Reviews - AspiringCreator

Starting with the visuals, most of the models used look amazing and impressively accurate to the source material and if there's one thing I have to commend the developers on especially for these, it's all the impressive tiny details that are found like how for the low poly models of ships you can see up in the sky on the ground maps, you can actually see ships like the FO Destroyers hovering overhead or in the case of certain characters, Supreme Leader Snoke has Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, referencing the now famous scene in his throne room during TLJ and considering that this is only the tip of the iceberg for what is going to be added, it amazes me that a first release would have all this when I would've been perfectly content with just having the new soldier and fighter models which I have to say also do a good job of fitting right in with this 13 year old game's visuals which I much prefer over the tendency to just throw in HD models and call it a day. Of course some aren't perfect for some of them like the Ben Swolo skin for Kylo Ren look incredibly rough and at the very least on my machine, I found they had a nasty tendency to go low poly when they're not that far away though that's something I can absolutely ignore considering it could just be an issue with my machine and this is a first release, meaning it's always possible that it could be fixed in the future.

But now it's time to move onto the most important part of mods for me and it's the type that I found can easily make or break something for me and that's the gameplay.

This mod, while having some quirks which I chalk up to the fact this is a first release, is made to be more challenging while still keeping in mind how the game is designed and therefore, it understands what boundaries it has. You do take and dish out more damage but instead of feeling like I need a cheat to live, it feels instead like a much welcomed challenge and that's in part thanks to the abilities each soldier and hero has which not only help to make each unit feel distinct but there's no ability I feel is broken or useless and for that matter, there's no unit that feels pointless or redundant and that even goes for those present on the space maps which is much appreciated.

However as I said, there are quirks to it. In terms of balance for the most part it's nice though it's fairly clear that the Resistance has more of an advantage, especially when it comes to powerful heroes like Rey. It's not the hugest of deals and part of it can be chalked up to the new hero system which treats them more like units than special rewards but still, it can be a bit irritating to have moments in matches where all of a sudden you have Luke Skywalker, Rey and Han Solo barreling through a horde of soldiers all gunning for you and your measly squad of soldiers. There's also a few bugs that come into play like how sometimes for reasons I don't know, characters like Phasma and Hux can't sprint or zoom in with their aim and also there's the issue of secondary weapons and abilities being a bit finicky. Sometimes clicking the right mouse button still does the job as always but then on some units, I have to press the F key to use their stuff. Again, not the largest of deals but it's still a bit odd and could use some addressing.

With that said though, this mod is most impressive and part of what helps with that is the final part of this and that's just talking about the little touches that just put this a few steps above what I expected, features that for a first release I'd never expect would be implemented. First off, this mod when in use adds a few extra features to the Unofficial Patch 1.3's Fake Console that basically act as a skin changer for both your units AND heroes. For example, if you're not exactly a fan of Kylo Ren's TLJ look where he's unmasked? No worries, just hop into the Fake Console, click the option for him to have his TFA look and you got it. Want to give soldiers that rundown desert appearance? No sweat, you can do that. Want to just have a laugh? Use the Ben Swolo skin. There's just so much here that I've barely scratched the surface of.

All in all, I love this mod. It's not perfect for sure but in terms of finally having a well-designed mod for what is quickly becoming my favorite era of Star Wars? I'm so happy and I absolutely cannot wait to see what lies in the future for this.

To start off, let me just say that when I first saw this mod was in development, my reaction didn't really consist of the kind of excitement that others had since it looked kind of... amateur to me. That combined with the fact the idea for this mod I thought was never going to be possible or properly executed, I just didn't think much of it. However when I finally got it, I was thoroughly impressed by the amount of effort that went into this and now that we've hit the most recent release, I am currently of the opinion that despite its simplicity, this should be a permanent part of anyone's Battlefront II despite its flaws which I hope get ironed out such as the crashing of skins (especially when used with BF Evolved.), the Clone Commander not changing to the proper character when using him with things like Evolved or the 1.3 sides and hopefully some more edits to things like the First Order skins and things like that to make it that much more appealing.

Being a guy who has seen so many mods both good and bad, I'm bound to have some bias or disdain for certain mods or mod-types. For some, that mod-type may be the twentieth Geonosis map that will send you into a frenzy. For others, it may be the thousandth attempt at making a map that strives for movie accuracy instead of doing something unique.

As for me, it's side mods. Now back then if you had asked me what I thought about these kinds of mods, my reaction would be obviously different since back then, if you wanted something like the 212th legion and whatnot in the game, you had to rely on these things. However, while the installation process is easy, there is one detail that gets a little tedious to deal with and that's the fact you're replacing actual parts of the game instead of adding to it so if you want to undo your changes and you end up not backing up the old files? Well, that's it. You're forced to then reinstall the game and hope you don't make the same mistake again. Fast forward to now and we are long past that point thanks to mainly one mod type and one mod for the Fake Console from the 1.3 patch. The mod-type is the era mod which gives us a whole new era to play with without replacing your stock sides and then there's the Skin Changer which is still in development but it's looking to make it to where you can replace your soldier skins with basically anything you like, thus removing the need to even bother with installing side mods with the only time you may even consider it is when it does something similar to what the upgraded sides of the 1.3 patch did. Something that fans have done many times with sides beforehand.

That being making them more accurate to the films they're based on while not changing too much which leads us to this little mod. Evolved which despite how simple the idea is and how the changes are, it has officially become a permanent fixture in my game and although I have backed up my sides, I have no intention of using them again. This mod is just that good.

