Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a massive success no doubt, as it’s already the most successful Star Wars film to date and one of the top grossing Hollywood movies ever made, only behind Jame’s Cameron Titanic and Avatar. And video game publisher Electronic Arts, who was lucky enough to acquire the rights to make and publish games based on Disney’s new era of Star Wars movies, is also reaping the benefits.
As a matter of fact, EA’s Star Wars Battlefront video game has sold more than 10 million copies to date and is no doubt a huge success. But some have criticized the Star Wars-themed multiplayer shooter due to its lack of depth, even if it lets players relive classic moments from the original trilogy of movies and is a quite fun game in its own right.
Although a celebrity like singer Benjamin Burnley voiced his disapproval of the game, dissing Star Wars Battlefront in a tweet and calling EA’s game “a piece of sh*t”. And now English actor John Boyega, who played Stormtrooper Finn in the game, is bemoaning the lack of a single player campaign in EA’s game (even though the game came out in December the actor had not gotten around to playing it yet, as he was busy acting in J.J. Abrams movie…)
In an exchange with Electronic Arts on Twitter, Boyega said that a campaign is “more of an enjoyable way to learn controls”. And EA suggested that he try the game’s “missions”, but these are simply variations of the game’s multiplayer stages populated with computer-controlled opponents instead of human players.
Star Wars Battlefront was fun but lacked depth and a single player campaign.
Although Boyega responded diplomatically and said the missions are “great”, but they still left him “wanting to engage within a narrative”. But still, the conversation ended on friendly terms with EA inviting the Star Wars actor to visit their offices in the UK.
And clearly Boyega has a point about the lack of single player content in the likes of Star Wars Battlefront. And while not all games can offer an engaging narrative and countless hours of single player fun in the way games like Bethesda’s great Fallout 4 do, there should still be worthwhile options for those who want to play solo. Also, the best Star Wars game of all time is arguably Bioware’s Knights of the Old Republic, a role-playing game that focused on story and characters and had no multiplayer component.
Although those looking for a Star Wars game offering an engaging narrative might be getting one from EA soon enough, as former Ubisoft developer Jade Raymond is rumoured to be working on a game set in the Star Wars universe.
So lovers of single player campaigns in video games need not worry about these disappearing any time soon, as newly announced games like Titanfall 2 will feature a campaign (while the original game didn’t) and the likes of Destiny’s Taken King expansion sure fleshed out that game’s universe and lore, proving that characters and story still matter in video games. So here’s hoping that Star Wars actor John Boyega and gamers worldwide soon get to enjoy a great single player experience in an upcoming Star Wars game.