Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Star Wars Battlefront: Egypt Strikes Back

Having waited months to get his hands on the newest Star Wars game, EgyGamer made Skot Thayer's dreams come true. The game is amazing but he is pretty pissed at Egypt's less-than-stellar telecom situation for making him look like a bad pilot...

Staff Writer

Star Wars Battlefront: Egypt Strikes Back

“This is Red Five; I’m going in,” I muttered to no one, hunched over on the couch in my underwear. The only light in the room was the glow of the TV as my X-wing tore through the sky of Tatooine, towards the incoming TIE fighters, my fingers wrapped tight around the PS4 controller as I began to audibly breathe through my mouth. I’d been waiting to play Star Wars: Battlefront for a long time. My exodus to Egypt didn’t leave much time for gaming so, even though I am the #SkotWars guy, I could only watch YouTube videos of the biggest thing to happen to Star Wars in gaming since the original Xbox came out. 

Now, here I was, thanks to my fellow geeks at EgyGamer, finally bearing down on Imperial fighters, my throttle full of adrenaline. The graphics were brilliant. Light reflected off black wings in the binary sunset as a weird green cloud of lasers blasted around me. I narrowly avoid a pair of missiles that had locked onto me and followed me around. The two pink glow orbs of doom gone, I ran into a much bigger problem: the ground. My star-fighter got pretty smashed, but it was still flying. Pulling up, an enemy lazily floated into my crosshairs. “This is it,” I said, with barely-restrained joy as I squeezed the R2 button and unleashed hell from my stubby wings. The Imperial froze in midair like a terrified animal before a predator while my lasers passed through him without leaving so much as a smudge on the glass. My X-wing had also stalled, then moved backwards, and then exploded. 

My connection lasted long enough for me to see the jerk that had blasted me out of the sky with his superior broadband connection, do a nifty little barrel role to gloat. I’ve probably watched 100 videos of Star Wars Battlefront in action, and I was stoked to finally play it. But, the online experience has been one of pain and frustration as the dark side of the Internet in Egypt has totally eclipsed any enjoyment I would have had playing the game online. 

This (the video above) is what I expected from Star Wars: Battlefront, but what I ended up with was so lag-filled and infuriating I couldn't even upload it to YouTube. Because the Internet speed in Egypt sucks, it totally ruined my kill ratio. Since the bulk of the game is designed to be played over the network, the few options left to me were not enough to keep me interested all that long. Hopefully, our new office comes with a speedy connection so I can come after all of you with my elite X-wing skills. 

The game is designed primarily to be played online but it does feature a few options for single-player and local multiplayer which are still tons o' fun. The straight up deathmatch style missions fulfill my primal urge to shoot things and make them die, but with a spiffy Star Wars overlay that makes the whole thing feel a bit fresher than just another modern shooter. The survival mode, when played with a partner on a split screen, is a blast. Struggling against increasingly powerful waves of stormtroopers and AT-ST is a great bonding experience. 

Without online the game is little more than bot matches and basic co-op missions but, if you even have a passing interest in the galaxy far, far away it's a must play. The gorgeous graphics, amazing sound design, and epic battles make one of the best Star Wars gaming experiences to be had. Just make sure you have the TE Data or Vodafone plan that can support all the lasers and torpedos you're sending through the net. Don't even attempt it with anything less than 2mbps. 

Huge thanks to EgyGamer for hooking us up and making Skot's dreams come true. You can check out their Facebook page here or follow them on Instagram @egy.gamer.