Star Wars Battlefront II

"Next year we'll see Star Wars Battlefront back with bigger and better worlds, because we now have the new movies to work off [and] not just the historical movies that we used before."

- Blake Jorgensen, Electronic Arts chief financial officer

Star Wars Battlefront II is a video game created by Electronic Arts and developed by DICE, Motive Studios and Criterion Games. It was released on November 17, 2017. The game is a sequel to the 2015's Star Wars Battlefront and includes content from all three trilogies.

Story
The storyline predominantly follows Iden Versio, commander of the Imperial Special Forces unit Inferno Squad. Upon witnessing the destruction of the second Death Star, Versio's troops look to her for direction. Versio tells her troops that they will avenge the Emperor.

The story will span thirty years, beginning in the waning months of the Galactic Civil War and concluding around the destruction of Starkiller Base.

There will be segments in the campaign where other characters are playable as well, including Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren, Lando Calrissian and Princess Leia Organa.

Escaping from the Invincible Faith
"The Empire's time has come."

- Commander Iden Versio to the Invincible Faith's captain

Somewhere in the galaxy, a UT-60D U-wing starfighter/support craft and two RZ-1 A-wing interceptors are on approach to the Rebel Alliance MC80 Liberty type star cruiser, Invincible Faith with the prisoner, Iden Versio, Commander of the Imperial Special Forces unit, Inferno Squad. Versio is interrogated by the starship's captain, who implores Versio to hand over secret codes to unlock an intercepted Imperial transmission. Versio refuses and awaits as her droid sneaks through the star cruiser's ventilation systems and frees her from her cell.

The Rebels are unaware that Versio allowed herself to be captured in order to erase the transmission, thus not allowing the Emperor's plan to be compromised. Versio successfully erases the transmission, triggering an alarm that alerts the Rebel troopers on the ship of her escape. Versio fights her way through the ship, eventually reaching an airlock and launching herself into space where she is intercepted by the Corvus, a Raider-class corvette and the headquarters of Inferno Squad. Before the Rebel star cruiser can fire, the Corvus jumps into hyperspace. Versio walks to the bridge and confirms the mission's success to Agents Gideon Hask and Del Meeko.

The Battle of Endor
A time jump occurs to the Battle of Endor depicted in Return of the Jedi, where Admiral Garrick Versio witnesses the destruction of the Executor and death of Admiral Piett. On Endor, Iden, Hask, and Meeko secure the perimeter around the ruined shield generator, and watch with shock and horror as the second Death Star explodes. Vice Admiral Sloane orders a full retreat, leaving Imperial stormtroopers and ground forces stranded on Endor, though Admiral Versio awaits as Inferno Squad recover TIE fighters and escape the planet, which is being overrun by Rebel forces. The Corvus is attacked during their escape, but Inferno fends off Rebel bombers. Iden meets with her father on his Star Destroyer Eviscerator while Hask and Meeko remain on the Corvus.

Operation: Cinder Begins
"Operation: Cinder is the last command of our Emperor, and the first step in securing our future."

- Admiral Garrick Versio to his daughter, Commander Iden Versio

Above Vardos, Admiral Versio presents a Messenger droid to his daughter and confirms to Iden that the Emperor has died. The Messenger droid, donned in red robes reminiscent of the Emperor's royal guard, displays a hologram of the late Emperor issuing his last command: to begin Operation: Cinder at once. Iden attempts to ask what their target is, but the Messenger refuses to communicate with her, stating that she is not verified.

Defending Fondor
Admiral Versio sends his daughter to an Imperial shipyard above Fondor to protect Moff Raythe and his Star Destroyer Dauntless, which hosts experimental satellites vital to the success of Operation: Cinder. At Fondor, the Dauntless comes under attack from a Rebel Star Cruiser, but Iden is able to board the Rebel starship with Hask and disable its ion cannons. Afterwards, they are ordered by Moff Raythe to attack the Imperial shipyard itself, which Iden is skeptical of, but nevertheless follows his orders and frees his Star Destroyer from the locked clamps. Afterwards, the Dauntless opens fire on the Rebel cruiser, destroying it.

Mission to Pillio
"If the Empire is here, then what I sensed is true. There must be something special about this place."

- Luke Skywalker

After, Inferno Agent Del Meeko is sent to the uninhabited world of Pillio and ordered to destroy one of Palpatine's hidden bases, when he is attacked and captured by the native wildlife. During this mission, he is encountered by Luke Skywalker, who helps him disarm the base's defenses and fend off the local wildlife. Upon discovering that the base is nothing more than a storehouse for Palpatine's spoils of conquest, Meeko and Luke part amicably, and Meeko himself begins to question the Empire's goals and motives after Luke lets him leave, giving him advice on being better than the Empire.

