Which brings us to the co-op, of which there isn't much. Battlefront supports two player co-op either locally or online in two modes: the five Training missions, and the four Survival maps. I don't see a real reason to co-op the training missions unless you've got a friend on your couch who also needs to learn the ins and outs of the control scheme, so let's talk about Survival mode.
Survival mode is, as you might expect, a wave-based mode where you and a friend fight off Imperial forces for fifteen rounds. Before starting, players can select one of two preset Star Card hands, and select from all of the blasters whether they've unlocked them or not. It's a nice way to preview some of the later abilities. You begin with a shared pool of two lives, and it's not possible to revive a teammate, so careless play will be punished.
As the rounds progress, the types of Stormtrooper that get thrown at you get mixed up a bit. Eventually, you'll face shock troopers who use heavy blasters and have greater armor, troopers with a personal shield and jetpack, snipers, and even one that can cloak itself and launch a surprise attack. You'll also face probe droids, and every few rounds, an AT-ST or TIE Fighter gets thrown into the mix.
Periodically, drop pods will be deployed in the map and you'll have to race the Imperial forces for control of it. Once you've held on to the drop pod for a sufficient amount of time, it'll spit out a selection of power ups to assist in the coming rounds.
The problem with Survival is that each level progresses in the same way. It doesn't matter if you're on Hoth or Endor, once you've gotten a few rounds in, you've seen everything the mode has to offer. It's also fairly disheartening that there's no way to play as a Hero in the co-op modes, other than the tutorial mission that teaches you how to play as one.
Each Survival map has five stars you can earn to get some extra credits to use towards your unlockables. Defeating the map on certain difficulties, finishing without dying, or finding all of the collectibles in a single match will get you more stars, but once you've cleared all five challenges, there aren't any more progression bonuses to gain.
Defeating a map on the highest difficulty also allows you to create a custom loadout for use on that map. This might make the matches more interesting, but without any extra ways to progress your character, it feels like a hollow reward. Hopefully, with the Season Pass content there will be more of a bone thrown to co-op players, but I remain skeptical.
My feelings on Star Wars Battlefront’s co-op offerings are complicated. On the one hand, they’re perfectly serviceable and give you and a friend the chance to enjoy the game’s beautiful settings together. On the other, they’re nothing if not a tease. Playing the meager Survival mode does little more than make me long for the chance to conquer the galaxy together or, hell, just play against AI in the game’s competitive modes. What is there feels like it should serve as a distraction from a deeper experience, something to dive into when you don’t want to worry about strategy or any sort of meta-game. As it stands, though, the current modes feel like a mild slap in the face to those of us whose fondest memories with the franchise stem from the now-excised co-op campaigns. I can’t at all recommend purchasing this game to play cooperatively (especially at its current price point), but I suppose that, should your interests lie more in online competitive multiplayer, you could certainly do worse than Survival as an extra feature.
- Enoch
I've had a pretty excellent time with Star Wars Battlefront, but I'm afraid I can't really recommend it as a co-op game. As a casual competitive shooter you can play with a buddy on the couch? Sure. The competitive modes are a great deal of fun and I've had great success getting a round or two (or three) in before I settle in for other games for the evening.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Supports up to 2 players either in offline split-screen or online co-op modes. Players can work together to complete the campaign mode.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.