Star Wars Battlefront 2's co-op update looks huge

Star Wars Battlefront 2 is heading off to a new world this week, Felucia, which you'll be able to shoot your way through with the new tanky Clone Commando class. As the name suggests, the Cooperation Update will also introduce new co-op modes where you and your pals will team up to tackle PvE armies.

If you find yourself getting wistful about 2005's excellent Republic Commando, the Clone Commando might scratch an itch. He's a beefy soldier with a repeater, a handy grenade launcher, and health that can be regenerated by dealing damage. He's got much cooler armour than the other clones, too.

Felucia is a lot like me. It's kinda pretty, but it's also dangerously gassy. It's a jungle world covered in toxic, gas-spewing mushrooms where the Republic is launching a big attack against the Separatists. It's a Capital Supremacy planet, so the battle will start on the ground, with both sides trying to capture command posts, before the action shifts to the interior of a capital ship.

I like to be an invisible cog in a huge war machine, so I favour the large-scale battles, but the new co-op modes still sound quite appealing. There's the Instant Action mode where solo players are flung into a fight against the AI to capture command posts, but the highlight is a 4-player online co-op mode that will take your squad on a campaign across every Clone Wars planet in the game.

When I think of improved games, I tend to think of Sea of Thieves and No Man's Sky, but Battlefront 2 deserves similar credit. DICE has really turned it around after it drew criticism for the grindy progression model and microtransaction nonsense. It's been overhauled and updated significantly since it launched in 2017, filling it with worlds and characters drawn from the Clone Wars era. It can be a bit daunting to dip into, with all the modes and classes and unlockables, but it's worth persevering with for those incredible battles.

Battlefront 2 will also be getting another update for The Rise of Skywalker, which is only a few months away. DICE hasn't given any details about it yet, but there's more "coming soon".

The Cooperation Update is due out on September 25. The patch notes have been released, but the page is currently down.

Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.