Han, Leia, and The Emperor revealed as playable characters in Star Wars: Battlefront

Now that the beta has concluded and we are less than a month from launch, more details will be pouring out about the hotly anticipated Star Wars: Battlefront. Today, Lead Hero Designer Jamie Keen made a new post on the PlayStation Blog, detailing three characters that will be in the game: Princess Leia, Han Solo and Emperor Palpatine.

Like Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, each will bring their own unique mechanics to the game that will also be reflective of their personas. 

For instance, Princess Leia’s natural leader personality will fall in line with the more traditional support class that we see in a lot of first-person shooters. So in-game, any player that enters the match in her vicinity will spawn as an enhanced Alderaan Honor Guard. Leia can also back up the troops around her by deploying cover shields and granting supply drops. 

Han Solo is built for players who like to go it alone, and is in many ways the easiest hero to start with. “Offensive output, damage and mobility – that’s what this guy’s about” says Keen. I’d love to see the data on the number of players picking Han Solo as their hero character.

The Emperor plays about as you’d expect, and is in some ways the reverse of Princess Leia. His most effective attack is his iconic Force Lightning, which he used to show Luke Skywalker who’s boss in Return of the Jedi. Palpatine can also call down power-ups for Imperial forces and other villain characters, so he can also play the Support role for the Imperials as well.

Quick take: This is such a cool announcement, particularly for Star Wars lifers. Each character looks like they will bring something unique and I can’t wait to get my hands on each one. I know I’m supposed to say than Han Solo sounds like the best character, but I’m more of a Papa Palpatine guy.