DICE and Electronic Arts have announced that they have big plans for Star Wars: Battlefront starting next week. They're bringing in some additional modes that fans have been requesting since the game launched last year.
Over on the official Star Wars: Battlefront website lead designer Dennis Brannvall explained that starting July 21st next week, Star Wars: Battlefront would be receiving a brand new offline mode. This has been requested for the game since its debut last year on home consoles and PC.
After gamers pleaded across forum boards, chat systems, and social media for an offline mode, DICE has finally given in and given the people what they asked for. Only it's half a year later and after a lot of the hype for the game has already died down.
The offline mode will allow players to play the Skirmish games across two separate game modes, both Walker Assault and Fighter Squadron on the the available maps that support both modes. The offline mode will also afford for local split-screen play for those playing Star Wars: Battlefront on the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4. Sorry, but PC gamers won't be able to get in on the split-screen play, even if you do have your rig hooked up to your 50 inch television and a USB splitter with Xbox One, Xbox 360 and DualShock 4 controllers attached.
The offline mode will be viable for many of the currently released maps, such as Hoth and Tatooine, as well as some of the newer maps such as Sullust and Bespin. They also have plans on expanding the map selection later this year with the introduction of the Death Star.
DICE had announced previously that they would be adding new maps to the pool, and they did announce that they would be making maps based around the Death Star, but now that time is quickly drawing near. In fact, the Death Star DLC will be available as soon as this September. It will be free for the season pass holders and will carry an extra price tag for those who did not purchase the season pass.
The game came under a lot of criticisms from the core gaming audience due to its limited functionality and content compared to the games that came out a decade ago from Pandemic Software. The major difference is that there were a lot more options available in the older Star Wars: Battlefront games on the PS2, OG Xbox and PC. You had double the amount of planets and modes compared to the vanilla version of DICE's outing, and it afforded players both online and offline modes right out of the box. There was even a specialty campaign story mode for up to four players to play through cooperatively on the OG Xbox, which was a rarity in games back then.
The vehicle system was also vastly different in the older Pandemic games, it was much closer to Battlefield where the vehicles were scattered across the maps and players would have to strategically commandeer vehicles in order to help their team secure a victory. Hijacking vehicles was also possible, something they removed in this newest Star Wars: Battlefront.
Nevertheless, DICE is still trying to find ways to lure gamers back in and with the offline mode going live on July 21st maybe they can win back some trust from the older-school gamers.
