Earlier this week, I booted up it was on Game .

What I found, almost immediately, was that Star Wars Battlefront 2 is an entirely different game today from what it was eight years ago. I was immediately thrust into a chaotic battle on Naboo. I followed my squad, I captured points, I unlocked new characters and vehicles - and I loved every second of it. Sometime in the past eight years, Battlefront 2 had become good, and no one had told me. Now, I'm here to find out exactly when and how.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 Suffered From A Rocky Launch

Microtransactions, Pride, & Accomplishment

Star Wars Battlefront 2 was first released in 2017 to mixed reviews from critics, and outrage from fans. It had a number of issues, but chief among them was the structure of its rewards system and microtransactions. Battlefront 2 had a system of loot crates - bundles that give players random rewards that aren't tied to their performance in-game. These were as controversial then as they are now, but today, most loot crates only grant cosmetic items. Back then, loot crate rewards could actually affect your gameplay.

That's because crates often contained Star Cards, equippable perks for your characters in Battlefront 2. Star Cards have a variety of different effects: increasing the power of your skills, restoring your HP when you eliminate an enemy, et cetera. But in the launch version, what you got was based on the luck of the draw. The only way to improve your odds was to get more loot crates, which you could do easily by spending real-world money.

So already, it was becoming apparent that the more you spent on the game, the higher likelihood you had of obtaining high-powered items that gave you a significant advantage in battle. In other words, Battlefront 2 was pay-to-win, which likely would have been enough to deter a large subset of players in and of itself.

But then, there was the Hero system. In Battlefront 2, once you've accrued enough Battle Points, you can cash them in to play as a more powerful character - usually a recognizable figure from the Star Wars movies, like Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. These are called Heroes. Heroes have unique abilities and higher maximum HP. They're not all-powerful, but they represent a significant advantage to the team that summons them. Moreover, they're arguably a major part of the game's draw. Most players bought Battlefront to play as a Jedi or a Sith Lord, not anonymous droid #3568.

Battle Points are easy enough to earn by playing the game. The issue was that, in the launch version of Battlefront 2, you had to pay 60,000 credits just to unlock high-profile heroes. You could earn credits through gameplay, but it would take tens of hours to earn enough to unlock Vader or Skywalker. Otherwise, you could simply buy the credits required with real money.

This led to widespread outrage among the Battlefront 2 community. And EA felt compelled to respond. A Reddit thread by ah, those days?), received a now-infamous comment from the official EACommunityTeam:

But they'd only fan the flames. This comment achieved a record 668,000 downvotes - and I mean literally a record. It made the Guinness World Records 2020 for "Most-downvoted comment on Reddit" (via PC Gamer). "Pride and accomplishment" became something of a buzzword among the community, used to poke fun at the game's rampant microtransactions and the publisher's lackluster response. Thinking its reputation unsalvageable, players - myself included - wrote the game off in droves, canceled their preorders, and barely thought about it for years.

Battlefront 2 Had A Long Road Of Improvements

Why It's So Different Today

Between that and the Battlefront Classic Collection debacle, I assumed Battlefront was basically a defunct series until last week. But no - DICE has been quietly making improvements to Battlefront 2 in the years since, and it's actually become a decent game. These improvements began just a month after release, when the cost of unlocking its most powerful Heroes was slashed from 60,000 credits a pop to 15,000. Later, in 2018, all Heroes were unlocked for free. You can now play as Darth Vader as soon as you earn the requisite Battle Points.

Around the same time, Battlefront 2 also made changes to its progression and rewards systems. You can't buy loot crates anymore (although you can receive them through gameplay), and what's inside is always cosmetic, never functional. Star Cards are no longer obtained through loot crates, either. Now, you unlock them through a much more typical and less predatory skill point system.

Battlefront 2 still has microtransactions, but they're entirely optional, even if you want to play the game at the highest level possible. You can now buy a currency called crystals with real-world money, but crystals can only be exchanged for cosmetics.

In 2025, Battlefront 2 Is A Totally Different Game

Even Though Not Much Has Changed

Returning to Battlefront 2, I've discovered that, buried under all that controversy, there were the makings of a good game. I've certainly had fun with it the past few days.

It's not hard to see why, even though not that much has really changed about the gameplay since Battlefront 2 was released. Lots of new content has been added, sure, but at its core, it's still a solid FPS with a well-executed Star Wars coat of paint. Even though I'm not a big FPS player, I've always had a soft spot for the more strategic heart of the Battlefield series. And I grew up playing every Star Wars video game I could get my hands on, so for me, it was a match made in heaven.

Being able to fly X-wings over Hoth, making bombing runs over enemy bases; sending blaster bolts back at enemies with expert twists of my lightsaber; rolling around as a Droideka, then deploying my shield and firing those characteristic double-barreled blasts flying - it's a smorgasbord of Star Wars fun. Battlefront 2 is intense and cinematic, just like the films it's based on, and it always was that way. My judgment was just clouded by my (justified) frustration over its rampant microtransactions and unfair methods of progression.

Battlefront 2 still has its issues. Its microtransactions are pretty innocuous now, but you'll still encounter hackers from time to time. And it doesn't always play nice with modern hardware. But it looks pretty, it plays smoothly, and it's a lot of fun. Its sudden resurgence has fans demanding a Battlefront 3. I'm right there with them, but at the same time, I'm perfectly happy just playing Star Wars Battlefront 2.

Sources: MBMMaverick/Reddit, EACommunityTeam/Reddit, PC Gamer