Having put a fair bit of time into the game I'm definitely feeling more postive than most here. The beta is a long way from perfect but it's done more than enough to encourage me to buy the game at launch.
Starfighter Assault is the big surprise for me. It's jawdroppingly awesome. It sounds incredible, looks incredible, and feels absolutely incredible. It took me a good while to find controls I was happy with (I settled on default sticks, inverted flight, advanced flight, and 10% response curve) but once I did I was basically in love with this mode. Compared to the the simplistic and weird flight in the previous game this just feels so free and so right. I'm really enjoying the variety of craft too - it feels like a far more interesting choice than that provided in the 2015 game with the tank like bombers, nimble interceptors and versatile fighters. Where the previous game was dominated by the automatic lock on mechanics this feels a lot more pure, a lot more skill based, and the satisfaction of nailing a few kills, or shaking a missile feels really clear.
As for Galactic Assault, I'm enjoying my time here too though I think the map/mode could do with some tweaking. The map feels too big to begin with and too small to end with, and both elements can be quite frustrating in different ways. It's not uncommon to spend a minute or so looking for a fight only to get shot in the back by someone that managed to flank through one of the map's too many routes.
One thing that I think everyone should be aware of going into this game is that really it is a third person game. Where the 2015 Battlefront felt good from either perspective I'm really not a fan of how the game looks and plays in first person. The changes around aiming and shooting have in many respects lead to a deeper third person game but they have hurt the first person game a lot. Though I like that there seems to be more noticeable gun variety in this game and that the guns are less easy to control, I'm not really on board with the general change from the slow projectiles to the fast ones - this has if anything simplified some aspects of the gunplay and blatantly made it more similar to other shooters - nor the aiming changes - I preferred it when you could move at full speed whether or not you were aiming down sights and when you could aim at full accuracy whether or not you were aiming down sights.
Having said that there are some really substantial improvements here. The class system adds a great deal of depth and play style options and I have to say I enjoy all of the four classes. Some of the comments in here about which classes are good/bad are hilariously off base, particularly with regards to the heavy being the only good one. I've had great games with all four classes and will continue to play each. I'm a huge fan of the change up to the way that heroes (plus vehicles and reinforcement units) are distributed. This feels like the best system of any Battlefield/Battlefront game so far - they feel like genuine rewards for playing well and playing the objective. I do think there are some issues around how survivable these characters can be, I've gone on some outrageous streaks with heroes and reinforcement units, and this can lead to characters being hogged which isn't ideal. The system also might lead to people not spawning so that they can ensure getting the hero they want when they become available, which would really suck. I wonder if DICE could implement some kind of reservation system where you 'reserve' an already used hero so that, when they die, you can immediately take their place. Either way, this system feels closer than any previous one to what I actually want.
I'm also a big fan of the new squad spawning system though I think it may be responsible to some of the weirdness in the first phase of the Theed map. I'm a little perplexed about the 'stick near your squadmates for points' given that there is no indication this works nor any indication who your squadmates are, but I generally like the fact you spawn with a group rather than on your own and I'm delighted that DICE have moved away from the squad spawning/partner spawning nonsense from previous games which felt completely unrealistic and quite often unfair. There are a couple of changes which would perhaps be nice - like prioritising spawning people with their party members and ensuring that people aren't put in squads with vehicles would be good.
There's a lot of other things I'm a fan of here too. I like that they've reduced the game mode numbers down as, even at launch Battlefront had too many modes and once you added the DLC in there it was just total chaos and confusion. This concept of having Galactic Assault and Starfighter Assault change radically from map to map is really smart and one just has to hope the map/mode design is good across the board. So far I'm not finding the star card system too concerning from a pay to win point of view. It's hard to know, given that the rarities aren't representative, but I get the feeling that the gap between someone paying and someone not will be subtle enough that I can tolerate it easily - it's more than worth it for the free maps and community that will always be kept together.
Ultimately I'm liking this game a lot, will definitely buy it and I'm sure I'll get some good value out of it. Despite the general negativity in this thread DICE have made a lot of smart decisions with this sequel and I think, in time, people will start to see that.