The Resurrection of Battlefront II: From Meme to Masterpiece (Almost)

When Star Wars Battlefront II dropped in 2017, it wasn’t just a bad day for gamers, it was a cautionary tale scrawled across the internet in downvotes and outrage. A full-priced game stuffed with pay-to-win mechanics, where unlocking Darth Vader required either a spreadsheet and 40 hours of your life, or a credit card. It wasn’t just offensive; it felt like EA had monetized childhood memories and sold them back to us with interest. Reddit responded with the most downvoted comment in the platform’s history. News outlets picked it up. Politicians got involved. And even Disney, who generally lets money talk, allegedly stepped in for some emergency image control. For a moment, Battlefront II became the example of everything wrong with modern game monetization.

And then... the weird part happened. It got better. Not “they patched the bugs” better. Actually good.

DICE, to their credit, didn’t walk away. They nuked the loot boxes, rebuilt the progression system, and over time, transformed the game into a fan-fueled Star Wars fantasy. Clone Wars updates, new maps, heroes like Obi-Wan and Grievous, suddenly, the game started looking like the dream shooter it was originally sold as. Fast forward to 2025, and Battlefront II just hit 18,635 concurrent players on Steam, setting an all-time record more than seven years after launch. That number might not sound massive in a world of Warzones and Fortnites, but for a game once left for dead, it’s a resurrection story. The resurgence wasn’t led by marketing or a new-gen relaunch. It was pure fan momentum, driven by clips, modding, nostalgia, and a very public push for Battlefront III. And that push wasn’t quiet. Hashtags like #WeWantBattlefront3 trended across X and Reddit. Influencers jumped on board. Petitions gained tens of thousands of signatures. Former DICE developers and Clone Wars voice actors even voiced support. It wasn’t just noise, it was a coordinated, community-powered call for a sequel to the game that EA once tried to bury.

It’s easy to see why. Battlefront II, for all its scars, remains one of the most cinematic and satisfying Star Wars games you can play. Supremacy mode offers massive battles with just enough structure to keep the chaos fun. Hero gameplay is still wildly unbalanced but hilariously entertaining. The visuals? Still gorgeous. The sound design? Still unmatched. There’s a reason people are coming back, and not just for the memes. The secret weapon here is the community. When support officially ended in 2020, modders stepped up. PC players got new skins, balance tweaks, and unofficial updates. Content creators kept uploading clips and reviews, keeping the game visible long after EA had moved on. Console players, though left mod-less, kept the lobbies alive through sheer stubbornness. Battlefront II became a shared secret, an aging game that still delivered raw Star Wars spectacle better than anything newer. And yeah, the cracks are still there. Matchmaking can be rough. Certain heroes still dominate every lobby. Objectives sometimes feel like optional side quests in the face of total anarchy. But for every rough edge, there’s a moment, when a thermal imploder drops, or a lightsaber duel breaks out mid-blaster fight, that reminds you why this game was worth saving.

If you’re just now jumping in because of the recent spike or the Battlefront III buzz, you’re in for a ride. And if you’ve been around since the dark times, before the patch, you know exactly how far this thing has come. My review of Battlefront II is dropping soon, and I’ll be diving into everything: the highs, the chaos, the missed potential, and why this game may be the most impressive redemption arc in modern gaming. It’s not perfect, but it’s powerful, and more importantly, it feels like it matters. It serves as a reminder to not give up on old games. Battlefront II didn’t deserve a second chance. It earned it. And in an industry full of unfinished launches and abandoned ideas, that kind of long-game redemption is something worth paying attention to. It serves as a reminder to not give up on old games.