DICE removes helmetless Stormtroopers in Star Wars: Battlefront, developers comment on authenticity to lore

Star Wars: Battlefront may have released last year but it still has an incredibly active fan base that are constantly begging for things to be added and changed. One of the things that has been a pet peeve for many players and hardcore Star Wars fans has been the ability to remove your helmet as a Stormtrooper. With the exception of when our heroes disguise themselves as Stormtroopers in the original films, you never see a Stormtrooper without a helmet. You don't know how is behind the helmet (even though the prequel more or less confirmed for at least one point in time they were all just clones), it provides a sense of mystery and it's kind of cool. Battlefront took away all of that by giving you the ability to see who was under the helmet. It kind of made the evil minions of the Empire less intimidating.

DICE listened to fans after hearing their displeasure with the feature and removed the feature, only allowing players to change the look of the rebels now (you can still choose your gender as a Stormtrooper though). DICE released a set of patch notes for the new patch that is being released alongside the new Death Star expansion for the game. The note for this specific removal reads as follows: “Appearance: With the arrival of the Imperial Officers, the certification for Stormtroopers to remove their helmets in combat has been withdrawn.”

“We agree that it’s important that you feel part of the Star Wars universe and that it feels authentic,” the game’s lead designer, Dennis Brännvall, said during a recent livestream. “That’s why we listened to feedback and said, ‘Let’s go back to having helmets on.’” He said that fans had complained that, if you played as a helmet-less Stormtrooper “it didn’t feel like they were part of the Stormtrooper army anymore.”

Brännvall also noted that they are aware of some immersion breaking things like other races and characters (like the Emperor) on Hoth that would never actually be found there or the fact that rebel players can pick up Stormtrooper weapons and use them.Brännvall basically said that they want to be as authentic as possible while still remaining a game that has features like swapping weapons and variety in playable characters.

[Kotaku]