I was one of the people out there that although I was enjoying the original Battlefront upon it’s release, the interest soon waned within the first few months. With being a firm believer in buying games in psychical over digital I then sold my copy to re-coup some of the outlay.
Then over a year after the release of the game, and around two months after the PlayStation VR graced the metaverse, the team at EA/DICE brought an exclusive VR mission to PSVR owners. The best thing about this was it was free, with one hitch for me… you had to own a copy of Battlefront to play it. But, at that point you were still going to pay a premium price for a copy of the game, and this was going to come at a cost to play just a single VR mission.
As someone who loves to plug into the metaverse and talk on the subject, I know a huge talking point is the cost of the games or experiences on the platforms – with a lot seeming expensive for what you are getting given, the length or the content in them.
But, now you can pick up a copy of the game for £5(GBP) from a store like CEX, or sometimes even cheaper in sales on the PlayStation store… the questions is it worth paying this for the VR mission?
So, what are getting in this mission?… It is based around ROUGE ONE and you get to live many peoples childhood dream of flying an X-Wing, and playing about with the control panels inside of these fighters.
Soon you are warp jumping into the Wobani System, and you and your squad get the message to save K2SO’S damaged U-Wing, this is moments after they have broken Jyn Erso out of prison. From here it becomes an escort mission as you avoid asteroids, take on a bunch of TIE fighters and a Star Destroyer… all as this new rookie pilot in your fleet.
Doing all of this is going to take you around seventeen minutes to do, but this short experience does try to add reasons to go back – like a star system and goals being included. However, once you have experienced it I feel only the Stars Wars hardcore will be tempted to return and give another playthrough.
When it comes to the visuals and sound design it is all done really well to represent the universe, the cockpit of your X-Wing and really immerse you in this experience. From looking out the windows of your ship, warp jumping, the details in the many interactive elements of your X-Wing and even turning around to see you little droid. They then add to this sounds that are iconic to the franchise making this a great Star Wars experience.
With all this taken into account, the important question is… is it worth the £5?*
For the solid and well put together experience I would really say paying £5 (GBP) is not a bad price to pay. The production values in the gameplay, visuals and sound really do give you a fantastic Star Wars experience, and one fans of the franchise should not miss.
There is one more thing you have to take into account as well is; do you have the space available for the install? You might be thinking surely a seventeen minute experience should not take up that much room. But, where the VR mission is only going to take up 1.9GB hard-drive space, you are required to have the game installed at a whopping 50+ GB.
But, if you have the space and can grab the game for £5 or less, it is one you should take the time to check out. At that price it is worth taking a look and experience, even if it is just to cure that childhood itch of wanting to pilot an X-Wing.
*At the point of writing this article you could get Star Wars Battlefront at CeX for the price quoted.
