Star Wars: Battlefront II multiplayer — Heroes vs. Villains features icons in action

Dean Takahashi
Updated

Heroes vs. Villains is the ultimate Star Wars fantasy. In this multiplayer mode for Star Wars: Battlefront II, you can be a hero or villain. This is one of the reasons why Battlefront II is probably going to be one of the biggest video games of the year, as it takes that fantasy farther than the original Star Wars: Battlefront did in 2015.

It doesn’t matter which time frame you’re in or where your battle takes place. You can be one of the iconic heroes or villains from the Star Wars movies and then square off in a multiplayer battle of four heroes against four villains. I played the mode at an event at Electronic Arts headquarters in Redwood City as part of a demo of all of the game’s multiplayer modes. The game from EA’s DICE, Motive, and Criterion studios debuts on November 17.

Of all of the modes, this one took the most skill. You had to learn each of the special capabilities for the different characters and then use them at the right time. In the video embedded here, I played as Luke Skywalker, and I was teamed up with Rey, Lando Calrissian, and Han Solo. That was a good mix of blasters and lightsabers. We squared off against Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Kylo Ren, and Boba Fett. It felt a little like the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

Above: Four human players play as heroes and take on four villains in Star Wars: Battlefront II’s Heroes vs. Villains multiplayer mode.

Image Credit: Electronic Arts/GamesBeat

With Luke Skywalker, I could use the bumpers on the controller to tap special abilities. The left bumper was the Force Push ability, which was good for initial contact and, with luck, throwing your enemy off a ledge. The right bumper was for the Force Rush, where you ran fast in a charge at an enemy. Using both bumpers invoked the Force Repulse, which sent all enemies backward with damage.

As I mentioned, in a battle full of heroes and villains, those special abilities get used all the time. I remembered to use those abilities in this fight, but it was hard to get the timing just right.

Electronic Arts’ teams have been working hard on the massive game for the simultaneous launch on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. I played it on a PlayStation 4.