‘Star Wars: Battlefront II’ Offers First Look At Obi-Wan Kenobi, New Vehicle

Star Wars: Battlefront II has quite a bit of content still on the way and the team behind the Star Wars online game just shared a ton of new behind-the-scenes look at what’s next including a certain Jedi and a badass new AT-TE.

DICE’s Ben Walke started off the first look with a WIP animation of Obi-Wan Kenobi before he joins the fight. He also assures hardcore fans that the lightsaber WILL be blue when he arrives in-game.

He took it one step further by sharing development art for the robes, as well:

New Vehicle: AT-TE

Now it’s time to get familiar with the AT-TE, the new vehicle arriving with the upcoming update. Walke continued to share a little more behind-the-scenes footage with a simple animation for the latest addition: 

According to DICE, “The centerpiece of Geonosis is the AT-TE. This six-legged armored walker is fully controllable and plays a vital role on the battlefront. One of the key differences between the AT-TE and any other vehicle in the game is that they are dynamically dropped in real-time into the playable space as the battle goes on. This creates a lot of interesting scenarios and we are excited to see how this plays out once Geonosis arrives later this month.

“What this also means is that you will not be able to pick the AT-TE from the spawn screen. You will encounter them within the environment itself. One might be dropped in just ahead of you, or you might turn a corner to see one, ready and waiting for you to jump in.”

There’s also a new Homing Spider-Droid:

“As the Clones fight their way towards the Turbolasers they will have to clear out quite a few Homing Spider Droids. These droids will deal significant damage to both AT-TEs and Troopers if not taken care of. Their presence means that the AT-TEs can’t just blindly keep walking forward towards the next objective.”

AT-TE As Reinforcements

With the newest additions, the team also had to tweak how reinforcements work and how the new vehicle ties in. According to the company, “Usually, one reinforcement equals one trooper. However, for the second and third phases, one reinforcement will equal one AT-TE. This means that dying as a Clone Trooper during these phases won’t drain your teams’ tickets. A transition from trooper reinforcements to AT-TE reinforcements happens between Phase 1 and 2.”

They added, ‘To give all Droids a chance to help, we use Missile Launchers (as seen in all other walker phases) in a slightly different way. There will be more of these available, the range much longer than normal, and the lock-on time very short. In addition to this, Droids won’t be marked while holding the launcher by the other team. However, they won’t make the AT-TE weakened, instead they just deal damage.”

Living World

The Geonosis update will also bring immersion one step further. “To bring this battle fully to life a lot of things are going on outside the playable space, something we’re calling the “Living World.”

“The vistas and the feeling of a massive battle going on is crucial to delivering this experience. You’re not just fighting with your squad, you’re fighting with your squad as part of a huge planetary battle that is raging on all around you.”

There is also the Sand Storm that serves as an iconic scene from the franchise and is something that will occur in-game between Phase 2 and 3. DICE mentioned, “While fighting through the sand storm, visibility is heavily reduced and, even though you are fighting in a completely open area, you feel like it’s close-range gameplay. Running through the storm with blaster bolts flying everywhere is a great experience and definitely something which adds to the unique gameplay experience that Geonosis will offer.”

The new Geonisis update is set to arrive later this month!