Star Wars Battlefront 2 has been teasing adding new heroes for months. Ever since the release of both Finn and Phasma back on December 13, 2017 fans have been left hanging without a new character for a long time. Well now that wait is officially over, General Grievous, Commander of the droid armies is now in the game! General Grievous’ first appearance was in Star Wars: Clone Wars the animated series back in 2004.
His last movie appearance was in Stars Wars Episode III: Revenge of The Sith. General Grievous has now landed himself a spot in the latest Star Wars game made by EA. And I have some first impressions after playing the character first hand. Before I get into critiquing the character, I will say that it’s odd that they didn’t release another hero along with Grievous. I mean they went from releasing two new characters on both sides to now making them uneven.
However, when Grievous teasers started spreading about, I did see a recent teaser image for Obi-Wan Kenobi on the opposite end of General Grievous. I really hope releasing him will be the case very soon. I’m sure it takes a lot of work to release one character to the game, let alone two, but I think it makes more sense to keep the pattern of adding both a hero and a villain at the same time.
Alright, so let’s get into General Grievous. First, let’s talk about his kit or his three set of special moves.
No matter what platform you’re playing on, all Star Wars heroes and villains have three special moves besides their default lightsaber swing or gunshot. In this example, I’m playing General Grievous on Xbox One. General Grievous is of course, no different.
I’ll start with Thrust Surge, his left move.
His thrust surge seems to leave him very stiff and open for an easy counter attack. As you see, I try to Thrust Charge Leia and I get destroyed right after. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve played Grievous for a total of maybe 20 mins. But even if I was a pro-Grievous I would be annoyed with how easy it is to kill me. If missed, the Thrust Surge seals your doom to be absolutely wrecked. The only time this move should be used is in tight spaces and one on one combat.
Don’t use Thrust Surge if the whole team is standing in front of you. You’ll most likely miss and it’ll surely end in you dying. A suggestion to EA to make this move better is to give him a little boost of movement speed after using the move.
Next, let’s talk about his right move, Claw Rush.
Claw Rush is definitely my favorite General Grievous move. When you activate it, Grievous goes into a spider-like form and his movement speed drastically increases. You can use it to close the gap between you and a target in Heroes vs. Villains. And TRUST ME, there will be a gap. I’ll get into that shortly though. However, if you’re in a bind Claw Rush is also a good escape considering the speed of the move.
Not only does Claw Rush help General Grievous chase down enemies, but it also knocks them over on impact. Now you may be thinking to yourself, that’s awesome I get to knock down enemies and slice them down quickly! Well, not exactly. The main problem with the Claw Rush move is that it seems very sloppy. You’re supposed to be able to activate it and then cancel it but canceling the move often felt inaccurate to me while playing.
I would start out doing the move and without even hitting the button again, he would automatically go back into his original form. I’m not sure if it deactivates when you hit an obstacle on the map or if this is just an issue EA has to fix. Another main issue with the move is that he seems to go a bit too far past an enemy after knocking them down. So, essentially this move is a gap closer but it also leaves you open for a counter attack.
Last, but certainly not least, is General Grievous’ ultimate move, Unrelenting Advance.
Unrelenting Advance still gives me mixed feelings. I love the way it looks and when I use the move I feel just like General Grievous from the movies. However, it only does so much on the battlefront.
When you activate Unrelenting Advance, General Grievous pulls out four lightsabers and he twirls them in a very fast motion. The left lightsabers go clockwise and the right lightsabers go counter clockwise. However, there seems to be something missing here. That is being able to deflect all incoming shots. Watch the latter half of that clip. Do you see how I took damage from all blasters during my ult?
I was so shocked after first activating this move that it did not deflect all long-range weapons. Like, are you kidding me EA? It’s bad enough that he just goes straight in a turtle-like fashion, but now you’re going to make him take blaster damage too?
Again, it’s one of the coolest looking moves in the game. Alas, it’s also one of the ones that leave you open while you’re doing the move and afterward. He needs to be able to deflect long ranged abilities or the twirling of the lightsabers just doesn’t make sense to me.
Overall, General Grievous is not a fun time in Star Wars Battlefront 2. He’s one of my favorite villains in the movie, but I will not be selecting him willingly until they fix his issues. I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet but there’s a trend here to all of General Grievous’ moves.
All of his moves are very sloppy and leave him open for easy counter attacks. I know the dude is a droid but playing him just felt straight up robotic. Even his default lightsaber slash just seems very slow and I don’t feel like I’m doing much.
Remember guys, these are just first impressions on General Grievous. Perhaps if I give him another try, level him up and add some star cards he’ll be a FORCE to be reckoned with. For now, I’m just going to say if the other team has any long ranged characters, switch off of Grievous.
What do you think of Star Wars Battlefront 2’s newest character? Let us know in the comment section below!
For more news on Star Wars, stay here on The Nerd Stash!