Electronic Arts Star Wars Battlefront 2 - PS4

I hate leaving one stars, I really do. In my mind, to leave a 1 star review, everything has to go wrong with the product OR it has to be an outright scam for customers. I say it with a heavy heart, but this is a game worthy of the infamous 1 star rating. I took time to write this... this is how upset I am with this game and what they have attempted to do. Please read on. BF2 shouldn't be a 1 star because.... The graphics are incredible. The combat is solid. The new heroes are cool. The space combat is awesome. The single player story is excellent (but short). Those features would get this game a 5 star rating from me. No question. But... and this is a MASSIVE BEHEMOTH BUT.... Those aspects don't make up for this games beyond absurd progression system, which is entirely based upon greed and milking customers of their cash (they did remove the in-game purchases for now, but the system is still in place and it is the SYSTEM that is the problem). I loved BF1. I loved it. Great game and I had countless hours of fun. This game... while I am still playing it at the moment, it's an absolute mess and hard to truly enjoy like BF1. I feel actual anger when I go to upgrade my abilities or try to get a new weapon... because it's simply ridiculous. I never had this feeling in BF1. BF1: "I got 10,000 credits. Woo! Time to buy the guns I want and get some sweet upgrades. Yeah!!!" BF2: "Well, I played 10 matches and finally have enough for 1 single loot create. What the what.... what is this garbage! Star cards for a class I don't use? WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!" It's a nightmare. It is essentially a giant pay-to-win, grind scheme. The grinding is so long and so horrendous that it's basically a middle finger to average players who are seeking enjoyment and fun with their down time; not some sort of masochistic obstacle course to unlock a few weapons and heroes. A huge amount of content is locked behind a ridiculous grind fest and a loot box scheme the likes of which I've only seen in mobile games -- which are FREE as most of you know. This game cost $60... so there is no excuse. Skill progression is purely LOOT BOX BASED. Everything is based around it. It is an entirely different system from BF1. I can't buy the guns I want, or the skills I want, even after hours of playing. I have to buy loot boxes with credits, which are earned abysmally slow. What's funny is if they jacked up the credit gain rate by 3x or 5x, it probably wouldn't be as bad. Get a duplicate card? Here's a paltry 200 credits... thanks for playing our gambling simulator! You know how much loot boxes cost? 2000 to 4000. You know how much you get per match? Roughly 200 to 400 on average. Do the math. It's insulting. While they have temporarily removed in-app-purchases, that's just because they got a lot of heat from angry gamers. From my understanding, they plan to bring them back later once that heat has died down and we have forgotten. I understand the need to generate more revenue. I get it completely. But pay to win is never the answer; especially when you charge full price for the game upfront. This goes so far beyond what could be considered acceptable... that I am actually writing a 1 star review (something I don't do) based on a franchise I absolutely love more than any other game genre. EA... you've gone too far this time. A Simple Proposed Fix: Increase the Credit Gain for Online Matches by a Factor of 3 or 5. The loot box progression system could be tolerated if credits were earned at a much faster rate. But... therein lies the problem for EA. If they do that.... that's less revenue for them.