Star Wars Battlefront 2 has been stirring up some serious controversy in the gaming community. Recently, EA has been experiencing some major backlash from fans via reddit. After a concerned fan questioned EA, wondering why they must still unlock series regulars Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker via a credit system after dishing out $80 for the deluxe preorder version of the game. EA had responded with a less than favorable comment, essentially stating that they want players to feel accomplished when unlocking a hero.
This response drew immediate negative attention from the gaming community, some stating this is EA’s way of saying “shut up and grind or cave and buy those loot crates.” This ended up being the highest downvote count in the history of reddit, accumulating over 500k downvotes to date. You can read more details about this from the news we covered earlier today.
The hero system in Star Wars Battlefront 2 is designed in such a way to make players “work” for their favorite heroes. The game comes with heroes already unlocked, such as Han Solo, Yoda, and Rey just to name a few. But, series regulars and fan favorites like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader are locked for everyone until you save up enough credits to unlock them. Credits are earned through gameplay and in game achievements, but it is also possible to earn credits via loot crates. If you want to know more about Battlefront 2’s loot crate system click here. Credits will be earned through duplicate Star Cards, in which real money will become a possibility in unlocking main characters of the series. This is bringing major concerns.
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EA originally had heroes purchase price as much as 60,000 credits but recently reduced the price by 75% due to fan feedback. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader now cost 15,000 credits, while Leia and Chewbacca cost 10,000 credits. This seems to be a step forward in the right direction for EA but not only before they had already taken three steps back by implementing a F2P system on a $60 AAA title. You see, instead of unlocking these fan favorite heroes via a progression system like most multiplayer games, EA wants you to buy them with in game currency.
The currency can be obtained via gameplay but the rate in which you acquire credits is a slow and grinding journey. Gamers that were able to get early access to the game has stated that they averaged about 250 credits per game with the average game lasting about twelve minutes. With the new 75% reduction, that is still over 60 games played, about 12 hours of gameplay, and not spending a single credit on anything else you may want, all to unlock one hero that was playable in the first game from the start. Even though EA had slashed those grind times down, it is still a flawed unlock system that encourages gamers to buy loot crates to possibly gain some extra credits and speed up the process.
Some gamers are defending the fact that the unlock system is fine the way it is. They would rather put in a ton of gameplay hours to unlock some of the bigger heroes, instead of everyone having access to them from the start. It creates a rewarding experience for those that put in the time. On the flip side, you have many gamers concerned that this is all a maneuver to drive loot crate sales in hopes that most gamers won’t have the time to grind out 72 hours to unlock all 6 locked heroes (according to the math above.)
I can see both sides having valid arguments, but I am leaning more toward the unfavorable outcry from the fans. Considering that most of the locked heroes are series mainstays, it’s silly to ask gamers to put in so much time and work to play as a character that was available to everyone from the start in the first game. It really feels less of a reward and more of a grind. I believe simply adding an unlock system based off of player progression would have been widely accepted and is favored among gamers, since this is typically how AAA multiplayer games work...
Listen, whether you’re a Sith or a Jedi, we want to know what you think. Has EA redeemed itself with this new unlock system or do you think there is still much to be changed?
