Star Wars: Battlefront II

A game trapped in paradox, even after a substantial update overhauled its notorious pay-to-win progression into a fair level-up system with all heroes unlocked. The fundamental problem is that previously purchased star cards were never reset, leaving early payers permanently overpowered while new and returning players face an enormous grind. Combined with seemingly random matchmaking that pits newcomers against decked-out veterans, the uneven playing field that plagued launch persists, and a full refund and hard reset would have fixed it.

A complete turnaround from its predatory 2017 launch — every shred of pay-to-win has been stripped out, star cards reworked, and heroes and content made freely accessible, so paying players gain no advantage and microtransactions are cosmetic only. It's now packed with masses of free new maps, modes and co-op content, more than doubling in size, and is genuinely fun to play. The single-player campaign is still poor, but overall it has finally earned a recommendation.

At its core this is an excellent, often great Star Wars game: the Starfighter Assault space combat is a triumph with superb handling, the campaign delivers memorable nostalgic moments, and the environment and aesthetic design are phenomenal. But the campaign story collapses early into a generic, disjointed mess, the multiplayer is shallow, and the experience is fundamentally undermined by a broken, grind-heavy RPG progression system tied to predatory loot boxes that make it pay-to-win.

ZP: unexciting grab bag that funnels to multiplayer.

AJ: 6/10 — impressive maps; insulting loot boxes.

Fun multiplayer with great heroes; boring campaign and pay-to-win loot crates undermine progression.