The Star Wars Battlefront beta was a lot of fun, especially once I dove into the Walker Assault mode, a 40-player recreation of the Battle of Hoth. (And super-especially when stuff like this happens.) I couldn't help but notice, however, that the Empire tended to win—a lot—and while that accurately reflects the outcome of the "real" battle in The Empire Strikes Back, quite a number of players weren't happy about it.
The real problem isn't that the Rebellion is almost destined to be defeated, as happened in the movie, but that there's no purpose to the loss. Rebel forces can't claim victory by, say, holding off the Imperial attack long enough for a particular number of transports to escape; the only option is to halt the Imperial invasion outright, which, to be clear, is incredibly hard to do. I was on just two winning Rebel teams during my time with the beta. Every other match was a steady, backward march to doom.
Luckily, EA is aware of the situation, and is working on it. "Nope!" Star Wars Battlefront Community Manager Matthew Everett tweeted to one player, who worried that he was bad at the game. "Its a balancing issue within the Beta." A few days prior to that, Lead Multiplayer Designer Dennis Brännvall tweeted that the mode is "too tough," adding, "We'll make changes based on the feedback and data."
@Focalin Nope! Its a balancing issue within the Beta.October 13, 2015
Figuring out what works and what doesn't is the point of a beta, of course, and in another tweet Brännvall repeated that EA is "gathering gameplay data from the beta and will balance things" prior to release. Even so, it's good to hear confirmation that the developers are paying attention.
Star Wars Battlefront comes out on November 17.
Thanks, GameSpot.
