Star Wars Battlefront

Star Wars Battlefront from 2015 was DICE's reboot of the classic series using the Frostbite engine, and instead of a sprawling campaign it bet purely on multiplayer battles set in the saga's iconic locations, from snowy Hoth through the forests of Endor to desert Tatooine. The game offered no classic story-driven singleplayer; instead it had short missions and training scenarios that served mainly as an introduction to the mechanics.

The title's main strength was its audiovisual presentation. DICE created environments that faithfully evoked the atmosphere of the original trilogy, with authentic weapon sounds, music, and vehicle and hero models like Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker, who could randomly appear right in the middle of a match. Gameplay-wise, it consisted of team-based firefights emphasizing the feeling of being part of the film, complemented by X-wing and TIE fighter flight in separate aerial modes. On PS4 the game benefited from visually impressive blaster and explosion effects, though the depth of the weapon system and the launch content were criticized as thinner compared to the series' previous entries produced by Pandemic Studios.

The gameplay was built on relatively simple, accessible soldier classes supplemented with collectible cards granting bonus abilities, making it easy for players who didn't yet know the series of big online shooters to jump into matches. Iconic weapons from the films, such as the E-11 or DL-44 blasters, were designed with emphasis on their distinctive sound and laser effects, so that every firefight retained a strongly cinematic atmosphere even in gameplay terms.

Despite initial criticism over the missing campaign and the smaller number of maps, the game gradually grew through paid and free expansions and remains valued above all as an audiovisual experience that to this day ranks among the most faithful digital renditions of the Star Wars atmosphere. For many players it represented an emotional return to the series after years away, and it paved the way for the more ambitious but controversial sequel, Battlefront II.

Why play it: For Star Wars fans who value audiovisual rendering of the saga's atmosphere over content depth, the game offers one of the most faithful digital renditions of the Star Wars universe.