‘Star Wars: Battlefront’ Taps Into Retro Nostalgia, But Will Fans Want More?

For those who had been eagerly awaiting Star Wars: Battlefront, for those who saw the first series of trailers, there was likely a feel of cinematic realism that involved the musical score that bears a resemblance to the sounds of John Williams’ orchestrated ensemble remnant from the days of old.

In battle one must prioritize. #StarWarsBattlefront pic.twitter.com/41esWAFYUB

— ChiveGaming (@ChiveGaming) November 18, 2015

Not only the music bears an impression on us, but the unique sound effects are easily iconic and recognizable, as well. The Verge mentions the work involved in retro sound design and speaks of even the recognizable props, ships, and other environmental variables. However, it’s really the sound that makes the best impression when playing Star Wars: Battlefront.

All this is combined and embedded in our “cultural consciousness,” in the report made by The Verge. That being said, it likely hits the nostalgia button for many people whilst playing the game. It was noted that when creating the sound effects for Battlefront, sound designer David Jegutidse and audio Ben Minto did more than just pull up a track of sounds and music of which were already pre-recorded, but they went back historically and followed the original techniques to create the sound magic that would tap into the aforementioned consciousness.

“The audio direction for the project was ‘Don’t go and create anything new.’ All these ideas are already there, so if anybody was adding anything to the game, it was always challenged. Where did you get this from? How have you broken this down? And if it didn’t stick to the Star Wars way of doing it, it was ‘no.’ “

That being said, DICE took a trip down memory lane and visited the library of Lucasfilm and Skywalker Sound.

An example was given by Minto involving the blasters in Star Wars: Battlefront. He mentioned that a comparison had to be made because in the Star Wars films, the blasters were all third person, while in the video game, he talked about how the sound of blasters had to be differentiated depending on whether it was being fired to the right or left of you or coming from your first person perspective. DICE’s history with the Battlefield series of games gave reference to how this sound worked and being able to apply it to Battlefront.

“We already have that learning from taking a gun and putting it into the Battlefield world. So then we also knew what techniques we had to apply to take a blaster and put it into the Battlefront world.”

Moving away from the sound effects, comes the introduction of music into Star Wars: Battlefront. GameSpot gave insight into the musical composer for the game, Gordy Haab.

As many Star Wars fans probably already know, John Williams has his most iconic, recognizable music. Haab gave his perspective when tackling the “daunting” process of attempting to simulate the music so iconic to Williams’ works — especially in an attempt to incorporate it all into the game. Rather notably, the music for Battlefront was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Gordy also gave his view on such a daunting task of living up to the iconic music.

“It’s always daunting because I know it has such a large built-in audience, and the expectations are already so high. But I put even higher expectations on myself because I’m equally as much a fan of the music as I am the composer of the music.”

Then there’s the frame of mind if fans will think all this realism will be enough to satiate their desire for “The Force.” According to LA Times, this is questioned as it remarks that even though the sounds and music that’s nostalgic of the movie franchise, that it’s more multiplayer focused and often times there’s a repetitiveness to it when obtaining objectives and not really “story-driven.” That being said, solo-players may not desire this title if it’s not kind of format they desire.

Star Wars: Battlefront is due out tomorrow, November 19, and there’s also a new piece of DLC (downloadable content) coming out on December 8 inspired by The Force Awakens.

[Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images News]