The first Star Wars Battlefront 2 trailer has leaked ahead of Star Wars Celebration Orlando 2017. You can watch it below. While it’s all CG, rendered from the in-game engine, there are loads of clues and hints about what you can expect to find and do in the finished game, which will launch later this year around November. We’ve broken down all the details, uncovering all the info and secrets hidden in this 30 sweet seconds of footage.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 will have a single player campaign
Ok, bit obvious as the footage literally says so, and EA had already confirmed it. This trailer shows off footage of an unnamed Imperial soldier (who appears to actually be an officer), who fought at the battle of Endor. The trailer describes it as ‘The Untold Soldier’s Story’, implying that you’ll play the campaign - or at least part of it - from the perspective of the Empire. It’ll be interesting to see what happens after the events of Return of the Jedi, and to see the war play out from the Imperial side. Some speculation online suggest the character in the trailer is Shara Bey, who appears in some of the comics. She’s Po Dameron’s mother, which would make sense in terms of the time period. However… according to the comics she’s involved in the space-assault against the second Deathstar, flying an A-Wing for the Rebellion. In the trailer we see the character in Imperial uniform actually on Endor itself. Perhaps DICE is tinkering with the lore here, perhaps not.
It’ll probably be one single story
The trailer implies that BF2 will stick with a single story throughout the campaign (the untold soldier’s story is definitely singular), and it’ll bridge the events between Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens. But there’s an outside chance we’ll play multiple characters, very much like Battlefield 1’s War Stories, because…
Multiplayer is set across all Star Wars time periods
Multiplayer spans all time periods in the Star Wars movie universe. The trailer, brief as it is, shows characters, locations, and vehicles from all eras of the movies. Here are the locations shown in the footage, some of which only appear very briefly.
Endor - This is only confirmed for single player at the moment, but it seems very likely that we’ll get to blast through in multiplayer. Hopefully with more hot Ewok action this time.
The ruins of the Deathstar - Want to dogfight in the ruins of the Deathstar after Return of the Jedi? Looks like that’s going to happen, as footage shows Tie-Fighters zipping through it, directly after we see the space station blown up from Endor.
Starkiller Base - Yup, you’ll also get to scrap it out on Starkiller Base from The Force Awakens. This’ll happen in multiplayer, sure, but perhaps the single player will link the end of Jedi with the start of Force Awakens. In which case it’s very possible you’ll visit Starkiller Base during the story too.
Takodana - Remember the forest planet from Force Awakens where Han, Rey, Finn and Chewie meet Maz Kanata? You’ll be able to fight here, and it looks like there will be a ‘vehicle battle map’ too, as we see the Millennium Falcon chasing down some Tie Fighters.
Coruscant - The very briefest of clips shows New Hope era Storm Troopers, and AT-ATs fighting through a large city area, with red trees in the background. This is almost certainly Coruscant, the capital of the Republic. It’s very likely you’ll be able to play multiplayer during Anakin’s purge of the city. Surely you won’t be able to massacre the Younglings. Surely.
Hoth - It’s back! Pretty sure there’d be a mini fan-rebellion if the ice planet wasn’t in Battlefront 2. We see the briefest of glances that shows an AT-AT, and a Rebel soldier riding a Tauntaun, smashing down an Imperial Snowtrooper. Good. Gooooooooood.
Space battles are in
This one is a bit Captain Obvious too, but it looks like space battles are making a comeback. We’ll very likely see the return of the Fighter Squadron mode. It’s a fan-fav in the original game, so no surprises here. Expect more Hero ships this time around, and different era craft - fingers crossed for B-Wings and maybe a cheeky appearance of the U-Wing from Rogue One (and the BF DLC).
There’s a new Imperial ship
We see footage of a new Imperial ship on several occasions during the trailer. We say 'new' - it's actually a Raider-class Corvette, used by the Empire as an anti-fighter vessel. It's the Imperial fleet's answer to the Rebellion's hit-and-run missions, as we see in pretty much all the movies. It's piloted by the Unnamed Imperial hero, suggesting it’ll probably be her own ship - a little like an Empire version of the Falcon.
Hero characters are back
Again, fairly obvious. Yoda and Darth Maul are in, and we’ll see them facing off on prequel era maps. No, it isn’t canon. Rey and Kylo Ren are in the trailer too. This almost certainly spells the return of Hero Battle modes, although they were definitely weaker aspects of the original game, so perhaps they’ll be remixed and improved for Battlefront 2. No sign of Vader and Luke, but… come on.
Characters from The Last Jedi will be in it
Pre-order now and you’ll get Star Wars The Last Jedi Heroes. This likely means we’ll get older Chewie, older Luke, Poe, and more badass versions of Rey and Finn. Very unlikely Snoke will appear as a Hero here, as he’s likely not going to be unmasked and tangible until Episode 9, but… you never know.
There’s exclusive content on PS4 again
The first trailer has all kinds of PlayStation branding. That means we’ll see the same kind of exclusivity agreements as the original game. DLC will come first to PS4 players, and they’ll probably get all kinds of exclusive in-game goodies. Will it be optimised for PS Pro? Perhaps. Will there be VR elements? Well, we know Criterion - who created X-Wing VR for the original game - is working on Battlefront 2, so… yeah, it’s possible.
