Star Wars Battlefront 2 Has Unlocked All The Heroes

Update 2.0 has gone live for Star Wars Battlefront II, completely overhauling the game's progression system. Unexpectedly, this includes all characters and ships in the online mode being unlocked for all players.

We knew that some extensive changes were coming to Battlefront II, spurred on by some pretty serious controversy the game stirred up last fall. In short, the game's original progression system had a whole bunch of issues, and there were also loot crates that offered game-altering upgrades for multiplayer modes. This was a shame since, otherwise, we thought Battlefront II was a pretty great game. The issues, though, were bad enough to draw quite a bit of fire for DICE and publisher EA, including action by various governing agencies from around the world as they turned a critical eye on these types of systems and how they are implemented into games in general.

But EA promised to make good on the game and, credit where it's due, they appear to have done exactly that. We're not saying anyone should forget the events which led to this and, by all means, keep your money in your pocket if you feel it's too little, too late; but the announced changes certainly seem to address all of the issues fans had with the game.

But while EA outlined several of the changes that would be made in Battlefront II once the 2.0 update went live, they left out the part about every hero and ship in the game being unlocked right off the bat. We knew that a new progression system for characters would be introduced, but this was a step in the right direction we weren't really expecting.

In short, players now get experience for playing whatever class, hero or ship that they want. That was one of the biggest issues fans had with the game's original reward loop. If you really liked a certain loadout, there was no guarantee loot boxes would give you gear to actually improve them as you play. According to Polygon, players can now play however they like, constantly earning experience to help improve that specific class, hero and ship. We understand that potential future characters might become available at the cost of in-game currency, but that's currency you'll be earning while playing anyway.

As for loot boxes, they no longer include items, characters and upgrades for multiplayer modes. Instead, you'll only find cosmetic items in the digital chests, such as skins or emotes.

As an added bonus in the recent update, players will now be able to jump into an updated version of the Bespin map from 2015's Battlefront, and Arcade mode's unlocks will now jump automatically to the Epic level in order to make the mode what it was intended to be in the first place, an over-the-top sandbox.

All things considered, it sounds like Battlefront II has had the vast majority of its issues addressed in a patch measuring 4GB. Again, this is pretty much the game it should have been in the first place, but we're at least happy the team was willing to listen to the community and make the changes rather than go with, "sorry about that, we'll get it right next time."