The free open beta for DICE and Electronic Arts' Star Wars: Battlefront II has been extended. The beta originally was set to take place only throughout the weekend, starting last Friday. But due to the overwhelming feedback from the gaming community, EA and DICE decided to extend the beta through tomorrow.
According to Gamespot, the Star Wars: Battlefront II beta has been extended by two whole days, which means you'll be able to play all the way up until Wednesday, October 11th. Originally the beta was supposed to end yesterday, on Monday, October 9th. It was just supposed to be a few days of enjoyment for the gaming audience to play-test the title ahead of its full release on November 17th.
The beta contained a couple of maps and various modes, both for single-player and online multiplayer, including the new Arcade mode where one or two players can play offline via split-screen. The original 2015 release of Star Wars: Battlefront also featured offline split-screen support but only for a couple of maps and the maps were rather small and uninteresting. There were also versus modes included as well, but it paled in comparison to Pandemic's fully robust split-screen offerings with Star Wars: Battlefront II on PS2 and the OG Xbox from more than a decade ago. Obviously, a lot of people making the comparison between the two games were disappointed with the results from DICE.
What's more is that the studio decided to take the feedback serious and upgrade nearly every aspect of Star Wars: Battlefront II, including expanding the game's space battles, and adding those battles to the actual package instead of selling them separate as a DLC add-on.
In fact, one of the Space Assault missions is included in the open beta, giving gamers a look at how DICE decided to tackle the mode that was made famous by Pandemic. No, you still can't get out of the space ships and run around on the Star Destroyers like you could in the old PS2 and OG Xbox version, but you can work with teammates to complete objectives, and even fly in some of the famous spaceships from the Star Wars series, including Boba Fett's Slave-I and Han Solo's Millennium Falcon.
The only major fault brought up frequently in regard to the beta test is that Star Wars: Battlefront II has a microtransaction cash shop with loot boxes that can severely give you an advantage over the opposition during battle.
The Star Card system is back, but instead of being unlockable in a traditional manner, the cards are now available through loot boxes. The cards can also drastically alter the way you perform in combat, offering stackable boosts for both the heroes and the infantry class soldiers. With enough stacks your preferred character can become almost unstoppable, making it very much a pay-to-win system for those who decide to buy their way into higher tier cards.
So far, neither EA nor DICE have made any comments about the loot system, but many gamers aren't too fond about its inclusion in a $60 AAA title.
We'll see how well it all plays out when Star Wars Battlefront II launches in November. In the meantime, you can enjoy the beta up until the middle of this week.
