The games with the biggest budgets and highest levels of anticipation always come towards the end of the year, in the lead-up to the holidays, and in 2017 Star Wars Battlefront II was one of the most expensive and the most hyped. Unfortunately, it is also the most guilty of a new trend seen in almost all this season's games: ham-fisted gambling mechanics that prioritise the potential for ongoing income over a satisfying in-game experience.

It's a shame because there's something special and good here. Everything great about the previous game is improved, with fans of the films sure to be awed by the sheer level of detail on show. Every level, including the Naboo palace and Kamino clone factory from the prequels, or Maz Kanata's bar from Episode VII, is immaculately recreated. All the droids, weapons and vehicles look and sound just like they should, and just running around in this world is a lot of fun.

The game also adds in the one obvious thing missing from 2015's Battlefront, namely a single-player campaign. It's more trite in its presentation of good and evil than the promotional material would have you think, leans too heavily on established film characters and is literally unfinished (it won't get its final chapters until after Episode VIII hits cinemas), but it's totally fine if you want to come to grips with the game's systems before you go online.

It all looks fantastic, and as a straightforward spectacle it's very successful, particularly when it comes to space battles. The bones of a good story are certainly here, centred around an Imperial soldier displaced when the Rebels take down the Death Star, but the imposition of random film characters and a procession of uninteresting objectives makes it clear that narrative wasn't a huge priority.

But it's the competitive multiplayer, the meat of the whole experience, where the bigger sins are committed, and where we plainly see publisher EA's desire to exploit its players compromise what could easily have been a vibrant, exhilarating online Star Wars experience.

Players choose a class to specialise in — assault, heavy, officer or specialist, each with their own skills and weapon styles — and jump into a large-scale battle as a standard grunt soldier. If a player does well they'll have a chance to switch to their favoured hero — generally a massively overpowered Jedi, Sith Lord or bounty hunter — in an attempt to tip the scales in their team's favour. There can only be one hero on the map at a time, but if you like you could cash in your points for an AT-ST or some other vehicle instead.

So far so good, and some smart tweaks and a collection of great modes means that the moment-to-moment shooting is more fun here than it was in the 2015 game. At least until you want to progress beyond the starting levels.

But in order to improve their chosen class, customise their characters or specialise in certain abilities, players must use credits to purchase crates filled with random "Star Cards" in between matches, and hope they get some they like.

The game was originally designed with two ways to get credits — either play the game and get a slow trickle of currency based mostly on time played, or put down real money — and either way buying a crate meant a serious investment. It's a terrible feeling, then, when you open one to find upgrades or aesthetic items for classes you have no interest in, or doubles of cards you already have that can be exchanged for a pittance in currency refund.

Just playing as your chosen class and doing well will not let you progress, as it would in most other games, instead you'll need to buy and open boxes of random unlocks until you get some relevant to how you want to play. The more and better cards you have for a class, the more cards you can craft and equip, which essentially means that getting more powerful is tied to the number of crates you've opened and little else. Also in contrast to most other games, the cards don't just give higher level players more interesting options or cooler weapons, they often merely make them faster or deadlier.

The whole thing feels designed to coerce players into emptying their wallets if they want to win, and many have been loudly critical. So much so that, at launch, EA went into damage control mode and turned off all real-money transactions. But it still feels like my time investment is being roundly disrespected by this ill-thought lucky dip system. One thing you can buy outright is access to iconic heroes like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, but the prices are preposterously high even after EA slashed them by 75 per cent after criticism. 

With tight shooting, smart modes and a great, fan-pleasing look and feel, playing Battlefront II online can be fun in short bursts. But its upgrade and progression system — the things meant to hook players and make them want to keep playing — are offensive and have had totally the opposite effect on me.

As a player and a critic I wish I could enjoy this well-made game and share my thoughts about it without constantly having to think about the crazy, flawed economy of diminishing returns it's been saddled with. But it's inescapable, and that's the worst part.

Star Wars Battlefront II is out now for Xbox One (reviewed), PlayStation 4 and PC.