(Nicholas Dye: Staff Writer)

I must admit, I am a bit behind in this posting. Was it due to the madness of the pending holiday? Perhaps it was the fact I have a 6 month old daughter I care for? Or maybe it was simply because I am a die-hard Star Wars nerd and I didn’t want to put down my controller to write this damn article! Yeah , that last one was probably it. As I am writing this, my inner 7 year old is screaming at me to get back to the game so I will keep this brief.

I bought the deluxe edition version of Star Wars: Battlefront for the PS4 and couldn’t wait to try Jakku from the upcoming Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens. Unbeknownst to me, that sneaky bastard J.J. Abrams delayed play until December 8th! Keeps the air of mystery I suppose but I digress. The deluxe edition of the game gives you the DL-44 blaster, better known as Han Solo’s blaster, the Ion Grenade, Ion Torpedo, Ion Shock emote, Victory emote, and eventually, Jakku.

The thing that grabs you right away is the extreme attention to detail that EA/DICE has put into this game, from the sparkling of the ice on Hoth, to the small bugs and marsh creatures that bring Endor to life. The sound is the next quality that I adore. All of the traditional sounds that make Star Wars so rich and immersive are present. You get the familiar “roar” of the TIE fighter, the gravely sound of Slave-1 as it accelerates into battle. My personal favorite is the “wat-wat” sound from the laser fire that erupts from an X-Wing. This game holds nothing back in it’s attempt (and success!) to bring you into the world of Star Wars.

Now, I am a big first person shooter guy and I expect a certain level of customization in my experiences and load outs. While, you cannot put a long range scope onto Boba Fett’s EE-3 blaster, you do get to pick what weapons you want to take into battle. Each weapon serves it’s purpose and many can be well suited for any map big or small. For instance, Han’s DL-44 hits like a truck but is limited in it’s effective range. There’s even a modified Jawa stun weapon that is more like a sawed-off shotgun in that it couldn’t hit the wall 15 feet away but will kill you dead 5-7 feet away. The secondary weapons come in the form of cards that you hold. Not like Magic the Gathering but you have a “hand” of three cards you can carry which are two weapons like a thermal grenade or homing missile and the third being an ability like focus fire which is…pretty self-explanatory.

Back in the day, (a term used by old people like me to vaguely reference some point in our past) I was a HUGE X-Wing player on the computer. Much like that PHENOMENAL commercial for Battlefront that featured the two brothers reuniting in the cockpit of an X-Wing, I wanted to be transported back to that feeling. I am happy to say, Battlefront, did not disappoint!! There is an entire game lobby dedicated to vehicle dog fighting and it is absolutely stunning. Saddle up in an X-Wing or an A-Wing for the Alliance or a TIE fighter or TIE interceptor for the empire and special upgrades allow you to pilot the Millennium Falcon or Slave-1.

To wrap this up, I will leave you with this: Star Wars: Battlefront may not have the customization of other first person shooters but that is the only avenue it lacks in. It runs the spectrum of map sizes and the graphics are immersive. Where it it may fall short in the scope of games like Battlefield and Call of Duty, it completely makes up for in action and nostalgia. With the upcoming Star Wars VII, I can only imagine the a galaxy far, far away is going to get a hell of a lot bigger. I will gladly give this 4.5 out of 5.