Our grand expectations for Star Wars Battlefront DLC

NEW STORY-DRIVEN MODES

To explain, Walker Assault is one of the best modes Star Wars Battlefront has to offer. It has a clear pace as the massive AT-ATs trudge across sand, snow, soil and stone to take out a key target and provides a frantic climax each game. Rebels can pull through with a clutch Speeder pilot or the Empire can break the final assault with a few well placed explosions deep in the Rebel lines. Certain maps can feel unbalanced which only adds to the narrative struggle, creating clear underdogs and antagonists on each map. Even off of Hoth, it fantastically evokes the weight of Empire Strikes Back time and time again.

Let's see more of that! What if Rebel players needed to break through the defenses of a massive Imperial fortress complete with gun emplacements and narrow chokepoints to destroy the Shield Generator at the end? Stormtroopers may dominate the field in the game's opening minutes, but Rebel ordnance and sabotage could slowly whittle away at the bastion. Darth Vader may then find himself on the back foot against a tide of Rebel scum pouring in to the final control room for a clear shot at the Reactor Core!

Any mode that provides players with a clear, tangible objective is vastly superior at recreating the cinematic Star Wars experience. The last free DLC's Turning Point was a good start, but the control points players fight over feel fairly arbitrary. Why does this wreckage-wreaked sand dune matter more than the last one we took? Why is this turbine heap where the Imperials have chosen to draw their line in the sand? It's the attention to narrative detail that draws players out of the mindless gunfights and into collective actions which almost begin to feel important.

But in the struggle to develop flavorful online modes, offline options cannot be ignored. Star Wars Battlefront received its share of warranted criticsm for a shallow single-player experience, especially considering the previous entries' fantastic campaign modes. Bot-fighting across the galaxy presented a story-driven medium for one of the most die-hard fanbases in pop culture history to live out their Star Wars fantasies. EA and DICE don't need to go much further than offering offline versions of the games online maps, but a new and improved Galactic Conquest mode might just turn the game into the single greatest Star Wars video game experience to date.

Seriously, EA, Galactic Conquest really was that good.

NEW SHIPS

As a huge fan of Fighter Squadron, this is a must. The X-Wing Miniatures Game by Fantasy Flight Games has satiated an international hunger for simulated Star Wars dogfighting for a time, and now it’s Battlefront’s moment to shine. While the TIE Phantoms and E-Wings may be a tad too obscure, there are still hangars full of ships from the Original Trilogy that have yet to take flight.

On the Imperial side, the TIE Advanced is the biggest contender. Featured in A New Hope with Darth Vader himself at the helm, this elite fighter could offer Imperial pilots the Shield option found on Rebel ships offset by a slightly lower top speed. Heck, the massive TIE Bomber could slow things down even more, offering heavy-duty ordnance and faster missile cooldown rates in place of maneuverability.

On The Rebel side, the Y-Wing (featured in Walker Assault, but otherwise unplayable) would play the TIE Bomber’s counterpart, though it could shake things up considerably by offering a co-pilot seat. The Partner pairing seen in other game modes could allow players to jump in their Partner’s gunner seat, granting access to additional abilities and firepower. Alternatively, the B-Wing seen in Return of the Jedi boasts incredible damage output as well. Allowing players to switch between its horizontal and vertical formations might add to the chaotic kamikaze nature of some online pilots, giving them ample methods of ramming into opposing TIEs.

And we could always use more hero ships, though they needn’t be wholly unique. Let us fly as Luke Skywalker in his personal X-Wing or Darth Vader in his TIE Advanced. We could even see randomized pilots on ships like the Millennium Falcon as either Han or Lando hoot and holler through aileron rolls. It’s the little details like these that make an already immersive and cinematic game like Star Wars Battlefront send us quoting back to our Original Trilogy VHS.

EA has long since confirmed oodles of Star Wars Battlefront content via the Season Pass. This is set to include new weapons, upgrades, heroes, villains, maps, game modes and more, but those were hardly unexpected. No, it's the specifics that has players and potential buyers eager to see how EA and DICE plan to expand the game in the wake of The Force Awakens hysteria.

While additional free content may roll in with a new update before the end of January, we have some grander expectations for the fully armed and operational paid DLC to come.

NEW PLANETS

So 16 additional maps will be included in the Season Pass, but we’re hoping they’ll take players far beyond the five worlds we’ve visited. Tatooine, Endor, Hoth, Sullust and Jakku have served as killing fields and AT-AT scrapyards since the latter’s inclusion in early December 2015, and the roster can only improve with the addition of new terrain types.

Before any other planet from the Original Trilogy returns to the Battlefront series, we need Bespin. The first game’s Platforms map gave us a safety inspector’s nightmare with minimal guard railings and open windows to send combatants hurtling into the red clouds below. The ground-to-air combat of the game’s Supremacy mode would almost look like a game of Fighter Squadron as X-Wings and Interceptors boost, roll and K-turn in and out of the planetary gas.

Now that Bespin’s out of the way, let’s talk Alderaan. Yes, the atmosphere of Yavin IV may have served as the climactic battleground for A New Hope, but Alderaan’s destruction is the first Death Star’s entire resume! How else would we have known the Empire was evil if they hadn’t wiped a primarily civilian target from the face of the galaxy? Developers could sweeten the deal by letting players put boots on the planet surface prior to its destruction in modes like Blast, Drop Zone and Heroes vs Villains while dogfighting in its asteroid aftermath in Fighter Squadron.

While respecting the planets that appeared in the movies is justifiable, Sullust proves that EA is willing to explore the homeworlds of the game’s alien races as well. Return of the Jedi’s Nien Nunb is the galaxy’s most famous Sullustan, so why not head to the worlds of the Rodians, Twi’leks or Quarren (Rodia, Ryloth and Mon Cala respectively)? Homing in on that last one, Mon Cala is also home to Admiral Ackbar, star of the single-player Survival mode, and who wouldn't want to see spectactularly designed waves crash against an alien cityscape?