Spoilers, obviously.
The Force Awakens has now been out for a week, breaking all kinds of records and capturing everyone's attention in the lead-up to Christmas, as though the Skywalkers have replaced the line of David.
After walking out of the cinema, it took me a while to figure out what I thought of the film. It was good, but in such a way that it felt like it could've been better if some fundamental changes had been made to the design of the film. Here are the good, the bad and ugly choices made in the making of Star Wars Episode VII.
Good
Poe Dameron: Despite the silly name (is he a ghost?), Poe is the best character in the entire film. A spectacularly talented fighter pilot, he puts his life on the line to take on the New Order time and again. He's cool under pressure, he knows exactly what he's doing, and we only see enough of him to know his characterisation is spot on. The total hand wave of his escape from Jakku when he reappears in the last third of the film feels justified, because he's just that kind of guy.
Mixing and matching the roles from A New Hope: Rey, Finn and Poe are the Luke, Han and Leia of the new trilogy. But which one is which? Rey is the strong-willed female (Leia), who intrinsically knows everything about her ship (Han) that is the new talent in the Force upon whom events centre (Luke). Poe is a leader of the rebellion who needs to be rescued (Leia), by nature a bit of a playful scoundrel and has world experience (Han), who leads the attack on the Death Star Planet (Luke). Finn is the guy just wants to run away from everything (Han), who ends up being thrust into a central role in the rebellion (Luke), and I'm sure he has some similarity with Leia that hasn't come to mind - perhaps they were struggling a bit with it by this point. Overall, though, it's an impressive use of characters within the mould of A New Hope that they chose to use.
Han Solo: Second only to Poe in terms of best performances. When he arrives, it's unexpected (even though we knew he was coming at some point), and it's just he hasn't changed...other than that he's got old. He's still the same character, but full of the wisdom, experience, and regret that only age brings. Nothing throughout the film feels out of place with how you would expect an old Han Solo to be.
Interaction between the new characters: Really well done, although from memory Poe only interacts with Finn, but that's okay because it's the best relationship of the lot. Rae and Finn both know absolutely nothing about the world they've rushed into, so in some ways it's not surprising that they become besties so quickly, even though it still felt forced (for reasons I'll explain later), the 'it' being the speed of that friendship, not the friendship itself. It was also refreshing to see what is clearly a budding romance begin without the two characters not liking each other. They have some misunderstandings, but only in the way you would expect given their backgrounds, and they get cleared quickly. How convenient, too, that young Ms Skywalker (as she so obviously is) will end up with a man with no last name, thus ensuring the name 'Skywalker' will continue on to another generation.
Killing off Han: There was no conceivable way all of the old three could make it through the new trilogy - not with the way this story has been set up. Using his death as the clear symbol of Kylo Ren's fall is classic storytelling. It's sad to see him go - especially this early, as I would've done it in VIII - but it was the right call. Luke or Leia dying would feel like a step too far, but Han? He's a scoundrel, it's natural for him to die first, and for him to do it by being the least like a scoundrel ever seen in the Star Wars films felt even better.
Industrial Light and Magic: We're back to proper effects, which aren't going to age within a matter of years after the release of the film and don't exist in every nook and cranny imaginable. The graphical quality of the film speaks for itself. Just watch it and marvel.
Bad
Sticking to A New Hope like glue: This was the wrong choice. The intention seems clear: prove that the new Star Wars will be faithful to the original trilogy, and not flop like the prequels. Unfortunately they decided that the right way to do this was to copy literally every single piece of IV and use it in a slightly different way. Put the important map into a droid and sent it away, find it on a desert planet where the main character lives, have them encounter a wise old man who had disappeared for years, run into the rebellion, use what they've learnt to blow up a Death Planet which has successfully had its first test run, have the old mentor die at the hands of the evil man he turns out to be close to, have the main character successfully use the Force before getting away. Ta da! It would've been far better to do something different with the good characters they created.
Finn knows too much: If this guy, who as a character I generally like, was trained to be a Stormtrooper from birth/a young age, why does he seem so much like you and me? How he can he be so aware of things that the average person is aware of? How can he recognise right and wrong so easily? How can he play the role of comic relief so well in a way that is completely different to how the clone troopers have played it in other Star Wars media (that of being completely clueless of anything beyond fighting)? This is really noticeable in Finn, but it's actually true of everyone...
