Welcome to the start of a new series of articles: “Battlefront II Revisited”. When Star Wars Battlefront II was released in November 2017, a large part of my excitement was directed towards the inclusion of a single player story mode, which would be telling a new story in the canon and following a new set of characters: Inferno Squad. Having completed the story mode rather quickly, I have only really played the game in patches since as online multiplayer shooters are not really my thing, but all the recent improvements and new content have had me playing a bit more recently and I decided it would be fun to return to the story mode and give my thoughts on each level. Today looks at the 3rd mission The Dauntless
Please be aware there will be spoilers for the story
Previous missions:
As a preparation for Operation: Cinder, Inferno have been sent to the shipyards above Fondor, where they will oversee the transfer of some experimental satellites to the Dauntless and Moff Raythe. Del stays on the Corvus while Hask and Iden board the Dauntless to oversee the transfer. As the transfer is finished, Rebel ships including an MC-80 cruiser arrive and begin to attack the station and ships. Iden and Hask jump into their TIE fighters while Del provides a tactical overview from the Corvus.
Now when I fly as the Empire, the standard TIE fighter would not be my ship of choice, but against the AI it is easy enough to overcome the lack of familiarity. Early objectives are simple enough: destroying an enemy Corvette that only requires a short concerted effort with the primary weapon, Laser barrage and Proton Torpedos; taking out a handful of troop transports that are attempting to board the Dauntless, which has been disabled by ion canons and taking out some fighters tailing Hask – easy enough as he leads them into a narrow route that makes it easy to get an aim for a few seconds following behind. Iden decides to board the MC-80 to take down the ion canons so that the Dauntless can escape, though Moff Raythe argues that they should stay and fight – classic Imperial pride outweighing intelligence.
“Admiral Versio will cleanse the galaxy, Commander. To remind them who is truly in control.”
Iden flies into the MC-80’s hangar, and before landing we have a chance to lay waste to the ships and soldiers in there using the TIEs weapons, the more damage that you can do here makes the next moment easier. Iden jumps out of the TIE and fights the remaining troops. There is limited cover initially so this can be dangerous if you aren’t careful, but the standard weapon for this level is a TL-50 Heavy Repeater, with an alternate fire mode that can quickly deal with a number of troops if you can catch them while they are still grouped together. Iden fights her way through the ship (similar to the final phase of “The Cleaner”) until she makes it to the room holding the ion canons. As with that level, there are some alternate branches but they quickly lead to dead ends, making the route clear.
Once Iden reaches the room, Hask comes to join her and they cover the ID-10 droid as it slices into the computer systems to shut down the ion canons and expose the cores, which can then be easily destroyed. You will need to do this on each side of the room, but enemies will only come from a couple of locations, so with the help of Hask and being able to set up a blaster turret, it is easy enough to deal with the troopers. Once the first 2 cores are down, Iden attaches an explosive on the final cell, which leads to a cutscene where the explosion fires out one of the canons to collide with a passing corvette, causing it to crash into the cruiser. This breaks the ray shield keeping the atmosphere in the room, but the ID-10 droid manages to bring across the emergency blast doors just in time to stop Iden being sucked out into space.
“Marvellous work today Commander. Your father will be proud.”
Iden and Hask get back in their TIEs and return to the battle. The Dauntless has power back but the magnetic docking clamps are still holding it in place. Iden is ordered to destroy 2 power sources for the clamp, then needs to take out a number of fighters that are attacking the Dauntless, nothing that should prove an issue provided you are a careful pilot and don’t crash. Iden suggests disabling the MC-80 to capture some rebels and learn from them, however Hask and Raythe’s pride sees them both shoot down her suggestion. The final objective is to take out the magnetic clamps, which only takes a few seconds of concerted fire. Released from the clamps, the Dauntless opens fire on the cruiser, securing a victory for the Empire.
Thanks for reading. May the Force be with you…
The Canon Padawan 