Skirmish on Vardos
Following this, Iden and Inferno Squad are sent to the Imperial-controlled world of Vardos, in order to retrieve Protectorate Gleb, who is deemed by Versio to be important enough to rescue from Operation Cinder. As the satellites for Operation Cinder begin destroying the planet with terrible storms, Iden and Meeko as well as most of Inferno Squad try to evacuate the civilians as well as Gleb, causing Agent Hask to betray them. Disillusioned by the Empire's desires for destruction on Vardos, Iden and Meeko evacuate civilians and escape off world, now traitors to the Empire. Hask, meanwhile, is promoted for successfully retrieving Gleb.

Seeking out the Rebel Alliance
After escaping the Imperial Fleet, Iden and Del, now branded Traitors, seek out the Rebel Alliance and are taken to General Lando Calrissian, who gives them the choice to help stop Operation: Cinder when it is deployed on Naboo, or to escape and make new lives for themselves.

Defending Naboo
Choosing to help, they aid Leia Organa in helping protect Naboo, destroying the satellites for Operation: Cinder and later reactivating the Planet's defenses when Imperial forces attack Theed. After the Planet is liberated, Inferno Squad joins the New Republic, seeking to right the wrongs they committed and help liberate the galaxy.

Finding Han Solo on Takodana
"I need you to find Han Solo."

- Senator Leia Organa to Commander Iden Versio

Six months later, Commander Versio and Inferno Squad is tasked by New Republic Senate Senator Leia Organa with finding Han Solo on Takodana after he had gone missing.

Mission on Bespin
Iden and Meeko travel to Bespin to infiltrate a cloud platform and capture Admiral Versio. They will only find a trap set by Commander Hask and they will have to fight their way out of the floating city.

Infiltrating the Imperial site on Sullust
Lando Calrissian and Shriv travel to Sullust to a seemingly abandoned Imperial site. After entering the base, they will understand that it is all but abandoned and AT-AT production is at full regime. Lando will manage to bring the production to a halt after sabotaging the lava pumps, thus flooding the entire site with scorching lava.

The Battle of Jakku
"This battle could be the end of the war. Let's get in, and we do what we can to help."

- Iden Versio to Inferno Squad

The Rebels attack the Imperial fleet rallying on Jakku, Iden stops a crashed Star Destroyer from launching further TIE Bombers and will help her fellow rebels to stop two attacking AT-ATs by directing orbital bombardments on them. After detecting Admiral Versio's flagships, Iden tries to board it to take him as a prisoner, but he will refuse and decide to go down with his ship.

Decades later
Decades later, Kylo Ren travels to Pillio on board his shuttle to extract the location of Lor San Tekka and the Map to Skywalker from Del Meeko.

Overview
The game will return to the roots of the classic Battlefront games, using a class-based system for infantry troopers with each class having a shared progression system, but with equipment differing depending on faction.

The classes will be Officer, Assault, Heavy, and Specialist.

More vehicles will be included for all factions, including Tauntauns and the classic AT-RT. Space battles will also be making a return with new starships. Vehicles will also be a part of a new customization and progression system.

Vehicles and heroes are opened up for play by gaining Battle Points through play, instead of picking up a token as previous.

Playable hero and villain characters from the films will be expanded upon, with players able to customize skills to their liking. Creative Director Bernd Diemer stated that he wanted the heroes to have more depth rather than feeling like a momentary power up.

In multiplayer, the game will feature "loot crates" with random upgraded gear and items. These loot crates can be unlocked with natural progression through the game or by spending real-world currency.

Gamemodes

 * Campaign: The game will include a brand-new canon storyline which bridges the gap between Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens.


 * Arcade: This game mode brings offline singleplayer (and two player coop on consoles) gameplay with and versus AI in different battle scenarios.


 * Multiplayer: Multiplayer includes different online game modes which can support up to 40 simultaneous players.
 * Galactic Assault: 20v20 battles with unique objectives for each map.
 * Starfighter Assault: 12v12 space battles with 20 AI ships per team with unique objectives for maps both in space and in the skies of planets.
 * Strike: 8v8 mode where two teams compete in objective based scenarios.
 * Blast: 10v10 team deathmatch.
 * Heroes vs. Villains: 4v4 hero duels involving characters from all three eras.

Development
The game's development was revealed in an interview with an EA executive in 2016. More information, including its development by DICE and Motive Studios, was revealed during EA's Livestream during E3 2016.

