Earlier this week we scoped out a Star Wars Battlefront 2 video hosted by John Boyega that hyped up everything the game will have to offer. Included amongst all of it was a brief snippet from the cutscene in which Iden Versio, commanding officer of the Imperial special forces unit Inferno Squad, is told that the Emperor is dead. Today, Sony unveiled the rest of the “single player story scene” that clip comes from, and it’s pretty good—and a little creepy, too.
It’s interesting that Versio appears as committed to Team Bad Guys as her father, who appears to be a highly-placed and trusted member of the Imperial command structure. She seems quite eager to dive into Operation Cinder, and do her part to “burn away” the concepts of “resistance, rebellion, [and] defiance.”
To me, that’s what will make Star Wars Battlefront 2 interesting (or not): I’m sure it will be a competent shooter, but how will Versio’s character arc unfold? Will she eventually make a hero turn, or will she remain true to the cause, despite being privy to the Empire’s dark side? I think the latter is more likely—Versio has already risen to the top of one of the foremost Imperial goon squads, and she clearly still has a taste for the job—and I hope that’s how it works out: “Fight for space-fascism” may not be the easiest story to tell, but done well, it’d make for a nice break from the usual “Force be with you” pap.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 comes out on November 17, but before that there will be an open multiplayer beta that will begin at 1 am PT/4 am ET on October 4 for those who have preordered and October 6 for everyone else, and run until 9 am PT/12 pm ET on October 9.