Seven tips for getting the most out of the Star Wars Battlefront 2 multiplayer Beta

The Star Wars Battlefront II Beta is upon us, and there are a few changes to the last game that may take some getting used to. We got chance to play the multiplayer beta and here are our seven tips to get started on the battlefield.

Choose your playstyle

It may seem like a small thing, but the original Pandemic Studios take on the Star Wars Battlefront games had the player playing in third person. Battlefront II defaults to first person play, but if you go into the options you can switch out to the original third person perspective should you wish. Personally, I prefer to play it in third person as it feels the most familiar to me, and, of course I get to see the wonderful detailing on my chosen character. You can also tweak your aerial controls in the menu. Starfighter Assault has a more complex system of controls that includes a manual roll, leading target reticle etc., but if these are not to your taste you can simplify them a little should you wish.

Choose your class

Classes are back in Battlefront, so the first thing you are going to want to do is spend some time understanding what each one does. There are four broad classes that can be tweaked through the use of Star Cards (more on that later), but the core classes are divided into Heavy, Officer, Assault and Specialist. Each class has its own specific skills and abilities, and each take a different function when playing. The Officer is a support class that provides rally support to the team through a brief increase in their stats and can also drop a turret. The Heavy class has a shield, is slower moving but can hit harder. Assault is your basic soldier, well rounded with a good amount of speed and arsenal, and finally the Specialist who utilises a sniper and can spot enemies on the battlefield through the use of thermal binoculars.

There are ship classes too!

Not only are there classes for when you are playing modes on the ground, there are also three broad classes that you can play around with in the air too in the aerial assault mode – Starfighter Assault. These classes also have their own skills and abilities and each one has its uses although they are not quite as interdependent as the foot soldiers. The ships are split by Bomber, Interceptor and Fighter. Interceptors are fast and agile whereas the Bomber is slow but heavy hitting and the Fighter is a blend of the two offering decent speed and weapon damage.

Get your Battlepoints

In the first game more powerful characters and vehicles were obtained by locating pick-ups that were littered around the map. In Battlefront II that has been removed and now you can earn them through the use of “battle points”. Battle points are earned through every action you carry out in the game: get a kill, assist in a kill, protect an objective, defend an objective etc.. Furthermore, if you stick with your squad you earn these points at a faster rate as you can earn multipliers for working together.

Spend your points wisely

You can spend your points on a variety of things in the respawn menu, things like Heroes, or vehicles or special characters much like the Honour Guard you could spawn as in the last game. Take some time to understand what each reinforcement does as each one has a different strength and weakness depending on the situation.

Play the objective

It may be an obvious statement, but Battlefront II is an objective based game. Strike, Galactic Assault and Starfighter Assault all have opportunities to attack and defend throughout the course of match. By playing the objective and spending your battle points to work towards that objective you are more likely to earn more battle points at an increased rate than someone who is running around on their own trying to get kills. Besides, if you want to play as the Millennium Falcon you are going to need an awful lot of points to be able to buy it!

Use Star Cards

Star Cards have received a bit of an overhaul, whereas in the last game they were used as a kind of perk system now they complement the classes. You can find star cards that will change your class’ core abilities or do things like speed up the cooldown on an ability or weapon. You could effectively have a number of Heavy loadouts each customised completely differently giving you lots of options during a match.