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When Star Wars Battlefront 2 was announced, many were excited to hear just how much content would be packed in comparison to its predecessor and even more thrilled in that it would be free. It seems the catch has been revealled in the beta, however, with abilities and weapons being locked behind an unbalanced loot crate system.
Loot crates are the hot topic of the year, having been implemented in every other release, from PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds trialing them despite still being in Early Access and Middle-earth: Shadow of War controversially including them in its single player game. It's no surprise that they are included within one of the most anticipated multiplayer games of the year.
The way Battlefront 2's system works is that players gain new abilities and weapons from opening loot crates, in which are received in various ways such as leveling up, gifting and dailies, but most importantly they can be bought using in-game and/or real currency. Anything received is chosen completely at random, and there's a big chance you won't get an ability or weapon at all, but scrap used to manually craft what it is you want. This seems fair, apart from the amount of scrap received is insidiously low in comparison to the high amount required to craft.
Alongside gameplay-effecting factors, you might receive standard cosmetics we are accustomed to seeing within loot crates, such as emotes and victory poses. While there is still time for developers DICE and publisher EA to tweak the system, as it stands, the way in which loot crates work could impact heavily on the game itself.
With the introduction of Star Cards and their respective bronze, silver and gold tiers, this makes the game all the more pay-to-win. Star Cards affect how each class plays, including the heroes and villains spanning across all three generations. So not only is it a random effort to collect each Star Card out there, but also cross your fingers and hope you'll get the best version of each.
To make matters worse, awarded currency comes in at a flat rate for the team regardless of performance, making it even harder to strategically earn to earn everything the game has to offer. It's safe to say that the randomness prompts grinding and the grinding is there to wear the player down into purchasing into the microtransactions – an unacceptable feature in a full priced game.
KitGuru Says: I am hoping that EA addresses these issues as soon as possible given that the fan response to its new strategy was overwhelming when it was originally announced. The best thing that players can do in the meantime is to voice their opinion on the matter, particularly on the subreddit and social media pages. Did you play the Battlefront 2 beta? How did you feel the grinding was?
It’s a fun casual shooter. But the loot box system is pure cancer
The loot box system is even worse when you consider it’s linked to the level of a class, and nothing can be done with duplicate cards.
It’s almost as if EA is opposed to having a good game. Sounds like management are insisting on monetizing games beyond reasonable DLC (Witcher series) and loot boxes are the new attempt at quick cash.
well, i believe all maps (traditional DLC) will be free, so that’s good. I will be buying it and playing it, so i will just earn all my stuff like normal. Story and Starfighter Assult are well worth the purchase in my book. I hope we get at LEAST 5 Starfighter Assault maps!
You do know just how long it will take to unlock everything/just what is in the beta? It comes to about 3600 hours due to how little scrap you get……So I hope “earn all my stuff like normal” also means you’re unemployed as there is no way a normal person can unlock everything.
Game just fell off my radar. Sucks too — I’m a huge Star Wars nerd. I have taken many games off my radar for this kind of microtransaction bullshit. This is just another one for that pile.
EA greed strikes once again and worse than ever
If there is a way to punish this actions we must do it now! DONT BUY THE GAME!
Or find a way to punish them! We cant pay 60€ for a game plus all the dlc’s they are going to release plus microtransactions that being unfair to the players! Screw this! I Played the beta i enjoyed but now im uninstalling and i will pay for it only if they drop it to 20€
I have to agree with you I don’t mind grinding for anything, if anything it makes it more fun to have something to grind for as i blast people!
Map DLC though was always a bad idea as it fractures the player base, so making new maps free isn’t a nod to the customer, but still a decision most likely made by purse strings rather than public relations.
With the loot system being woefully one-sided, it’s clear that EA are still in the business of shafting gamers and treating them as suckers rather than valued customers.
but i mean the maps being a non-issue means no fragmentation (i think Halo did that). so i am pumped about that. I will have to wait and seehow easy it is to get boxes in the final game, but yeah. Still very fun.
I am somehow EXTREMELY good at Starfighter Assault. I usually get MVP, most Damage, and most kills. (although, Empire was WAY more fun to play. normal TIE is the best!). I need to get better at the ground games though. tons of people played BF1, and i only played the beta, and a little on my cousin’s PS4. I’m on PC, and it looks gorgeous.
Well you may have been leading the boards in Beta, but if you come up against people with rare cards and 40% more dmg output with shield boosts, suddenly your skill is now redundant because the other player, due to nothing other than cards, gets game breaking bonuses.
I get that, i just don’t think it will affect me. You unlock cards by playing. Even if you dropped $1mil day one on boxes, i believe you only get stuff from your level and down. and if you craft a higher level card, you can’t equip till that level.
I will be playing, so i will gettin boxes/levels/cards
Nope, that’s not how it works. As it’s RNG based, it’s simple maths – the more cards you go through, the higher the chance of getting better cards, therefore, the person that gets more cards has a higher chance of getting game-breaking buffs.
Also I don’t think the cards have a level limit on them considering that your class level is determined by how many cards for that class you have. you may think it won’t affect you, but if you’re only rocking a 5% shield buff against someone who has dropped $300+ on cards, then his boosts will tear through you while compensating for bad accuracy (RoF buff) and bad positioning (~40% shield buff), negating skill in favour of card buffs.
I’m just going by the official DICE post….
“There are many things you can earn in the game, including weapons, attachments, credits, Star Cards, Emotes, Outfits and Victory Poses.
As a balance goal, we’re working towards having the most powerful items in the game only earnable via in-game achievements.
Crates will include a mix of of Star Cards, Outfits, Emotes or Victory Poses.
Players earn crates by completing challenges and other gameplay milestones, or by purchasing them with in-game credits or Crystals, our premium currency.
If you get a duplicate Star Card in a crate, you will get crafting parts which you can then use to help upgrade the Star Card of your choice.
And lastly, you have to earn the right to be able to upgrade Star Cards and unlock most Weapons. You can only upgrade or unlock them if you have reached a high enough rank, which is determined by playing the game.”
Yeah that’s the update they gave after the cards were universally panned by every site and most players. Here’s hoping that it’s actually balanced, but as it’s clear someone in EA is trying to use the star card system as a way of generating extra revenue, I suspect that a lot of very powerful buffs will still find their way into the RNG system.