Star Wars Battlefront II had a rocky start, but it's slowly becoming capable of great things. I covered the game's lack of content in another article, concluding that once the rest of this year's planned content drops, the game will be in fantastic shape. Last week saw the entrance of General Grievous, the prequel terror who wields four lightsabers, as a playable hero. This month will add two more Clone Wars-era favorites: the Battle Of Geonosis and Ewan McGregor-style Obi-Wan Kenobi.
In a blog post, Battlefront developer DICE outlined the plans for the Geonosis content and gave a teaser image of Obi-Wan, both due on the 28th. Senior Level Designer Peter Vesti Frendrup gave a description of what will make the new map bigger and better than anything else in the game.
The first thing the team focused on, Frendrup said, was scale. The team at DICE is aware of how fans remember the Battle Of Geonosis from Attack Of The Clones. They know that players will want it to be a large-scale, epic battle between two powerful armies.
“The experience of playing Geonosis shouldn’t be about a single player winning the objective for the entire team. It should rather feel like you’re being part of the largest battle yet, and you’re in it together with your team members on the frontlines. That’s been the number one focus for us,” he explained.
DICE aims to accomplish this goal by introducing a formidable new playable vehicle, the walking tank known as the AT-TE.
The AT-TE will work under completely different rules from any other vehicle in the game. Whereas X-Wings, Tie Fighters, and speeder bikes have to be selected from the spawn screen, AT-TEs can be boarded mid-battle. Multiple AT-TEs will be dropped onto the battlefield, and those playing as the Clone Army can walk up to them and take command with the press of a button.
Another unique aspect of the AT-TEs will be that they are vital to the mission objective. The clones actually need to drive them to capture points to win. On the other side, the droid army must destroy AT-TEs using the many missile launchers that populate the battlefield. This is similar to maps where large walkers have to be destroyed, but Frendrup promises that there will be many more AT-TEs, giving Geonosis a grander feel.
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These plans definitely seem ambitious and well thought out, yet many fans are looking forward to this update for an entirely different reason. They want Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Jedi Master will be joining on the 28th as well, but DICE has chosen to reveal precious little about him at this time.
For now, we'll have to settle for this gif of his idle animation. Note that DICE made it a point to write that his lightsaber will be the correct color when he actually releases.
https://giphy.com/gifs/QgiLkAFZf7RWiT3rBV