Battlefront 2: Possible Snoke Revealed
As the dust settles on the PR disaster that was the release of Star Wars: Battlefront 2, read about that here, I’m happy to inform Star Warriors that there is more to the game then the micro-transactions & locked characters. For the first time in the EA Battlefront series there’s a single player campaign! It’s a great storyline that takes place just after Return of the Jedi. Gamers run across some of the Original trilogy favorites and new TFA/TLJ ones too! Spoilers! Beware: there may be some big SPOILERS about the Emperor and Supreme Leader Snoke if you play the game to its end! SPOILERS!
Campaign mode focuses on Imperial special ops officer, Iden Versio. Iden is the leader of Inferno Squad, the Empires secret special black ops unit. Politics be dammed, Iden is the daughter of Admiral Versio. The Admiral is her direct commander and a staunch Imperial Loyalist. Iden is an elite soldier, a strong leader, and a loyal daughter. Iden has tough choices between her duty to the Empire and what is right for the galaxy.Iden’s team has two other members, Del and Hask. Del, is a communications expert, and a good hearted man, loyal to Iden. Hask is ambitious, driven, and fiercely loyal to the empire. Iden also relies heavily on her personal seeker droid, ID10. What Star Wars story would be complete without a cute droid? ID10 is a mini-seeker droid and all business! He’s is an expert hacker and also gets into the action when needed. A BB-8 paint job once Iden swithes to the good guys felt a little cheesy and marketed but still forgivable. ID10 is awesome and I’d still buy the drone! The character development and acting in the campaign mode is strong. The Rebel Alliance is made up of former Imperial soldiers and defectors. Battlefront 2 shows viewers how a loyal soldier can go from Imperial to Rebel, a plot we’ve not seen happen in a modern Star Wars game. Unpredictable story twists and ominous foreshadowing make this a solid addition to the new Star Wars canon.
The game play in the single player mission is an ideal chance for players to get familiar with the mechanics of BF2. Pre-determied weapon load outs for every mission help the gamer become accustomed to the different weapons and styles of play.The Star Wars universe is made up of grand and dynamic worlds. Campaign mode takes players to several of them! Hoth, Pillio, Takodana, all beautifully modeled. Battlefron 2 has gorgeous textures and environmental rendering. Players get a sense of scale to these stunning alien planets we’ve seen on the screen. Downed aircraft and local wild and civilian life run around in a panic as battles surround them. Single player doesn’t just focus on playing as Iden. Gamers get to play as other characters from the Star Wars universe like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, a bearded Han Solo, and Kylo Ren. The campaign is made up mostly of ground missions. The story does spend some time in space for classic dogfighting action. No Star Wars game is complete without a little space boom boom! Flight in Battlefront 2 is improved and additionally difficult to master. The added ability to roll the spacecraft leads to more dynamic ship to ship combat and maneuvering.
Battlefront 2 does have some potential big spoilers, most of which are in the video above. During a cutscene Kylo-Ren is torturing Iden’s love and potential baby daddy, Del. Kylo-Ren tells Del that “She didn’t change him…the birth of his daughter did not change him”. A lot of Rey fans took to the Internet pointing out that this was a potential spoiler to who Rey’s parents are. I personally do not believe this to be true. It is already on record several times that Episode I through IX is known as “the Skywalker saga”. It wouldn’t make sense that the hero of the latter part of the saga would be spawned from two random video game characters. However, there was a mention later on in the same cutscene that I thought was very interesting and potentially a big Spoiler and plot point for The Last Jedi. There’s new DLC that will be released on December 14th, just before the release of “The Last Jedi” and I have a strong suspicion as to why. During this end scene, Del has been captured on Pillio. Pillio is the home planet to the emperor’s secret vault of treasures and the place where Luke apparently discovered a compass that was calling to him through the Force. During the early missions of the game, The Emperor has a post-mortum presence in a droid messenger that is carrying out his “last wishes”. Decades later, Gleb an Imperial Officer and an older scarred Hask are speaking about Del’s Fate. Gleb mentions that “Project Resurrection” can continue as planned. The game time line is just before the Force Awakens as Kylo is looking for the map that leads him to Jakku at the start of TFA. Knowing what we know about cloning technology and the curious half-grown look to Snoke, I believe that Supreme Leader Snoke IS the clone of the Emperor. The Emperor had sent Inferno Squad to his vault of treasures on Pillio and instructed them to destroy everything inside of it. Luke Skywalker was on the planet and the same time and saved Del’s life. In return, Del didn’t try to stop Luke when he found, what we assume, is the map to Ahch-To, the planet that he’s shown living on at the end of TFA. What other potential treasures was the Emperor hiding in his vault? The vault was never shown to be destroyed in game. Hask and Gleb allude that Del “discovering their plans”. Was Snoke still being incubated and that’s the reason for his strange appearance? One thing is for sure we will all have the answers soon enough. The DLC for battlefront two drops on December 14, The Last Jedi opens in theaters across the country on December 15th. May the force be with us all!
On a side note regarding Star Cards and Microtransactions: In nearly a week of playing I have only earned enough points in multiplayer games to play a hero character twice. Buying and unlocking Luke or Darth Vader Star Cards would still have done me no good at all! Gamers need a certain amount of skill per game to even be given the opportunity to play those characters. I have, however, earned well over 70k credits in casually playing just a couple of hours a day. Nerds were upset over nothing! If you were put off by the perceived “fiasco” and not buying the game, don’t be. Battlefront 2 is a lot of fun and does a fantastic job in bringing the Star Wars universe to life for true Star Warriors!
