Star Wars Battlefront awakens November 17, free 'Battle of Jakku' DLC on December 8

During yesterday's opening day of the Star Wars Celebration convention, a closed-door presentation began with a notice that all footage revealed was taken from in-game footage on PlayStation 4. The camera pans over the forest moon of Endor, one of the iconic settings from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. As camouflaged Rebels carefully tread forward, they're quickly discovered by Stormtroopers on speeder bikes. The John Williams score kicks in the fight begins. The Rebels are able to ward off Imperial troops, some even giving out a classic Wilhelm scream as they fall off a high ledge. Suddenly, the Rebels are stopped in their tracks when faced with the mechanical AT-ST walker.

That's the first footage revealed of Star Wars Battlefront, the revival of the classic multiplayer series and the first collaborative effort between Electronic Arts, DICE, and Lucasfilm. Just as the with the games in the old series, this game will pit teams of Rebels against the evil forces of the Empire. And players will get to live those battles anew starting on November 17.

The presentation continued with Rebels using high-powered weaponry to take down the AT-ST before going up against growing numbers of Imperial Stormtroopers. The infantry was soon flanked by even-larger AT-AT walkers. With the Rebels outgunned, the player on-screen dodged enemy fire and approached a call station that allowed him to call for reinforcements. As the AT-AT shuffled closer, backup arrived in the form of an X-Wing bombing run, which destroyed the massive walker in short order. The number of Imperials kept growing, though, and the Rebels quickly retreated to a nearby station. A teammate ran ahead and was quickly Force choked and thrown to the ground, as a familiar labored breathing could be heard around the corner. The player turned the corner to find Darth Vader, who easily deflected all blaster shots and struck the player down to end the demo.

Much of the battle unfolded like a child's fantasy, an atmosphere that DICE is intentionally shooting for. After months of bringing the developers' children into the office to play with their Star Wars toys and taking notes, DICE is looking to craft a multiplayer experience that allows players to live out their Star Wars fantasies.

"That became the vision for Star Wars Battlefront," DICE design director Niklas Fegraeus told the attendees on-hand. "It became to immerse players in an authentic Star Wars experience, creating their own Star Wars battles. So with that vision established, we flew over here to take it to Lucasfilm. Fortunately, they loved it. They loved it very, very much and what they did was even better. They opened up their sacred vaults to us. We got access to the holiest of the holy: the archives. The Death Star, all the props, and all the stuff we loved from the films."

The challenge for DICE quickly became how to take advantage of the props they now had at their fingertips. That's when the studio looked to photogrammetry, the process of making measurements based on surrounding photographs. This process will allow the studio to create fully accurate images of vehicles, blasters, droids, characters, and many other aspects of the Star Wars universe based on the actual props. Likewise, DICE has been touring the real-world locations used to shoot iconic series scenes, such as the aforementioned Endor moon, the desert landscape of Tatooine, and the icy world of Hoth.

DICE's unprecedented access also extends to the realm of sound. Skywalker Sound eagerly provided the Battlefront team with all sound assets used from the movies. That includes the John Williams score, but it also includes the many recognizable sound effects from across the two trilogies. To capture this sound, DICE is aiming high for PC users, in particular. Star Wars Battlefront will be the first PC game to utilize Dolby Atmos sound.

As for gameplay itself, Battlefront games will center around multiplayer, in which players can switch between first-person or third-person perspectives. The game is set to offer 40-player online games. The Endor session shown at the start of the presentation was a part of a mode called Walker Assault, which will allow the Imperial side to access walkers, while the Rebels try and fight back with their array of tools and their available backup. More details on this game mode are expected to come soon. Other competitive game modes will introduce dogfights that utilize the Rebel and Imperial fleets, as well as recognizable vessels like the Millennium Falcon.

Players will be able to level their character up individually, as they would normally do in a multiplayer game of this type. However, Battlefront will also introduce a Partner system that allows players to form a tag team with a friend. The key component of this feature is that partners will be able to share unlocks, so if one person specializes in one kind of weapon and another partner dives into another, they can both share the unlocks from their respective weapons.

In addition to unlocks, players will find power-ups along the battlefield. These pickups will includes shields, explosives, vehicles like X-Wings or Imperial walkers, or a Hero transformation power-up that turns players into some of the greatest legends of the Star Wars movies, like Darth Vader or Boba Fett.

Those looking to practice their skills before jumping online will also be able to fly solo for special Missions. These challenges will all be based on recognizable scenes from the Star Wars films. A single player can participate or they can join up with a friend online or locally via split-screen.

Of course, with a certain Star Wars movie set to release a month after Battlefront's release, DICE is also being given special content related to it. The Battle of Jakku, the key battle with Imperial holdouts that takes place in the immediate aftermath of "Return of the Jedi," will be added to Battlefront as free DLC. Players will get to see Jakku as it was before they see it as it eventually becomes in this December's "The Force Awakens." Those that own Star Wars Battlefront will be able to pick this DLC up free of charge on December 8. Anyone that takes the plunge and pre-orders will be able to pick it up a week early on December 1.

DICE looks to have the building blocks for something special, assuming they can follow up on what's been given to them. There will be plenty more to see from Star Wars Battlefront between now and its release date. The Force will awaken on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on November 17.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?