When it comes to creating the first game in the new and rejuvenated Star Wars canon - and the latest in the Battlefront series - DICE has a lot of expectations to live up to. So will Star Wars Battlefront, the multiplayer shooter that brings the battle between the Empire and the Rebellion to current-gen consoles and PC, be a continuation of what former developer Pandemic pulled off on PS2 or an entirely new beast?
In the latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, DICE's GM Patrick Bach explains the studios take is more of a reboot - and one that offers it a clean slate on which to innovate. "I think what we did was instead of trying to build upon the old games, we went back and said let's start over. Let's analyse the good and the bad, like we did with old games, but it's more about going back to the core idea that Battlefront stands for, and then building on that. Because otherwise you will create a version of somebody else's game, and that's not what we do!"
Bach reveals a big part of the studio's driving force is the desire to create a game that's instantly recognisable as a DICE game, regardless of the licence attached (including going as far asscanning in the real-life props from the movies for Star Wars Battlefront). "We build our own games, we build something that breathes 'DICE'. We wanted to take a fresh stance on the concept of Battlefront, rather than saying 'let's take that feature and call it the same thing', or 'let's remove that feature'. It will just get messy. So you have to see it as a reboot."
Despite DICE choosing to drop space battles in Star Wars Battlefront, this Force-powered shooter could prove to be one of the most exciting Star Wars games in recent years.
The latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 on the cover, is out now. Buy it here or subscribe to future issues.
