Battlefront – A New Hope Pt.2

Continuing on from part 1 on the new Star Wars Battlefront I wanted to make a quick post highlighting a contentious issue; controllable vs. on-rails AT-ATs. For anyone wanting to see where the bar is for how niche a problem I’m preparing to wade in on; here you go.

All Terrain-Armoured Transports 

(you're welcome)

In Battlefront 2 (BF2) AT-ATs could be spawned into on Hoth and charged at a snail’s pace into battle; swatting away just about anything that came near it. The trailers and information on the new AT-ATs we’ve received so far tell us that this is not the case in the new Battlefront (NBF). In the new game mode dedicated to the behemoths, Walker Assault, the Imperial Walkers lumber on under AI control. A gunner (possibly two) can take control of the head mounted weapons and radio-in for a powerful orbital bombardment.

Some have argued this has taken away from one of their favourite moments from BF2 and embittered the sweet taste of full Star Wars fantasy immersion. And, as usual, millions of voices cried out in terror that their childhood was, again, ruined. Well I’m here to silence those voices.

Take a look at this clip from the Battle of Hoth in BF2. At the 5:45 mark you’ll notice the walker is stuck against an invisible wall in its assault on the base.

The pilot has kept the walker moving despite now compromising its use on the field. This unfortunately was not an isolated occurrence on this map. In fact it was so common all I had to do to find it was Google “Battle of Hoth Battlefront 2”.

DICE’s solution to this problem is to remove player control of the vehicle’s movements but keep control of the weapons. Thus one player cannot get the AT-AT trapped and ruin a spawn point for their whole team and the walker’s weapons are kept at their most effective by staying on the optimal path.

-Norris