The game's development is a collaboration between DICE, who are developing the multiplayer, Motive Studios, who are developing the single player mode, and Criterion Software, who are developing the vehicle and flight controls. The game will include content from all three film trilogies. A goal of the game's story is to humanize the Empire in ways that haven't been seen before.

On April 12, 2017 a teaser trailer was leaked giving confirmation that the game would include content from all three main Star Wars eras, a single player campaign, and heroes such as Kylo Ren, Rey, Darth Maul, and Yoda. EA premiered this trailer the following day during their panel at 2017's Celebration Orlando. A gameplay trailer for the game was released on June 10, 2017 during the Battlefront II panel at E3 2017.

The singleplayer trailer was released in October 2017, with a preview on The Star Wars Show.

While working on the game, the development team notably consulted Emil Fortune's reference book Star Wars: Galactic Atlas. Additionally, the team worked with Lucasfilm Ltd.'s Story Group on the campaign and characters, including making Luke Skywalker's character arc was consistent, and keeping the game in line with other Star Wars visuals, according to Game Director Mark Thompson.

Release
In April 2017 during the presentation at Star Wars Celebration, it was confirmed that the game would be released on November 17, 2017 and November 14 for those pre ordering the Deluxe Elite Trooper Edition. An open beta was held from October 4 to October 11.

Reception
Pre Release

When the game was announced it was received with mostly positive reaction by most fans, largely because of the inclusion of all three cinematic eras, a singleplayer campaign, and improved gameplay from the previous reboot of the series. However, after the open beta, the game has received criticism for the use of loot boxes and crates, with many players worried over the supposed introduction of a "pay to win" system and random progression not tied to player skill.

The game, alongside EA itself, was lambasted for locking Heroes and making players "grind" large amounts, some estimated to be around 40 hours to unlock a single character, which in turn would encourage the purchases of Loot crates to make it easier for the player to unlock them. When EA responded to the criticism on Reddit, their comment received several hundred thousand downvotes, more than any other Reddit comment by magnitudes.

After the huge backlash and reception of the loot crate system, EA and DICE completely removed micro transactions temporarily from the game on launch to focus on refining the loot crate system for another time.

Post Release

The Game was met with mixed to positive reception from critics averaging out around 6.5 to a 7 or 74 on metacritic, with most critic's pointing out the improvement over the first game with content but criticizing the story and the progression system calling it convoluted and messy,also a few critics pointed out a lot of bugs and glitches which appeared predominantly on the Xbox One.

The Game was met with huge amounts of negativity from fans and casual users with the metacritic score being one of the lowest ranked games of all time with 0.8/10

Editions
There are two editions of the game available: the Standard edition and the Elite Trooper Deluxe Edition.

The Elite Trooper Deluxe Edition will include Rey and Kylo Ren The Last Jedi skins, early access to the game, and game upgrades for weapons and Heroes.

Downloadable content
DICE hinted that the game will not include a season pass, unlike the previous game, instead they wanted to find a better alternative in order to avoid "fragmenting" the community of players. It was confirmed during EA Play 2017 that there would not be a season pass; rather, all downloadable content will be free for all players and will be included in events called Seasons.

The Last Jedi Season
The first Season expansion, The Last Jedi Season is set to be released on December 5 and is centered around Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, the eighth film in the Star Wars saga which is set to release on December 15, 2017. It will feature a space map over D'Qar, the new planet Crait, Resistance hero Finn and First Order villain Captain Phasma.

Battlefront II Resurrection
The Last Jedi Season will also feature a campaign addition available December 13, named Battlefront II: Resurrection, which details Commander Iden Versio's journey during the First Order's rise to power and will contain several chapters.

References to other Star Wars media

 * The opening scene for the campaign features a starship in space, mirroring the openings of the Star Wars movies.
 * During the Battle of Endor level, Garrick Versio mentions that Vice Admiral Rae Sloane ordered all Imperial ships to retreat. The order first appeared in the short story "The Levers of Power".
 * Operation: Cinder first appeared on the second issue of the comic series Star Wars: Shattered Empire.
 * During the Mission to Bespin, several references to Governor Adelhard and the Uprising can be heard. The Uprising first appeared in the mobile video game Star Wars: Uprising.
 * During the Battle of Jakku level, it can be heard on the X-wing cockpit several communication chatter, among those it can be heard references to Wedge Antilles, Snap Wexley and Phantom Squadron. Also Thane Kyrell, Kendy Idele, and the Inflictor can be heard. Thane and Kendy first appeared in the novel Lost Stars.
 * Garrick Versio mentions that Gallius Rax expected Versio to flee, this is part of the Contingency. Both Gallius and the Contigency appeared first in the Aftermath trilogy.