Why is everyone so human: This may seems like an odd complaint, but hear me out. I do not mean that it's a bad thing for them to be human in comparison to the prequels, because in those the characters were all robotic thanks to terrible decisions of direction (read: green screen everything). What I mean is that Star Wars is a space opera. It is not a realistic drama. I am meant to sympathise with the good guys and dislike the bad guys, like in a pantomime. The better the performances, the easier it is to do this, which is why it was so hard in the prequels. Even the complexity of good and evil (like a bad guy being good at heart) is meant to be relatively simple, ala Anakin coming back to the Light at the end. TFA ditched this in favour of complex, realistic, meant-to-be-relatable drama, and I don't like it at all. We see Kylo Ren struggling with the call of the light side. We see Finn explaining his feelings. We see everyone look like they're going to cry more than once. Why? This is meant to be a pantomime! What happened to the space opera?
What even is the Force: Seriously, what is it? Perhaps we never hear a proper explanation of it because the only characters who talk about it with any kind of knowledge are two non-Force users, but if you're coming into this film with no knowledge of the Force, you aren't going to come out much wiser. It seems to kind of help the way you fight, but not especially so, as we see two people use the Skywalker lightsabre with no Force knowledge whatsoever, and they don't die immediately - or at all. The Force has always been deliberately vague in a folk religion, mystical kind of way, but in TFA it was basically about closing your eyes and feeling better. Also, watching a guy thrust his hand out near someone's face for minutes on end is not thrilling viewing, please find a better way to symbolise what Ren is doing.
Rey is a Mary Sue: I want to like this character, but I can't, and I don't want to use the phrase 'Mary Sue', but what other way is there to describe this kind of character? Everything about her is perfect, including her one character flaw ('I want to go home'), which isn't really a character flaw at all, and which she gets over fairly quickly anyway. Pretty lady, very skilled hand-to-hand fighter, knows everything about spaceships and mechanics, everyone likes her, she picks up the whole Force powers thing basically straight away (though this can at least be hand-waved as 'she stole it from Kylo Ren') and everyone will drop everything for her wellbeing. Unlike Luke Skywalker, who, despite his circumstances, is an entirely believable head-in-the-clouds innocent figure, Rey (Skywalker) is an entirely unbelievable worldly figure who manages to hold on to only the most frustrating part of innocence (I can run away and it'll be fine). She even has a British accent, which strikes me as the kind of thing done to make a character seem different for no reason whatsoever. Remember, this is a pantomime made in the US, only evil characters should have British accents.
Ugly
Phasma: What a pointless character. How much of this character was not designed for monetary purposes? She is neither a strong female character (as obviously she was designed to be) nor a cool Boba Fett type (as she talks too much and is annoying in a way the Fetts aren't). I hope we never see her again (but we will).
The way they killed off Han: Could this have been any more excruciating? We knew this was coming. The hints were everywhere, and the moment Han saw Kylo is was over. He walked onto that bridge sealing his own fate. So why did it take so long? It would have been a far more memorable seen had it been over nice and quickly, without seeing Han slowly die and fall off the bridge, and everyone slowly react. The symbolism of 'this is the moment' would've come through more clearly too. This wasn't the first time that a moment was missed either - it only becomes apparent after his death that Leia's request to bring Kylo (Ben) home was what would lead to his death, because it was the only reason he confronted his son at all.
The ending: Who thought this was a good idea? In this case, following the Episode IV script closer would've resulted in something better. For example, a funeral for Han Solo, and then finish with an award ceremony for the fighters who blew up the planet, with a final cut shot of Luke Skywalker staring out over the waters from his island, zooming out to reveal his location, then cut to credits. Instead of this ending, which wraps things up and provides a tiny tease for the next film, we got something that felt rushed and haphazard, with an awkward pacing and an odd leap in the story. In particular, the final minute (which felt like five), which consisted of Rey holding Luke's lightsabre out to him while camera kept on panning around them, was genuinely excruciating and added nothing to the story. All we needed, if indeed we really needed to see the Jedi Master at all, was a quick shot to see that he was old, alone and isolated. Making this sequence so long added nothing to the film, and actually detracted from the events that had happened just prior. It would've been much better to spend more time on the death of quite possibly the most beloved character in the series, seeing how the other characters dealt with it in the aftermath, along with where the group headed from there.
Don't get me wrong, The Force Awakens is not a bad film. But it isn't great either. There is always the sense that this is a fanfiction brought to life just lurking in the background. Perhaps this is unsurprising, as I have no doubt most of the cast and crew are fans of the series, especially of the original trilogy. But the fact that this film is as good as it is ultimately results in a feeling of genuine disappointment, as there are simply too many significant issues in the film that prevent it from being great. This is not a film that I envision too many people ranking as their favourite Star Wars in twenty years from now, and that is a shame.
EA, owners of the rights to every Star Wars video game for the foreseeable future, decided that with Episode VII coming out, it was time to reintroduce of the most loved games in the franchise after a decade long absence.