So what's changed? To start off, all the humanoid soldiers get brand new neutral and aiming animations that I absolutely love. While granted the originals weren't bad, the difference really becomes easy to see with this mod as now soldiers actually look like they're aiming and like they're far more professional. Next off, it gives grenades a different effect for when they're thrown that overall looks way nicer and the Destroyer Droids now have shields that look far more like the films. However, the biggest praise I can give for this is just how good the upgraded sides look, especially for the Republic. Gone is the odd mishmash of Paratroopers and Galactic Marines in roles they never were in and in their places are units that actually look like they belong in the 501st which also have been given a facelift since their helmets seem to be partially remodeled and although the additions are fairly subtle and hard to see at first, they're much appreicated. Same goes for the Empire.

Heck, even space units received a proper changing for we now have Imperial Navy units from Force Unleashed as our marines and some slick looking black armored rebels for the marines on their side. All in all, it's one fantastic mod.

Of course, it does have its downsides and room for improvement and suggestions and so I just thought I'd might as well do that. For one thing, while it was great to get new models for Anakin and Obi-Wan, the other heroes now look somewhat off when pit against their far better looking brethren so what I'd like to see is maybe visual upgrades for every hero unit somewhere down the line. Speaking of more upgrades, it'd also be pretty nice to get some for the Phase 1 Clones and the CIS to once again continue with making sure everything fits together way better. I would suggest things such as replacing ships like the LAAT for the Alliance with something like the U-Wing from Rogue One as to fit better with their visuals but of course, that goes against the point of this mod. Regardless though, this is still one awesome mod and again, it's a permanent download for me.

To start this off, I do want to make this clear. This is by far one of the most fun era mods I've ever played. So good in fact that I'd rate my experience up there with the one I had with Extreme. Not only was it refreshing to finally be able to play a mod with a TFA era with sides that don't leave a lot to be desired like the one in Coruscant Modern Warfare but it was nice to see how retextures and tiny details make the thing feel like the film it's based on from the very bright saturation for the lasers to things like Kylo's lightsaber actually having an unstable blade and the improved animations which help to make soldiers feel that much more alive and when combined with the new weapon models, it helps to make you feel as though you're actually in that era. Not only that but considering this was a mod made when TFA was the only real piece of media showcasing this era, of course it was very limiting due to how little we've seen and to see the lengths it goes in spite of that by even going as far as to pull from the toys released for vehicle ideas is quite amazing and awe-inspiring and I'm certain it will only get better as more EU content comes out featuring this era and the new movies (Mainly I hope a major update happens around The Last Jedi's release.).

However, there are still some issues that need to be addressed. Thankfully when compared to mods like The BF Project, these problems aren't too major and possibly may turn out to be minor nitpicks in some cases but these are still issues that bugged me while playing the game and to start off small, while there are plenty of retextures that look really good, some look... off to say the least. Some of the most notable ones to point out are Han who despite having a great deal of retexturing done to achieve the older look, he for some reason still has the face of Harrison Ford from ANH which despite being a minor detail, it's still distracting as it looks less like Han's actually an old man but like he's in a Halloween costume (Doesn't help much that his hair looks like an old man wig.). Other details that bugged me were the looks for Rey and Finn which looked... how can I put this without sounding too cruel? Finn looks passable but Rey looks downright horrific and while it's appreciated that an actual texture of the actress's face was used, the way it's always looking off to the side somewhat bugs me. Now I'm no artist so obviously I can't offer services to redraw the faces but still, it's distracting. Other details I had an issue with were Kylo and how he looks so oddly in-accurate to the film, Phasma with how her cape is styled which looks distracting once you realize that part of her back is just retextured to fit an obvious gap and finally, the Resistance side as a whole.

Now, I'm willing to sort of forgive some details being off since as far as I'm aware of, there are no custom models for the Resistance but it's still very distracting to just have them be retextured Clone Pilots and in space, it's way more distracting for both sides considering they both have the same types of vehicles. Now this I can again, forgive in some aspects given that again, no custom models for the Finalizer are available and actually trying to model these things is a pain but as for the vehicles, it's still incredibly odd to have the X-Wings still look like regular X-Wings and for the FO to have things like the Special Forces TIE but no rear gunner position like there was in the film. Also the Resistance still using the LAAT is odd though what's even odder is that it has ZERO collision when it comes to Star Destroyers which seems like a very odd oversight.

As for gameplay issues, the two big things I'll note are that I'm not much of a fan of the overheating weapon system and the FO is way, WAY overpowered or at least, the damage levels have been jacked up way too far. This is a personal issue I've had with plenty of mods like Bantha55's maps and such and while it's not as bad here, I still feel the need to express that while it's fine to go for more accuracy to the films, there is a point where things stop being fun due to it going too far and in this case, I feel it's noticeable even more so with the overheating systems and how the FO is just so much better equipped. For this to be fixed, I think damage levels should be tweaked back to how they were in the stock game and weapons should have ammo as to have the risk factor still be there.

There's more I could list of course but all in all, I do want to make it clear that in spite of its flaws, I love this mod and I feel it has so much potential and thankfully, most of my problems come down to visuals and less gamebreaking flaws. Hopefully these will be addressed next update which I'm very much looking forward to. All in all, this is still a must DL for anyone who's a fan of SW and/or this new trilogy.