“Star Wars Battlefront II” was released to a rough start on Nov. 17 by developer EA Dice, being plagued with negative feedback by the more verbose part of the gaming community.

The launch of an otherwise entertaining game was overshadowed by the outrage over Electronic Arts practically pushing users to purchase in-game items that can give them an edge over other users who don’t spend more.

Although this aspect of spending more to unlock more is popularized and normal in free to play games, the starting price of ‘Battlefront II’ can range from $60-80.

However, most users complaining about this feature haven’t even purchased or played the game themselves, misinforming themselves and inevitably misinforming onlookers who don’t know about the game at all.

The upgrades that can be purchased through actual monetary payments have been temporarily disabled by the developers and said to be re-enabled in the future with hopefully better changes to the “lootbox” system.

Pushing this controversy aside, the gameplay is fun and can provide users with a sense of pride and accomplishment once they complete objectives on the multiplayer maps.

The maps included in the base game include known locations from all of the current “Star Wars” movies, ranging from the plains of Naboo and the cloning facility of Kamino seen in “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones” to Starkiller Base from “The Force Awakens.”

In-game score is awarded to players for contributing to the objective on maps and by eliminating other players. The score can then be used to play as specialized characters with jetpacks or from iconic heroes and villains such as Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Darth Maul or Han Solo.

Included in this sequel that was not in the first game is a story mode that ties in to the movies.

The storyline is fairly basic: Iden Versio, an elite operative for the Empire sees all the chaos they’re causing to innocent civilians and wants that to end.

The singleplayer missions follow her story throughout the changes of the Empire after the death of the Emperor and Darth Vader on the destruction of the second Death Star, as seen in the “Return of the Jedi” movie.

Overall, the quality of the game is phenomenal. The graphics and sound design are two of its best features, with the online gameplay nearly beating the prior two characteristics.

With free content updates planned for the future, “Battlefront II” is a great game to purchase, especially as a gift for the upcoming Christmas season.