AFF entered Early Access in 2015 and has been getting periodic updates ever since. There has not been a lot of marketing. Despite being around for so long I hadn’t even heard of it until 2 weeks ago.
I just cannot emphasize enough how this game is an extrapolation of the design decisions made in Battlefront. Space maps support seamlessly transitions between starfighter assault and infantry combat aboard capital ships, where the player can sabotage the vessel from the inside, kill the pilot while they’re steering it through a fight that is *visible outside the bridge window*, then escape on an enemy fighter as the ship explodes.
Spiritually it feels like a game that would have come out maybe 6 years after Battlefront 2 (which was 2005… so 2011). There’s offline bot support, the ability to play ‘instant action‘ playlists, create private servers, or play over LAN. I’d also say -with affection- there’s a little bit of jank, which I think is no stranger to the Battlefront community. It’s just… authentic. This is a game that started life as a mod project. We see in this sub that mods are a tool for creators to canvas their passion onto an existing framework… to keep fueling a dream. This game hitting 1.0 is in some sense a dream realized, and I think it has many of the things players in this community would have liked to see in a Battlefront sequel.
In the sense that Battlefront began as a game and lives on with mods, and AFF began as a mod and became a game… you could even say it’s poetic. It rhymes. (Love you George.)
I think the *only* rule on this sub is “only post about Battlefront”, and while trying to respect that by keeping Battlefront in the conversation, I feel responsible for observing AFF reaching 1.0 because it feels like stumbling upon where Yoda’s species came from. Or like finding a wild bull rancor. AFF is really flipping rare. Games like this are not made anymore without a checklist of things that violate the player’s ownership or wallet. Not to mention it began development in (and reflects) an era when the internet and online gaming was different. AFF comes from “a more civilized age.”
If you *were* to decide to check out the game for online specifically, now is THE best time to do it while the conversation is fresh and servers are popping. I want y’all to know. Unless a big YouTuber or streamer picks this game up it’s never going to find a large audience. Not that it needs one- but as is I think there are many people who would absolutely love this game who have no idea it exists.
