tactical depth to each match without feeling like a slog.

Walker Assault might be 40 players, but it will allow 10 in a lobby to initiate a match. It’s here that I witnessed a fairly keen matchmaking system, which drew in players gradually and located games that were mostly full first before dropping me into an empty lobby. This asymmetrical mode sees rebels defending Uplink objectives to call in Y-Bombers from imperials. It has more of a classic Star Warsfeel to it, most notably due to the inclusion of AT-ATs, AT-STs, and Tie Fighters (which are essentially killstreak power-ups now, picked up on the battlefield) into the proceedings. Although we only started with 10, it gradually escalated to a crazy 20-on-20 match, and that gloriousBattlefrontentropy was in full force.

As for the gameplay, again, there are no microtransactions, and you’ll have to unlock everything through credits. There is some rank-gating involved, but not nearly as bad as other online shooters (at least, so far), and the credit system allows you to buy, for the most part, the exact equipment you want — from rifles, to thermal detonators. The game uses a card system for equipment (which isn’t nearly as kooky as Titanfall‘s Burn Cards) that lets you customize which slot each piece of gear falls into (L1/LB or R1/RB, with an additional slot for Triangle/Y). I really dig the option to default to first- or third-person at any point as well. I don’t miss classes or squads.

The game feels…a bit cheap at times in terms of its gunplay. It looks beautiful (it can go 4K on PC) and runs smoothly, especially when you’re gazing up at the sky and watching ship battles take place before your eyes, but there’s a certain clunky feel to combat. Weapons really lack impact or “oomph” all around, and I experienced a bit of lag at times. You can chalk part of that up to being a beta, but the game is right around the corner after all.

Survival mode lists four potential locations on the menu (Hoth, Sullust, Endor, and Tatooine), but only the latter is playable the moment. AI battles are also shown, but aren’t active in the beta as well. It’s horde mode, in essence, with a gradual ramping up in difficulty with each wave. It’s here that I was able to experience most of the perks (which are unlocked from the start), such as a vertical jetpack boost, grenade launcher, and a temporary boost for your primary, all of which have cooldowns involved. To be blunt, without a second player, this mode gets old quick.

After just three waves I wasn’t really feeling it, as there isn’t a whole lot of deviation from the horde formula, and the fact that you’re a grunt rather than a hero character really puts a damper on things. I don’t expect to get much play out of this outside of the occasional session with a friend or my wife by way of local co-op. For diehards, though, you’ll probably enjoy tackling the various challenges like “no death” runs.

So there’s the Star Wars: Battlefrontbeta so far. It’s not bad by any means, but I’m not sure it’s worth the full asking price. When the actual game launches next month we’ll have a better idea of all of the different modes involved, but again, solo players will probably want to wait for a price cut straight out of the gate.