Star Wars Battlefront II is a huge achievement in licensed video games, giving fans an unbelievably high fidelity window into the greatest science fiction franchise of all-time. You can participate in the most famous battles of the saga, fly around in the coolest spacecrafts and step into the shoes of your favorite heroes. So, it’s a shame that EA has crammed the thing full of predatory pay-to-win loot box garbage designed to get players to empty their wallets after spending $60 bucks on it. Nuts to that.
The microtransactions are a goddamn shame, because by all accounts, the game contains a short but sweet single-player campaign that gives us a unique perspective on the Star Wars universe in the period between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Not only that, but one of the most tantalizing bits gives us an explanation as to what Luke’s doing in the run up to Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Naturally, spoilers will follow, so reader beware.
As those who’ve played the game will know, Del Meeko (an Imperial Special Forces officer in ‘Inferno Squad’) is tasked with visiting the insect-infested planet of Pillio to destroy everything inside the Emperor’s secret vault. As he’s on this mission, he runs into none other than Luke Skywalker, who explains that the Force has guided him to the same place. The pair have a reluctant team-up until they reach the vault, where Luke spots a star map very similar to the one we’ve seen in the first Last Jedi trailer.
You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that this is the initial step of Luke’s journey to the wind-blasted ocean planet of Ahch-To. Those who’ve been paying attention to what’s coming in the new movie will know there’s a Jedi Temple there, so it’s a no-brainer that this is where the Emperor’s secret map is pointing to, and why Luke is hanging out in the middle of nowhere at the end of The Force Awakens.
Of course, in just over a month, we’ll have this confirmed when we actually see The Last Jedi, but for now, Battlefront II fills in a crucial part of Luke’s backstory. It’s just a pity it’s tucked away among some absolutely vile bits of monetized design in a package that only a mug would actually buy.
