Star Wars Battlefront's heroes are accessed via a power up

So far all we know for certain is that Boba Fett and Darth Vadar will be playable characters in Star Wars Battlefront . Who else gets a cameo is still a mystery, but at least now design director Niklas Fegraeus has explained a little about how you get to be them.

If you want to play a star character you'll have to find some sort of power up to activate the ability. It suggests a move away from the old game's system of fulfilling specific requirements, or killing a hero character. Although it's not clear how the power up is triggered yet so it could still tie into the original game's concepts. (Here's everything we know about Star Wars Battlefront multiplayer so far.)

The info comes from this month's Official Xbox Mag where Fegraeus explains the hero-triggering system: "it has variations to it that depend on game modes and so on. But you can get it through a power-up system... when you find the hero power-up, that is when you can make your choice". As with the previous games it's a fleeting moment of glory, using your new-found but temporary hero abilities to try and turn the tide of the fight. "You basically have one life to use all that power," explains Niklas, "you get to try to turn the tide and win for your team and become a beacon of hope for everyone".

Obviously, giving the ability to win the fight to a single hero means a character with skills far above the basic grunt but not completely undefeatable, and executive producer Patrick Bach has spoken about the difficulty of getting that right: "it’s up to us to find the balance. [They] need to be super-powerful, but not overwhelming. That’s the holy Grail of making fun games – how do you balance things out?"

Elsewhere in the issue OXM mention that, from what it saw, Darth Vadar seems impenetrable to blaster fire from the front, simplydeflectingbolts with his lightsaber, and using his signature Force throttle on enemies.You can read more about Star Wars Battlefront in OXM's cover story, which is out Friday the 8th of May. Download ithereorsubscribefor future issues.

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for guides. I also write reviews, previews and features, largely about horror, action adventure, FPS and open world games. I previously worked on Kotaku, and the Official PlayStation Magazine and website.