Star Wars: Battlefront had a 'beta' come out this week. This is one of those obvious misuses of the word 'beta', as the game is only a month away from being sold in stores, and the lack of bugs and other features typical of a real beta mean that this is actually what we once called a demo.
Naturally, there has been a wave of excitement for the return of what was an excellent shooter. But, with DICE (the makers of Battlefield) creating the game, with the Frostbite engine, there were also questions over whether this would be a re-skinned Battlefield, rather than a Battlefront game. The release of the demo has ended any doubts about this. Unfortunately, it has ended them by confirming that it feels nothing like a Battlefront game, instead presenting a Battlefield with some of the complexities stripped away. The end result is not impressive.
First, the modes. You would think, given this will be the first impression of the game for many of those who are most interested in buying it, that EA would make sure that the modes they select for playing are fun and satisfactory. Instead, they've picked three modes that feel like a fun-vacuum, sucking out any temporary enjoyment you feel through mindless, frustrating and repetitive gameplay.
There is one single-player mode included. It is called Survival, and it's a typical take on horde mode. The aim is to survive six waves of enemies, increasing in number and difficulty, on a Tatooine map. Unfortunately, it is not very well thought through. You will not be able to find the randomly spawning enemies before they find you, and they will all find you at once. The size and design of the map makes everything feel empty, so when all your enemies suddenly appear without any indication of being nearby (as they don't make a sound, aren't easy to spot and don't appear on the mini-map) you can quickly feel surrounded.
Fortunately, despite the AI's unerring accuracy, they aren't very strong. Four different soldiers could be shooting and hitting you, and yet you can just sprint away with health left, wait for it to magically restore, and then pick them off one by one. Two shots will finish most of them other than the 'shock troopers', who seem to have about fifteen times the health of the regular troops. This is repeated five times across the six waves, with the sole exception being the third wave, in which there is only one enemy: an AT-ST. Defeating a vehicle in this mode will take much, much longer than it takes to defeat the troops, as you are not naturally equipped with useful against it. The grenade launcher will generally land at its feet, and doesn't do much anyway, and the ion shots are limited and also don't do a great deal.
There is one way to defeat them quickly (an AT-ST also appears in wave six) - an orbital strike - but this only appears in random pick-ups, and you may not get it at all in either wave. Thus, most of the time you spend on the map will be running around, hiding from the vehicle in a spot where you can hit it, but it can't hit you. This is not fun.
The random pick-ups come from escape pods which crash in the AT-ST waves, that you must capture and defend from the enemy. This mechanic makes the basis of the next mode, a multiplayer mode called Drop Zone. Teams of eight fight over escape pods on the Sullust map, with the first team to five winning, or if ten minutes have elapsed, the team with the most pods. It is quite rare that the matches will take the full ten minutes to complete, as one side tends to dominate proceedings. This is due to the random nature of both spawn points and, more importantly, the pods themselves.
Unlike in Survival, you will die very quickly and a lot in this mode. The pods are captured very quickly (though not as quickly as it takes to die), and then take about a minute to be 'defended', after which a point is gained. But you don't need to be near the pod to defend it. In fact, if you know your way around the map it's easier to find a hiding spot and shoot at the enemy as they sprint towards the pod. Because the winning team will have more people alive, they will find it easier to get to the next pod (which will often spawn nearer to them anyway, from my experience), capture it quickly and repeat the cycle. There is actually very little incentive to be a team player. You only need one person to do the quick capture. This leaves the remaining seven to wander around the map as they please, pretending it's a deathmatch.
Having only sixteen players particularly changes the style of play. Often there is little in the way of firefights, which have always been the main appeal of Battlefront. Instead, the design of the map leads to long-range sniping attempts, regardless of the weapon used. Should two people get up close and personal, the accuracy of the shots seems to be random, and chances are the winner will be whoever remembers there is a melee button. And once you die (which, as mentioned, will happen quickly and often once the shooting starts), it will take a long time to get back to a position where you can have an impact, whereupon you will again die.
Player numbers are not an issue in Walker Assault, another multiplayer offering and clearly something EA is fairly proud of. This is the mode they have been showing off for a number of months, in which the Empire is attacking Hoth with their AT-ATs, and the Rebels have to stop them. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem they've actually played the mode very much, because it is so imbalanced that it seems hard to believe they looked at it and thought that it would go smoothly. You would expect the Empire to have it slightly easier, given they have the walkers on their side, but the Rebels have absolutely nothing going for them. They have to do all the work, in capturing and defending satellites (in much the same way as escape pods), do this for long enough to get time to barrage the AT-ATs at the waypoint, and then do this twice more. They have to face not only the indestructible AT-ATs, but also the powerful AT-STs, TIE Fighters and TIE Interceptors, with no heavy weapons other than random-pick ups. They can control X-Wings and A-Wings, but they're really only to stop the Empire's TIEs, and the tow cables only appear in the last phase, which is nearly impossible to get right, and therefore basically can't be used in one of the most well-known parts of the series.
