Battlefront 2 Leaking from a Galaxy Far Far Away

Star Wars fans across the galaxy were treated to an unexpected surprise early yesterday when a trailer for Battlefront 2 leaked ahead of the intended release during the Star Wars Celebration later this weak. The trailer, though short, featured a lot of welcome changes to the recently rebooted franchise and showed off quite a bit of detail to those who weren’t captivated by the absolutely stunning visuals that accompanied the “game engine footage” tagline at the bottom of the screen. Now, it’s hard to say exactly what to expect from the full game – it is only a teaser trailer after all – but what we can glean is promising to say the least.

Most welcome to long-time fans of the series will certainly be the indication that there is, in fact, going to be a story mode. Something that was noticeably missing during the reboot released on current generation consoles last year. Many fans were displeased, to say the least, at it’s exclusion and begged EA to add one in – even as a DLC. But it seems they’ve listened, the 30 second trailer being narrated by a soldier who bears a striking resemblance to Janena Gavenkar (though not officially confirmed just yet) and promising to tell the story of a soldier in the aftermath of the Emperor’s death aboard the second Death Star.

On top of the inclusion of a story mode, another fan favorite seems poised to make it’s return – space warfare. A staple of the original Battlefront 2, space combat was another missing piece of the puzzle from the DICE made reboot that fans sorely missed. Now, it is far from confirmed that it’ll be making an appearance in the new game, but there are brief scenes of massive capital ships firing on personal spacecraft in the cold vacuum of space that certainly bring hope that the team behind the sequel aren’t just listening to fans’ requests, but acting on it as well. To bring back the space combat that so many loved would definitely be a step in the right direction, along with the final good piece of news to be teased at by the expertly crafted trailer.

The new game will feature all eras of the Star Wars cinematic universe. The prequel trilogy to the still-underway sequel trilogy are all going to feature somewhere in the game. Though the story mode will likely focus on the original trilogy – featuring characters, locations, and events from Episodes IV through VI – the multiplayer will likely draw the same from every movie released so far and may even include a DLC down the line that adds content from The Last Jedi; set for release this holiday season. And the teaser does more to reinforce this fact as we can see a new selection of heroes including – but not necessarily limited to – Darth Maul, Kylo Ren, Rey, and even Yoda.

Now, most of this is merely speculation based off of a 30 second trailer and no actual in-game footage – the tagline very specifically says game engine, not gameplay – but what we can say with absolute certainty is that this game is happening, and it looks like they’ve listened to the fans by including the things that so many felt were missing from the reboot. Time and detail will be the true deciding factors as to whether or not this game will redeem it’s underwhelming predecessor, but, from the look of things, the Force is strong with this one. A pre-order option is mentioned, but likely won’t be available until later this week once the actual announcement is made – hopefully along with a release date and price.