EA shows off five minutes of Star Wars: Battlefront

A full five minutes of Star Wars: Battlefront gameplay have been shown at EA’s E3 2015 conference.

The footage is a little bit nebulous, because rather than saying “Yes, this is the Battle of Hoth”, all details are that this is inspired by the Battle of Hoth. I guess it’s another battle where the Empire assault a Rebel base on an ice planet, with AT-AT walkers making a crater-sized impact on the battle. Still, if there’s a more iconic land battle in Star Wars than the Battle of Hoth, I don’t know what it is. If you’re going to be “inspired” by one and use it to showcase your new game, then that’s probably the battle to choose.

Perhaps it’s more that Luke Skywalker is wearing his Return of the Jedi outfit and using the green lightsaber that he hadn’t built yet, so it’s NOT CANON and therefore they can’t call it the Battle of Hoth? No idea!

Taking my nerd hat off for a moment and moving away from nitpicking: Star Wars: Battlefront looks very Battlefield, but with a much faster, more arcade-y pace. There are jetpacks, tow cables, and orbital strikes. There’s Darth Vader. There’s an awful lot of decent battle chatter. I quite like what I’ve seen here.

You can see the video for yourself below, although bear in mind it was recorded on the PS4 version of the game. Star Wars: Battlefront is due out on 17 November.