I did explore the other two of the three available game types: the hectic Drop Zone game type teams players up to capture strategic points on the map, while Survival sends waves of enemies against one or two players and Walker Assault features huge 40 versus 40 battles. Battlefront itself had its own problems, with the PvP game types unavailable for Xbox One users on Thursday evening. Maybe Walker Assault was that hook: I didn’t get a chance to play the beta’s biggest game type, because of scheduling issues of my own.

This feels like Star Wars.” Instead, Battlefront is a merely passable shooter. For all that it replicates the sounds and sights of Star Wars beautifully, I didn’t get a clear sense of direction from the beta, any hook to make me say, “This. The problem, though, is that the game feels soulless. Don’t get me wrong, the rooms to be cleaned are gorgeous: the landscapes of Tatooine and Sullust are almost photo-realistic and beautifully colorful, and blasters scream like you’ve been dropped inside a Star Warsmovie. That moment came very quickly in the Star Wars Battlefront beta.

Alternately, it becomes weirdly, irrelevantly existential: Why am I here? Does that soldier really deserve to die? Did that stormtrooper have a family? The process of shooting down your enemies becomes one of simply cleaning up, removing the pesky moving things from the map. There comes a moment when first-person shooters begin to feel mechanical.

Star wars battlefront beta issues