Parent's Guide: Star Wars: Battlefront - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Set during the original (read: good) trilogy of films, Star Wars: Battlefront is a game of X-Wings vs. Tie Fighters, Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader, and the Rebel Alliance vs the Galactic Empire in an all out multiplayer war for up to 40 players.

With next to nothing in the way of a single player or split-screen mode, the main draw of Star Wars: Battlefront is the online multiplayer. Letting two teams of up to 20 players each go at it across a wide variety of iconic Star Wars locations, from the icy wasteland of Hoth to the forest moon of Endor, this is a game that will have huge appeal to Star Wars fans who are after an online multiplayer shooter.

With a variety of modes on offer, there's a fair amount for players to sink their teeth into here. From objective based modes like Walker Assault, where the rebels have to complete a number of objectives to disable the shields on the AT-AT walkers, before preparing their all-out assault, to flight-only modes like Fighter Squadron, and more traditional modes like Cargo - a take on capture the flag - and Blast, a basic team deathmatch, everyone will find a mode they enjoy, and will likely just stick playing that.

In terms of accessibility, Battlefront is a bit of a tricky one, because it's a heavily online game. That means that you'll spend the vast majority of your time fighting alongside, and against real players, which in turn makes the difficulty tricky to peg down. If you're playing with a group of beginners and friends, chances are you'll have a great time - but it's more likely that you'll end up with a real mix of novices and seasoned veterans, who not only know the game inside out, but have unlocked all the best weapons, items and abilities too. When you first start out, you'll only have the most basic weapon, and no items to rely on, so it can be something of a steep learning curve when you're just starting out. If you're familiar with other shooters, you should have few issues with this, but the lack of an adjustable difficulty or any substantial single-player or offline co-op mode means this one is best suited to seasoned players.

Based on the incredibly popular films, Star Wars: Battlefront is one of the least violent shooters you'll see. There's no blood or gore, the weapons are lasers which simply send sparks flying, rather than squirts of blood, and lightsabers don't decapitate or dismember enemies as they've been known to do in the film. When defeated, players simply collapse on the floor, before vanishing. With nothing in the way of sex or bad language, perhaps as mature as the content in Battlefront gets is the force powers, as Vader can "choke" other players, who'll writhe and struggle to breathe like in the films before falling down limp - but despite the films being either PG or U (with the moves being performed on real people, which arguably gives them more impact), Battlefront has been rated a PEGI 16.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Playstation 4