Star Wars Battlefront will now offer three new hero characters: Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and Emperor Palpatine.
With the release of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer coming out last night, Battlefront came up with some news of its own just this morning. Playstation revealed that there would be more playable hero characters now be available to users in the multiplayer battles. Most of the heroes released have all been lightsaber-wielding characters with obvious lightsaber skills and powers of the force. These three characters offer some other valid skills for multiplayer users. The three characters released were Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo, and Emperor Palpatine.
1. Princess Leia Organa
Leia seems like quite an interesting character to include as a hero. She never had a true weapon of choice and nor did she have any real special abilities…except nagging a lot…that would be a useful ability to piss off people on their headsets…moving on. Leia acts almost like a support-like character with some special skills but also the ability to buff the various soldiers around her.
Leia’s first ability being an offensive ability is called Trooper Bane. Honestly it kind of sounds a bit like a joke based on various shots she made in the Star Wars film. Given her history of seemingly extremely skilled and powerful one-shot kills in the movies, this became one of her abilities. It allows her to kill troopers with one shot and does significant damage as well as a stun to enemy villain characters. This seems a bit overpowered to me but I guess we’ll see how Leia does in Battlefront fights.
Her second, third, and fourth abilities kind of go hand in hand and are based around support abilities. The first one not exactly being an ability makes it so any troopers that spawn near her become Alderaan Honor Guards. I’m assuming they will have enhanced abilities past that of normal soldiers. The second support ability is the “Enhanced Squad Shield” ability. Working similarly to the Shield Power Card, it allows for blocking of incoming attacks and is very helpful in holding various objectives in the game. Contrary to the Power Card, her ability also blocks various Force abilities by enemy villains and it also allows her to shoot from inside the shield (troopers can not). The final support ability is called “Supply Drop” and is pretty self-explanatory allowing Leia to drop health and power up supplies.
I’m personally really interested to see how Leia plays in multiplayer battles. Most players in FPS games are balls to wall all-in players, but Leia brings in a defensive element which can definitely change the course of a game especially when it requires strict objective control.
2. Han Solo
With Han Solo I figured it was only a matter of time before the creators of Battlefront got their crap together and let us play this lovable rebel scum. Not to mention his wit in the movies transfers into the game for some comedic relief as well. Han Solo is a natural leader and brings this to battle with a substantial addition to the attack force with lots of damage and mobility. Solo is looking like a pretty easy hero to play with the potential to wreak some havoc.
Solo’s first ability is “Rapid Fire”. While this ability is activated, for a few seconds, the player can shoot as many times as they can without the possibility of overheating their weapon. Get your trigger fingers back in shape people. This ability allows for great presence in team fights allowing Han to plow through groups of soldiers as well as lay down some significant damage on an enemy villain.
His second ability also plays to his shooting abilities. The ability is called “Lucky Shot”. Another ability based off of Solo’s ability to connect some very lucky shots in the movies, the shot has a substantial amount of damage and accuracy. The shot will do added amounts of damage to various vehicles in the game as well as extra damage on enemy villains. The shot also does extra damage to infantry, but I would say that that is probably a waste of the ability.
His final ability is a personal favorite of mine…well not really. His final ability is “Shoulder Charge”. Personally, I think the creators ran out of abilities to give to Han Solo. Essentially it’s a speed boost based around his famous charge he makes in Star Wars: A New Hope in the glorious gif shown below.
I chuckled a little when I realized what they were referring to because this scene is immediately followed by him shoulder charging away from battle. Coincidentally, Playstation mentioned this ability can be used as an engage and a disengage. Nice work EA.
3. Emperor Palpatine
Now one might think that this old mofo would just be a slow moving, feeble, harmless old man in battle. However, Palpatine to me seems like the most terrifying hero released so far. From what it looks like, Palpatine once again, similarly to the movies, is definitely underestimated with the ability to wreck your day.
One of the obvious abilities that Palpatine will have is his “Force Lightning”. The ability allows him to use the force and electrocute enemies within his range. However, something that I think will be a game changer is the chaining of the lightning. In a team fight, any nearby soldiers to the initial victim will also take damage as area-of-effect damage chained from the first guy. This definitely sounds terrifying if you’re grouped up near Palpatine.
His next ability is known as “Force Dash”. It’s quite literally what it sounds like. Using this ability allows Palpatine to dash using the Force towards an enemy target. It sounds kinda lame to me, but apparently it frequently startles beta testers because no one is really ready for a cloaked old guy to dash at them.
Palpatine’s last ability is similar to Leia’s which allows him to drop supplies for nearby troops. He is after all the emperor of the Dark Side which essentially makes him their leader. The leader brings supplies I guess. Once again, seems a bit forced but it should give him some more value in a multiplayer battle.
Overall, I think EA and DICE are doing a great job implementing more pivotal characters into the Battlefront arsenal. I think some come off as a bit forced, but I like each of the character’s specific abilities. Battlefront tried it in the past, but it really was just Jedi and Sith throwing lightsabers around which wasn’t terribly unique or interesting. I think these characters add a new aspect to the game with their different abilities that can affect the entire team as well as the course of the game. It shall be interesting to see how much the heroes affect the game and if they will get any downgrades if they become too overpowered. The game is set to release for PC, PS4 and XBox One on November 17th this year.
