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First Details For Star Wars Battlefront II's Space Combat
Electronic Arts' Gamescom press briefing kicked off today with a lengthy look at Star Wars Battlefront II's new Starfighter Assault mode. As the name implies, this mode is dedicated to space combat, but unlike the first Battlefront game, the scope isn't limited to X-Wings dog fighting against TIE Fighters.
Starfighter Assault's matches unfold in three parts, beginning with the Rebel Alliance needing to take down two Imperial Cruisers that are protecting a space station. Specific parts of the Cruisers need to be destroyed to knock them out of battle. Players on the Imperial side must protect them as best they can.
If the Rebels succeed, they must tunnel into the base to take out its shield protectors. Y-Wings and A-Wings race into innards of the space station, which offers little room for maneuvering. When the shield protectors are destroyed, the Rebels move on to the final phase of the fight – disabling the power couplings to reveal the space station's core.
In this particular demo, the Rebels succeed, largely thanks to the hero ships that enter the battle. We saw Poe Dameron's Black One X-Wing Fighter provide plenty of cover fighter against TIE Fighters and TIE Bombers, and the Millennium Falcon draw the fire of Darth Maul's Scimitar (which can cloak) and Boba Fett's Slave One.
When the core is exposed, one shot ends the fight; a moment captured with explosions and Star Destroyers scrambling helplessly in space.
Like all things we are seeing from Star Wars Battlefront II, space combat looks to be far deeper and more hectic than expected. We'll hopefully get our hands on it in the days ahead at Gamescom.
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