Yeah all that talent yet so low effort is a cash grab. Battlefront 2 however IS NOT a good game, it is average at best.
The story in the campaign couldve been interesting but instead is safe and boring.
Your criticism of the game is fine but calling out people who actually enjoy it fanboys or having poor taste is silly. Some of us actually are having fun with the game despite its issues.
As for me, I've got a lot of thoughts having put a fair amount of time in now.
First: the campaign. It was an enjoyable romp just to go through the Star Wars universe but I have to agree with some that it just feels so lifeless. I played on the hardest difficulty. The AI is laughably bad and for the most part, the missions were just very bland and boring. The story was very predictable and kind of ridiculous. I didn't really care about anything going on and it felt like there was no weight to anything going on. It looks beautiful and it sounds beautiful, but it has no soul or life to it.
Arcade mode was fun. I played through all the battle scenarios and it was a good chance to get familiar with the heroes. I don't think I'll revisit it but it was enjoyable and I do like that there are a lot of lengthy challenges with credit rewards for the people who really want to dig in.
Multiplayer is a lot of fun. I never was big into the starfighter combat on the first game, but I have to say Starfighter Assault is a lot of fun and much more enjoyable than the air combat in SWBF2015. It's not as bad as 2015, but the rebel ships still have an advantage over the opposing side in my opinion, which is silly considering how much criticism it got in the last game.
Galactic Assault is where I have spent most of my time. It's incredible getting that epic sense of large scale Star Wars battle. With that said, it needs a lot of tweaking.
The hero system is not perfect, but it's so far improved from before it's not even funny. The token system was terrible. It's very similar to Operations from BF1 which is great, but the ticket system needs work. As it stands, the defenders have a massive advantage on every level with a semi-competent team and the amount of tickets needs to be increased overall, as well as how many are earned upon completing a sector. The other issue with how few tickets there are is the vast majority of games are over very quick, even if they go through every phase. This means it's a fight to save points for heroes for a lot of folks who just can't get the points fast enough in the first 1-2 phases. And by the time you're able to pick one, many times you're lucky to even have a few minutes to actually play with it.
I have some more thoughts about the overall hero balance too. It's mostly ok, but it needs tweaks. As it stands, the melee heroes need work. In many cases the lightsaber swings/dashes/throws are very wonky and don't do enough damage in my opinion. I don't think the heroes need to be the tanks they were in BF2015 but as it stands the blaster damage on melee heroes is too much. Even playing very cautiously trying to go in close for melee kills against people is hit or miss. If another 1-2 players or more show up while you're trying to get someone, you just get burned down way too damn fast. The other issue is that in GA, it's very rare you're going to be able to maintain small 1 v 1 or 1 v 2 situations with a hero and actually try playing the objective. I've had runs where I've had 20+ kills and I've had runs where I spied 1 -2 guys alone and went in to kill them, but due to all the rolling and general wonkiness of the lightsabers a bunch of other enemies had appeared by the time I actually killed the first few guys. As soon as that happens you're basically guaranteed to lose a ton of a health or just flat out die in less than 5 seconds.
The squad system is ridiculous. Double battlepoints is silly and doesn't encourage any kind of actual squadplay. There's also no way to communicate with anyone (at least on ps4). This is an easy fix. Bring over BF1's squad system. It works. There's no reason there can't be squad commands and squad spawning here and it would really help. As it stands now, the squad system is useless.
The last mode I'll comment on is HvV. It definitely is much better and more balanced here. It needs a few tweaks but not much imo. As others have said, the push abilities knocking people off maps is unfair and needs to be fixed. Same thing with Boba Fett being able to get to unreachable areas with the jetpack. I've played all of the heroes and it's mostly balanced imo. Rey's confuse ability (can't remember the name) needs to be tweaked though. It's way too strong against heroes in this mode and practically an "I win" ability in a 1 v 1 situation.
Lastly, I'll comment on misc stuff. No surprise to anyone, but yeah, the progression system is ridiculous, way too grindy, and utterly bewildering and confusing for no reason. I don't know what EA was thinking here. Credit payouts are ridiculous. There needs to be some actual connection to your performance in game.. because as it is now it leaves no motivation whatsoever to actually try and do well or even win the game. No matter what, everyone gets the same amount anyway so "who cares" seems to be the prevailing mindset (I don't blame people).
My last comment is on the loot boxes and pay to win controversy. I don't agree with it at all, but the importance of star cards has been so overblown here it's crazy. I'm sorry if it offends anyone, but 90% of the time it comes down to "you either aren't very good, or you are." Ya know, like almost every other competitive shooter in existence. For what it's worth, I have plenty of games where I'm in the top 3, but I also have plenty of games where I'm in the bottom half. The only star cards that I believe actually give really big advantages over someone who has none is the Starfighter cards and the Enforcer cards. Those ones definitely enhance gameplay a lot especially when they're purple. I preordered the deluxe edition and none of the cards I was given really make diddly squat of a difference in the grand scheme of things. If I die or don't die, it's because I outplayed someone or they outplayed me. Also, maybe it's just me but I've seen zero people kill me that have full purple cards. I'd say 80% or more of players I've seen don't even have 3 cards, or maybe have 3 cards with 2-3 green/blue versions or maybe 1 purple.
Overall, I really enjoy the game. The loot boxes for progression is wrong, but the actual effect these cards have on the game in 95% of the scenarios has been so overblown it's unbelievable. I'm a competitive player, but I just don't give enough of a shit to care that much. Some games I do terrible, who cares? I just love that I can sit on my couch and blow shit up in a beautiful Star Wars universe with other people.
