Star Wars: Battlefront’s Battle of Jakku downloadable content is now live for preorder customers, giving Star Wars fans their first taste of The Force Awakens. As it turns out, it tastes a lot like Tatooine.
Remember when the first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out and everybody was like “Oh great, another sandy planet”? Jakku is more than just another sandy planet. It’s a sandy planet covered with garbage.
To be fair, it’s freshly-minted Imperial and Rebel garbage from the ongoing massive battle that serves as a bridge between the original trilogy and the new one. The sky over Jakku is filled with gigantic space cruisers shooting at each other, while on the ground we grunts do all the work.
There are two maps included in the Battle of Jakku DLC. Graveyard of Giants is the huge battlefield made for the game’s larger modes. That’s where you’ll see the downed Star Destroyer, though the map boundaries keep it forever out of reach. It looks lovely, especially from the sky in Fighter Squadron mode.
The second map, built for more intimate skirmishes, is the Goazan Badlands. It’s all canyons and caves, much like we’ve seen in other Battlefront planets, only with more junk.
Check out the video atop the post for a more in-depth (and death-filled) exploration of the Battle of Jakku downloadable content.
I didn’t see any big secrets or hints about what’s going to happen in The Force Awakens—the planet serves as a setting for the movie, but the events taking place happen shortly after Endor in Return of the Jedi. So there are no sleek new Stormtroopers or fresh new Jedi running about. Just us Rebel and Imperial guys on a different planet.
Anxious about playing the DLC but didn’t preorder? I wouldn’t worry too much about missing anything. The sands a different color and there’s stuff everywhere, but ultimately it’s more Battlefront. It’ll be out for everyone in a week, and a day later it’ll just be another couple of maps to play on.
Contact the author, a completely different author in a slightly different shade and covered with debris, at fahey@kotaku.com or follow him on Twitter at @bunnyspatial