I unlocked Luke the second day I played and I suck at the game. Yes, it would take years to unlock everything, but “everything” includes a lot of meaningless bullshit like emotes and victory poses. You should be able to get all the heroes at least reasonably quickly.
This is good to hear, at least. I figured after the reduction it would be more manageable. And if I got it I’d be sharing the account with my brother, so that’d mean less individual time for each of us before good unlocks.
I usually don’t care about micro transaction stuff and I think the complaints tend to be silly (like who cares about special helmets and shit?), though this seems to be another step and I can’t say I’m not worried.
And I still play the original Battlefront II from time to time, and it’s still great, but it’s not a mystery why a new version would be appreciated.
The issue with Battlefront II is that it’s not just cosmetic crap in the loot crates. That’s stupid, but manageable. It’s that there are straight up stat permanent enhancing cards in there, so if I buy the game and drop 500 bucks on crates and you buy the game and don’t buy any crates, I will very likely crush you in every encounter we have regardless of how much better at the game you are. I played the beta and could see the dark path this game was walking even then.
This is the new model, though, thanks to mobile gaming. But it’s actually even worse because you have to buy the base game for full price in order to then spend apparently up to 2000 dollars (let that number sink in. What does 2000 dollars buy? Can you imagine spending that much on one piece of entertainment?) or 40 hours to painfully grind out the content of the game (which is engineered that way so you’ll give up and pay here and there).
Imagine paying full price for a movie ticket and getting access to the first third of the movie and then having to pay 2000 bucks to see the rest of it. Or you can roll up your sleeves and scrub the floors for 40 hours and see the rest. It’s insanity.
And that’s not even the worst part of it. Let’s pretend for a moment that stat-boosting unlocks were okay in a competitive multiplayer game (they’re not in any way), and let’s say you wanted the Level 4 version of the best card for your favorite unit, but you don’t want to grind it out for hours and hours in a game that doesn’t reward you based on your performance, but based on how long you’re in a match (? what?), so you reason that paying 40 bucks for some crates is worth it. Every crate contains three or four items in it, one of which is guaranteed to be for your favorite class. Now consider that there are over 20 useless emotes, four or five different “action poses” (for your character to have a different pose if you make it onto the VIP list at the end of a round), a chance to get a piddly amount of “scrap” (which you can use in large amounts to “craft” or upgrade the cards you want) if you get a duplicate item, plus the fact that only one item is guaranteed to be for your class while the rest can be for modes you don’t even play or classes or heroes you don’t enjoy, PLUS the fact that who knows what the odds are you’ll get the item you want (could be 3.00 or 0.003 for all we know), and you are literally gambling now. You are pulling the handle on a slot machine and hoping that all the 7s line up so you can make your money’s worth. Maybe you don’t get any items you wanted with your 40 bucks? Maybe the guy you’re playing against now got it in 40, or maybe he spent 2000 and unlocked everything and wipes the floor with you every time you meet on the battlefield? How is that fun?
Then think about how this is a game that is within a franchise that is beloved by children worldwide and suddenly a lot of people under 18 are functionally gambling. That’s a cool thought. It doesn’t help that loot crates have these fancy exciting opening cinematics where it reveals a set of cards laying face down that you then have to turn over to see what you “won” that’s designed to hit all the dopamine centers in your brain. It’s so shady.
Loot crate gambling is one of the most toxic and predatory things to come from the mobile gaming scene and now here it is in premium, full price, AAA games, and not even for just pointless cosmetic content anymore. I paid 60 bucks for Majora’s Mask back in the day and I never had to pay again, and I got a full game with no content locked behind a paywall. Now today I have to pay to get content in the new Zelda game. Now today, I have to dedicate 40 hours of my life (or the low, low price of a couple Gs) to access all the content of a game I already paid full price for. It’s ridiculous.
Don’t buy this game. Don’t support these practices. And none of that “well I only want the story mode so it doesn’t affect me” or “well everyone else is going to buy it so whatever” garbage, either. This is a toxic practice and it will only stop if they see these games don’t succeed.