For the Rebels to win, it requires the entire team working together as one from the start, making sure they have as many turrets and pick-ups available at the right moment as possible, and making sure they aren't killed by Empire troops while doing all this. Basically, it's impossible. The Empire, on the other hand, can again just run around pretending it's a deathmatch. The soldiers only need to capture the satellites if the Rebels have already done it, which, as mentioned, is very quick and only takes one person. When the Empire recaptures them, they reset, which means one moment of madness can cost the Rebels minutes of satellite time, and therefore the match. The AT-ATs just plough on through, and for the most part the Rebels are helpless to stop them. The map design is also surprisingly awkward, with too many mountains creating long-distance chokepoints, and too much empty space that is presumably designed for flanking but ends up getting people lost. The Rebel base is far too easy to enter, and the random spawning is unhelpful in terms of showing the player precisely where they are positioned and where they have to go. The mass of players manages to feel like too many, because the spawns constantly cramp everyone into one third of the map based on where the walkers are, while also preventing firefights, due to the mountains and the speed of death.
There is a general lifelessness to this game that may be due to a number of different elements. The first problem is the maps. All three suffer from the same design choices. Horizontally, they are smaller than the old Battlefront maps, but they are more layered, with DICE aiming for realistic rocky mountains and hills, with small and large crevasses. What this actually does is prevent the mass firefights that Battlefront had, in which there were large sections of totally flat ground in which the two teams would have most of their players at the same time. The best strategy in this game, on the other hand, appears to be finding a good hiding spot and sniping from a distance with your weapon of choice. It doesn't really matter if you use one of the four blasters you're provided with or the unlockable rifles, as they all manage to hit from a distance regularly and with enough power to be worth it. The layered, distant maps (especially Sullust) make this a smart and easy choice.
The nature of sniping adds to the feeling that this game was designed for a first-person camera. When using third-person, which is my preference for Battlefront games and presumably the preference of most people, something feels off. Aiming seems wrong, and long distance shooting in particular becomes more random. In first-person, though, it's fairly simple. Third-person feels like an afterthought, which is galling given this is a series that was designed around a third-person view. EA promised a third-person camera, but in all their promotional material they've used a first-person view, and now we can see why. The game is designed for it, and the weapons seem to demonstrate this quite well. There are different stats for each blaster, but the differences are not readily apparent unless you really look for them. You would expect the colour and sound of the shots to be distinct for each weapon too, but there is no difference in colour (not even between teams!) and the sounds blend in with the background noise anyway.
The single most depressing part of this game, though, is a fundamental design choice which runs through every mode and every battle. It's the decision to focus on individual soldiers, rather than on the different teams. This is best exemplified by the choice to scrap classes, each of which had their own weapons and distinct design according to their roles, and replacing them with individual customisable soldiers. Imagine they had put a heavy class in the game. Suddenly, vehicles become easier to deal with for both sides. Or, if they had made a specific sniper class, that would free up the boot soldiers to have less sniper-esque weapons. But no, instead we get to choose between a number of samey weapons which function in more-or-less exactly the same way, across our many more-or-less similar soldiers with no specific role to play in the team.
This individual focus is evident in other choices too. Unlimited ammo (especially for grenades) means there is no need for planning. Just keep tossing grenades from the high ground! Insta-heal means there's no incentive to enter an unwinnable situation in order to hurt opponents so your team can finish them off later. Instead, your opponents can just hide until their health restores from 10 to 100. Your death is entirely in vain, and, again, there is less need for planning in that you don't need to know where the nearest health-droid is before you enter a tough fight. Listing only kills, deaths and points for everyone afterwards makes every match feel like a deathmatch, and mostly rewards those who think along such lines due to the way points are distributed. Helping the team earns far less points than helping yourself.
These things won't be changed in the final release, nor in any of the inevitable patches and expansions. These are clearly design choices that have been made for people who didn't play the original Battlefront games and people who aren't really into Star Wars. A weakened Battlefield with shiny skins and sounds will make EA a lot of money, but this game does not appear to be an actual Battlefront game. If they had decided to make a multiplayer Republic Commando, this game would make a lot more sense. As it is, it's ready to be profoundly disappointing.
