Star Wars Battlefront II is a 2017 action shooter video game based on the Star Wars franchise. It is the fourth main installment of the Star Wars: Battlefront series, and a sequel to the 2015 reboot of the series. It was developed by EA DICE, in collaboration with Criterion Games and Motive Studios, and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released worldwide on November 17, 2017 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. It features both single-player and multiplayer game modes, including a story-driven campaign, set in between the films Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, which depicts the climax of the Galactic Civil War and the Galactic Empire's downfall from the perspective of Imperial commander-turned-Rebel Alliance soldier Iden Versio. Star Wars Battlefront II is a third and first-person shooter, featuring both single-player and multiplayer game modes. Gameplay is split in two main categories: ground battles and space battles. Both occur across three eras: the Clone Wars, with battles taking place between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems; the Galactic Civil War, where battles between the Rebel Alliance and Galactic Empire take place; and the war between the Resistance and the First Order. Each faction has its own unique type of soldiers that players control, such as clone troopers for the Republic, battle droids for the CIS, and stormtroopers for the Empire and the First Order; however, they all control identically. Every faction also has specific starfighters, which, unlike soldiers, play differently from one another.[4] Battles take place across a variety of maps, and every era has its own exclusive maps. At launch, the game featured a total of 15 locations from the Star Wars universe, including Kamino, Kashyyyk, Naboo, Mos Eisley, Yavin IV, Hoth, Cloud City, Endor, the Death Star II, Jakku, Takodana, and Starkiller Base, as well as some space battles exclusive locations, namely Ryloth, Fondor, and the Unknown Regions. Since then, 8 more maps have been added: Crait, Jabba's Palace, Kessel, Geonosis, Felucia, Ajan Kloss, Scarif, and another space only location, D'Qar. Some of the ground locations are exclusive to certain game modes as well. Classes Gameplay in Battlefront II is class-based. Every faction has four soldier classes—Assault, Heavy, Officer, and Sniper—and three starfighter classes—Fighter, Interceptor, and Bomber; although the Resistance and First Order factions do not include the Bomber class. The ground battles feature additional Reinforcement classes, which cost battle points to be played as, earned from defeating enemies and completing objectives. All factions have three soldier Reinforcements—the Enforcer, Aerial, and Infiltrator—and two vehicle Reinforcements—the Speeder and Armor; the Republic, CIS, Rebels, and Empire have a third vehicle Reinforcement class—the Artillery—which is featured only in specific maps for the Galactic Assault mode (e.g. the MTT for the Separatists, available only on Naboo and Kashyyyk). Heroes Aside from the basic and Reinforcement classes, players can take on the role of heroes or villains based on iconic Star Wars character. Unlike in 2015's Battlefront, heroes are an actual class rather than a bonus, and can be leveled up and receive new appearances. In the multiplayer modes, heroes are only available in Galactic Assault and Supremacy, where, much like the Reinforcement classes, they cost battle points to be played as; in the former, players can select any hero from the roster offered by the game, while in the latter, only era-specific heroes are available. At launch, the hero roster consisted of Luke Skywalker (Matthew Mercer), Leia Organa (Misty Lee), Han Solo (John Armstrong), Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), Yoda (Tom Kane), and Rey (Daisy Ridley), while the villain roster included Darth Vader (Matt Sloan), Emperor Palpatine (Sam Witwer), Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison), Bossk (Dee Bradley Baker), Iden Versio (Janina Gavankar), Darth Maul (Sam Witwer), and Kylo Ren (Matthew Wood/Roger Craig Smith). Since then, Finn (John Boyega), Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor), Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter), General Grievous (Matthew Wood), Count Dooku (Corey Burton), BB-8, and BB-9E have also been added. The game also features hero and villain starfighters, namely Boba Fett's Slave I, Darth Maul's Scimitar, Darth Vader's TIE Advanced x1, Han Solo and Chewbacca's Millennium Falcon, Kylo Ren's TIE Silencer, Luke Skywalker's T-65B X-Wing, Poe Dameron's T-70 X-Wing, Rey and Chewbacca's Millennium Falcon, Yoda's Actis-class Light Interceptor, Iden Versio's TIE/in Fighter, Tallie Lintra's RZ-2 A-Wing, and Lando Calrissian and L3-37's Millennium Falcon.
