Hoth is broken. As a closet Imperial, it just feels cruel.
Yes, the Empire won Hoth.
Despite Admiral Ozzel’s incompetence, Hoth wasn’t just a victory for the Empire, it was a massacre. But Battlefront goes one step beyond. Their version of Hoth is an obliteration. The Force only knows what DICE were thinking, but this iteration of Star Wars’ best land battle is insanely unbalanced. Yes, the Empire’s meant to win. But come on, let’s give the Rebels even a fighting chance.
Here are just some of the problems with the map which need to be fixed:
- The AT-AT’s can shoot at the rebel’s spawns, from above, using orbital strikes, from pretty much the moment the battle starts. This is insane.
- There is no safe space for the Rebels. Imperials are able to loop behind and above them and fire on them as they spawn.
- The mounted weapons and cannons that are in place to protect the Rebels in the final stages can be turned against their owners.
- Currently, very few Rebel soldiers have access to anti-vehicle weapons: there’s no real threat to the AT-ST’s.
- Darth Vadar can leap like Superman and definitely doesn’t have canon asthma.
But here’s the biggie, and it’s something that I don’t know how to solve. To put it bluntly, the Imperials have it too easy. Their win condition essentially boils down to: walk forward and keep pointing guns at the capture points. The rebels have it far harder. Not only do they have to brave fire from infantry, AT-ST’s, the AT-AT’s and any TIE Fighters not hilariously crashing into angry rocks, they then have to capture a point, hold that point for as long as possible, allow the AT-AT’s to become vulnerable, and then focus fire the walkers. I wouldn’t expect that level from a starting WoW raid using voice chat: let alone a team of 20 hyperactive casual Star Wars fans, who are purely running towards the pickups in the vague hope they might get 10 seconds as an A-Wing.
What terrifies me about Hoth is how late this beta is. Hoth is the centrepiece skirmish of the entire Star Wars series. It’s the most important, most loved, most celebrated bit of Star Wars shootybang there is. And a month before release, it’s hilariously broken.
It’s making me very, very nervous.