Star Wars: Battlefront 2 unleashes Ewok terror next week
If you go down to the woods today~
Ewoks are scary, okay? Those dead eyes, those chattering teeth; they look like a man bitten by a radioactive Teddy Ruxpin under a full moon. EA Dice clearly agree, as the next new playmode for their initially wonky (but now recovering) team shooter Star Wars: Battlefront 2 features a squad of terrified stormtroopers trying to hold out just a few precious seconds longer against an ever-growing tide of murderous teddy bears.
The upcoming new mode is called Night on Endor, and will be rolling out as a free update on April 18th. In a rather brilliant twist on the classic 'zombie' game mode, a large team of Imperial stormtroopers must hold out until they can be evacuated from Endor after that whole Death Star v2.0 thing went south. The other team starts out as a small guerrilla force of Ewoks, but for every stormtrooper felled, another endlessly respawning Ewok joins the fight.
Clearly, what we initially assumed were Endor's natives are actually the result of some horrible strain of space-lycanthropy. Don't let them bite you!
Yub Nub! Yub Nub! Ewok Hunt is coming to #StarWarsBattlefrontII. Be prepared: https://t.co/iy0mrPcAgb pic.twitter.com/zrFsM0VVnC
— EAStarWars (@EAStarWars) April 13, 2018
Along with the fun new gameplay gubbins comes the reinstatement of the in-game cash shop. No longer are loot crates or random character upgrades part of the economy, after the massive rework to the skill and progression systems recently, but you can spend real money on alternative costumes for your rebels, stormtroopers and assorted Star Wars heroes and villains. There's also the option to buy these dress-up items with in-game credits earned through play, so those unwilling to pay anything over the box price (such as myself) still have a chance to dress up all fancy-like from time to time.
Accompanying the announcement of the update is the confirmation that, yes, Battlefront 2 is still strapped in for the long haul. A new season of updates is on the way, with more information due in early May. DICE are keen to reiterate that new seasons will be themed around notable Star Wars events, so it seems almost certain that we're going to be seeing some tie-in content with the upcoming Han Solo movie. Some sort of heist-themed scenario aboard that giant rollercoaster-train-thing in the trailer could be fun.
You can read the full list of upcoming balance tweaks and costumes being introduced in the developer Q&A/patch-notes page here, and the Night on Endor update will be live next Wednesday, April 18th.