Star Wars Battlefront 3 was right in front of us the whole time

I’ve found the perfect thing to play while we wait for Star Wars Battlefront 3, and it was staring us in the face the whole time.

In case you missed the news, Star Wars Battlefront 2 is having a new lease of life. Thanks to a few factors, including the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith and the finale of Andor Season 2 airing, the game is back in full force and its playerbase numbers are healthier than ever.

With the Star Wars Battlefront 2 player count skyrocketing and hitting its all-time peak, many are calling for EA to see sense and put Battlefront 3 into motion. For sure, I think most Star Wars fans would like to see a third game become reality after how well Dice managed to recover the game.

While we wait for a true Battlefront 3 to come into the fold, I’ve been having a lot of fun playing an unofficial one on an otherwise unrelated game.

Earlier this year, I started playing Helldivers 2 with a few Star Wars mods installed. Browsing through the Helldivers 2 page on Nexus Mods, you can find mods that give the game a Lucasfilm makeover. There’s one that transforms you into a Clone Trooper, for example, and another which replaces Automaton enemies with CIS Battle Droids.

For fans of the prequel trilogy especially, it’s a pretty gnarly experience to essentially play a Star Wars version of Helldivers 2. There are some additional mods which do things like add Republic gunships to the game, and even replace the music with some compositions by John Williams.

Arrowhead Game Studios / ToastedShoes

I’m pretty sure that the modders have ripped these models directly from Battlefront 2, which would make sense given how high quality they are. While I won’t pretend to believe modding is easy, it’s at least good that the mod creators have a good source to get the models from, rather than creating them from scratch.

For my first game, I dropped onto an Automaton-held planet that looked a lot like Geonosis, with a hot and arid landscape. Before I knew it, me and my squad of 501st Clone Troopers were up against an army of battle droids.

Following the success of this mission, I decided to go to a Terminid-held planet next. We found ourselves on one that looked a little bit like Felucia, with its colourful humid jungles and bug-like atmosphere.

For a game with procedurally generated levels, Helldivers 2 does a great job of environmental storytelling. Now it felt like we were taking back a planet that had been lost during an early battle in the Clone Wars, with old decaying facilities and destroyed army bases dotted around the playable area.

Arrowhead Game Studios / ToastedShoes

As someone who loves a good Star War, it felt like running Helldivers 2 with these mods is the perfect compromise for Battlefront 3 right now. I loved my time playing with them, and there were genuine moments where I forgot I wasn’t playing a Star Wars game.

It also helps that Helldivers 2 is just an overall excellent game. The character controls and shooting feels incredibly polished and satisfying, while the constant updates from Arrowhead Game Studios and evolving storyline gives us a reason to come back. There’s a reason it’s become such a success more than a year after launch. If Helldivers 2 ended up being just a bit crap, I doubt it would have the playerbase it has right now. And then these mods probably wouldn’t exist, either.

For a potential Star Wars: Battlefront 3, I’d love to see Dice take a cue from Arrowhead. I want to see us take on big, randomised missions with a small squad of Clone Troopers, or Rebel Soldiers, or some other faction that appears somewhere in the Star Wars canon.

Don’t get me wrong, Battlefront 2’s online co-op mode is fun, but it’s essentially a scaled down version of the online versus matches. It feels like an add on to the core experience (which it technically was), whereas I feel building a co-op experience from the ground up like Arrowhead did with Helldivers 2 would bring something fresh to the Battlefront series.

Arrowhead Game Studios / ToastedShoes

It could also feature an evolving narrative similar to how Helldivers 2 is constantly shaping and shifting the overall galactic storyline. In Star Wars lore, the Clone Wars last approximately three years. That’s three years of content right there. Then, three years into the game’s lifespan, imagine the storyline suddenly shifts and we’re now stormtroopers fighting for the Galactic Empire.

Perhaps this idea is too ambitious and goes way beyond Battlefront, and I’ve suddenly pitched an entirely new game altogether. After all, Dice and EA wouldn’t want to alienate too many fans who just want a simple Star Wars-skinned shooter. It might be too much work for a bonus co-op mode for a PvP game, and maybe it should be its own thing.

Either way, I guess an official Battlefront 3 isn’t coming any time soon. The resurgence in popularity of Battlefront 2 might be a good indicator that the people want it, but it’ll still be years away if Disney commissions a new one now.

But playing Helldivers 2 with Star Wars mods installed has really quenched my thirst for now. I’m happy to keep cycling between this and Battlefront 2 while we wait for EA to deliver the goods.