DICE Removes Disliked Star Wars Battlefront Feature, Stormtrooper Helmets Now Stay On
DICE has learned not to underestimate fans' need for authenticity. Piggybacking with the recent Death Star DLC, an update to remove the game's helmet removal feature has pushed through. And fans simply rejoiced. That there is the game's subreddit forums going wild about it, with funny in-character musings to boot. Techtimes reports that one redditor commented that perhaps all those helmet-less stormtroopers were executed, to which another replied, "As they should be. If they wanted to let their hair out they should have joined the scum in the rebellion."
Kotaku even mentions several key exclamations from the game's forums. One particularly excited-sounding one is this: "No more helmetless Stormtroopers!!!" Three exclamation points is a big deal, here. But it continues: "YES!!! This is something they definitely got right for sure. A long time coming this was." All caps AND three exclamation points. One would think such a feature isn't capable of a reaction. Well, fans say otherwise.
While the depth of the customizations available in the game is indeed worthy of praise, at this point it was just a step too far for most fans as seeing stormtroopers without their helmets seems to reduce the authenticity of the game.
After all, not all their features are authentic, seeing as you can pretty much witness heroes and villains stomped on by an AT-AT. Or one faction wielding weapons they shouldn't be able to, or Bespin guards in Hoth that aren't really supposed to be there. Still, I suppose this is a good reminder that some features don't seem to be excusable, and this just happens to be one of them.
As Gamezone says, there really isn't a time that stormtroopers have their helmets off unless they're heroes in disguise. The fact that we can't see who they are is a good mystery in and of itself, regardless if they're all clones or not, or more. Without it, they just seemed a little less Empire-y. The game still allows you to choose the gender, though.
DICE's official statement of the update is as follows, "Appearance: With the arrival of the Imperial Officers, the certification for Stormtroopers to remove their helmets in combat has been withdrawn."
