We remember what these 7 years of agreement between EA and Disney have given to create Star Wars games, coinciding with the life of this generation.
In just two months the new generation will arrive, something that coincides with an anniversary such as the launch of what is still present with PS4 and Xbox One. In that year 2013, not only did the consoles we currently enjoy on the market, but that a very important agreement was also signed and that it seemed an almost inexhaustible source of profitability for Electronic Arts. The great Canadian company agreed with Disney to develop in the coming years a series of video games set in one of the largest licenses in history such as Star Wars, with millions of fans of the galactic saga licking their fingers. However, as we could see later, not everything was lights and there were many shadows, surely more than desired, until reaching the point where some authorized voices asked Disney to withdraw this juicy license from EA. Now, with the launch of Star Wars Squadrons, we review what this agreement has yielded. What has EA left us in this generation related to Star Wars?
SAYS in command doing what he does best
Although it was by no means EA’s first experience with Star Wars – it would launch the excellent and long-awaited Star Wars: The Old Republic in 2011 – the first fruit of the publisher-Disney agreement aimed to be a safe bet. DICE had not started the generation as well as possible, with a Battlefield 4 that was part of the launch catalog of both consoles, graphically and marvelously playable, but with many problems in its online performance, problems that took months to solve. However, there was no better study than the Swedish one to bring back a subsaga like Star Wars Battlefront, which already triumphed back in the first decade of the 21st century. If you wanted to develop a multiplayer with massive and visually spectacular battles, DICE was the team.
And with the release of the first game, they delivered just what they promised and was expected, albeit with nuances. First of all, and although it was already known, it was still a disappointment that Star Wars: Battlefront (2015) did not include an individual campaign. It is true that the Swedes did not stand out for their single player modes in previous Battlefield installments, but fans were waiting for an original story to enjoy before beating the copper online. Besides that, it was not the most generous game possible in content precisely, so the first foray into Star Wars left, mainly, a bittersweet taste. Its sequel aimed to correct the mistakes made in this original, and in part it did, but it also made other equally serious … or even more.
Star Wars: Battlefront II (2017) would maintain the studio’s own technical spectacular, as well as multiple game modes with massive battles in which DICE has specialized during its long history. Also, this time it did have a single player campaign, which to make matters worse would be canon, starring Iden Versio, leader of the Inferno Squad, and although it was not far from outstanding, at least it represented one more way to enjoy the game . But going back to the bulk of the title, the multiplayer, it is difficult to think of modes, as we said, as attractive as Galactic Assault or Starfighter Assault, developed by the speed specialists Criterion Games, but the problems came from the other side, and it was for a progress system that was not liked at all.
He did it not because of a peculiar card system – cards and multiplayer is a dangerous combination – to assign passive abilities to our favorite class, but because of the way in which these and other items could be obtained. We talked about the fact that Star Wars: Battlefront II was surely the game with which the most controversy was made in relation to the subject of loot boxes, since to be able to acquire objects to improve our soldier it helped greatly to go through the box -which amounts to pay to win-, to which must be added the randomness inherent in this system. We could get, indeed, some useful item, but also another for a class that we would never use, or cosmetic items without any use. In short: you can spend as much money as you want to facilitate your progress, but even that does not guarantee anything. Such was the stir caused that the matter would come as a result of this to several European parliaments, something that made EA was forced to give a complete turn to this system.
Thankfully not only did he do so, but the subsequent management of the Star Wars: Battlefront II content was absolutely exemplary. The release of several films made DICE have a good source of updates to add to the game in the form of new legendary characters, maps, game modes … Fortunately, and not a short time later, it would finally be the game that it should have been since A beginning.
Single player adventures in the galaxy
One of the revelation studies of the present generation has been, without a doubt, Respawn. Founded by Infinity Ward veterans who had previously worked on Call of Duty – a master’s degree in action games, of course – this rookie team surprised locals and strangers with Titanfall, a powerful multiplayer with the presence of mecha that paid an exclusivity for Xbox One which by March 2014 had a really scarce pool of consoles. It was its sequel, already multiplatform and with current consoles more than settled, the game that would consecrate them as a guarantee of success in the genre, thanks to a powerful multiplayer, once again, but also to one of the best campaigns that are remembered in a shooter. To top it off, they were able to shake Fortnite’s absolute leadership in battle royale with Apex Legends for a time, a title that, although it has been declining in popularity, has not suffered the vertiginous decline of other games in the genre. They would be in charge of offering us what has been the only adventure for a player set in Star Wars on PS4 and Xbox One: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
But before we talk about this great game, let’s go back a bit to what could and was not. After gifting us with one of the best horror sagas of the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation with Dead Space, Visceral Games was in charge of what seemed to be a more than promising adventure. In command of its script, an industry veteran who came from dealing with the history of several Uncharted installments, and as it would become evident later, she did not leave Naughty Dog in the possible way. Unfortunately, this project would end up being canceled, but not only that, but the study ended up completely closed in a radical decision by EA, which shelved a team that had earned a certain prestige for the aforementioned.
Let’s go back to talking about something more pleasant such as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a story starring Cal Kestis, and that like the Star Wars: Battlefront II campaign, is canon in the saga. This time we were facing a third-person adventure with some of the key elements of the genre in recent years: platforms, demanding combat, progress system, backtracking, a multitude of secrets … If it had worn a technical section of greater caliber, surely it could have reached higher levels -even more- of quality, but that does not detract one iota of the merit of Respawn, which goes beyond the “simple” development of a great game: they would surely be able to convince EA itself that it is possible to reap a sales success with a game without multiplayer modes, solely and exclusively focused on your individual story.
Fortunately, the future of the saga is more hopeful than it has been so far, and that despite the bad times, if we stop to think about what has been enjoyed during all these years in relation to Star Wars, the balance it’s probably mostly positive. The first reviews of Star Wars Squadrons are positive, and Respawn is already in charge of a sequel to Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, an open secret after the first weeks of the game on the market. Surely they will not be far from the only projects in the making, and EA has already promised to enhance the license, especially considering how much it has learned from the mistakes made during these seven years.
