Star Wars Battlefront: New Battle of Jakku Details and Artwork
On the Star Wars Battlefront blog this week, EA and DICE dropped some new details for the game’s first upcoming DLC, The Battle of Jakku. The Battle of Jakku will be released in anticipation of the next upcoming Star Wars sequel, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. Jakku is a key location in the upcoming film, and it was a pivotal moment when the New Republic confronted key Imperial holdouts on a remote desert planet.
The news confirms that a New Republic did in fact form after the events of Emperor Palpatine’s defeat in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. The Battle of Jakku took place sometime after The Battle of Endor from Return of the Jedi. In the Star Wars Battlefront DLC, players will experience the events that created the massive, battle-scarred landscape of Jakku, as its depicted in Star wars: The Force Awakens.
The DLC will have debris from the battles above showering the desert ground. DICE hopes to create a feeling of intense chaos. A Star Destroyer just crash-landed on the planet, like in the recent Force Awakens teaser trailers, and the battle begins. After the crash, surviving Imperial ground troops evacuate and engage in battle with Rebel troops, who are also strangers to the planet (you can see this depicted in the concept artwork below).
In the artwork above, a Star Destroyer has crash landed, and from the belly of this battle-scarred metal giant, a myriad of Imperial ground troops have evacuated and engaged with Rebel troops, also strangers to this desert planet. Speaking on the DLC, artist Anton Grandert wanted to emphasize a size difference in the visual elements.“There’s a David and Goliath theme to this,” says Grandert. “The epic, huge super structures of the Star Destroyers contrast against the tiny but brave Rebel soldiers fighting the Imperial forces.”
Grandert added: “We wanted to portray a battle completely surrounding you, in every direction. Debris is falling from the sky, telling the story of battles above. On the surface of the planet you can see ground troops as well as X-wings, all taking part of the fight.”