Star Wars Battlefront 2 is calling. It's been a week since I jumped into EA's Darth Vader-level redemption arc, and yesterday I found myself daydreaming of my next Separatist match while frying burgers. It's, er, a little hard to put down.
But unlike my usual multiplayer haunts, I'm spending most of my time in Star Wars Battlefront 2 fighting the game's AI with pals. Though it started as a quick offline session to get up-to-speed with the controls, nipping into a co-op scrap became routine as soon as we realized Battlefront 2's PvE element does not mess around. That's right: in the year of our lord 2025, there's a shooter with AI worth fighting – and it's taking me right back to the bygone PS2 days of offline skirmish modes.
Roger-roger
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For the original Star Wars Battlefront 2, the closest I got to multiplayer was feeding my brother to the rancor beneath Jabba's throne room in splitscreen. Truth be told, I didn't entirely understand the internet: as a particularly sad example, I would often sit with my PSP in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite's Gathering Hall, convinced that one day another person would walk in and play with me (that day never came – multiplayer was LAN-only).
That sob story segue is all to say: I really didn't understand the internet. As a result, a lot of my time on the PS2 – and later, Xbox 360 – was spent in games with AI skirmish-y modes. Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2005) was phenomenal for jumping in and scrapping over command points, as was its high fantasy sibling The Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Speaking of Middle-earth, I've got fond memories of deliberately prolonging the defense of Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth 2; content with manning the walls against endless waves of AI-maneuvered orcs.
Over the years, emphasis on these modes has trickled away. There's either multiplayer or single-player, and rarely a simulated middle ground that lets you, say, batter hapless clones as Darth Maul. 2017's Star Wars Battlefront 2 stays remarkably true to that silly-but-brilliant formula, allowing you to let loose without the pressure of keeping up with other players.
But here's the kicker: while the original Battlefront 2 is laughably easy if you go back and play it now, this one bites. I don't think my group has managed to stop the Separatist droids from conquering Naboo once, and when we're on the offensive, trying to break through the last objective comes down to the final seconds – if at all. There have been more than a few times where we've pissed around as Heroes, only to lose because even Count Dooku can't clear a hangar-full of determined clones from a capture point in 30 seconds.
Of course, multiplayer is harder. It also has a wider variety of game modes – my biggest criticism of AI is that it's locked to a single mode that doesn't let me drive an AT-AT or fight in space battles. And while a hard-fought win does feel all the sweeter because it means beating real people for it, those sorts of fights are few and far between. Anecdotally, you steamroll or get steamrolled, with the odd game in-between where both teams batter each other senseless until overtime (these are brilliant).
There are also plenty of players on both teams who sit back and snipe – this is an EA shooter, after all – and I still don't can't decide whether it's more infuriating to be shot in the head by a sniper, or respawn and see half of your team doing the same thing at spawn. For better or worse, multiplayer is much more of a human experience. That's essential for the vast majority of shooters, but in Battlefront 2 – where the main draw isn't tense one-on-one shootouts but numbers-driven spectacle – it's optional seasoning, which is why I've found myself nipping into co-op more often than not.
That mode you like is going to come back in style
Beyond Star Wars Battlefront 2, there's a lot more room for these PvE experiences to make a comeback. Statistics like time-to-kill and weapon-specific winrates – once numbers for hardcore devotees, now readily available – have heralded a creeping optimization of PvP across the board. I still find time for these sweatier experiences, but they can get a little intense in longer bursts.
It's the reason I've ditched hardcore shooter Escape from Tarkov's PvP raids to play exclusively against AI. It's surprisingly polished (like players, NPCs can also dome you from six continents away), and captures Tarkov's barebones formula without the stress of having to think about how loud your footsteps are. It does require a compromise on my part – by not having to outthink a real human it sometimes feels like I'm cheating myself of the thrill – but when I'm looking for a more brain-off experience, I don't exactly miss being shot by an extract-camper or a sniper with eyes on my spawn.
Given most multiplayer games don't even try to make their AI modes challenging, I'd love to see more developers step into the space that Battlefront 2 and Tarkov foster. I probably wouldn't have clicked with Battlefront 2 as much if it had immediately fed me to a server full of players who have been honing their skills since 2017, and even though I can now hold my own in multiplayer, I tend to prefer blasting AI. Forget KDA, forget winning or losing: we're going back to the PS2 days of no-stakes skirmishing, we're shenanigans-maxing, we're feeding siblings to rancors. We're playing for the sake of it, and it's a blast.
