Star Wars: Battlefront II — no, not that Star Wars: Battlefront II — is alive and kicking, will launch on November 17, includes the single-player campaign the 2015 reboot should have had, and the first trailer is now live.
EA’s second pass at its reinvigorated, combat-fixated take on the franchise imagines, among other things, what might have been had an elite Imperial unit been on Endor and witness to the destruction of the second Death Star at the close of Return of the Jedi. Players hence take up as squad leader Iden Versio (played by Far Cry 4 and Hunt the Truth‘s Janina Gavanker), on a journey that spans the ensuing three decades (between Jedi and The Force Awakens) and rise of the First Order. Queue proverbial hero’s journey, wherein Versio presumably realizes the flaws in defending a brutal, xenophobic dictatorship.
Multiplayer by contrast sounds pretty much like multiplayer typically does in these games. Dogfights, check. Ground battles, check. “Epic,” check. The option to play as fan-favorite characters like Yoda and Darth Maul or Rey and Luke, check and check. Multiplayer will support up to 40 players, includes the option to fly a First Order TIE Fighter (in scaled up space battles that include Imperial dockyards and asteroid fields as tactical complications), will cover the prequel, original and new trilogies, and includes locales like Yavin 4’s jungle, Tatooine’s Mos Eisley and the Starkiller Base.
The $59.99 game arrives this holiday for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, though if you’re willing to spend $79.99 for a copy of the deluxe edition, EA says you can start playing as early as November 14.
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