FPS Minimaps, Comparing Titanfall 2 and Star Wars Battlefront 2

I have been playing a lot of Star Wars Battlefront II lately, mostly for the Star Wars-y-ness of it. But while I was playing I noticed that I never used the minimap, even when I remembered it existed. After playing a lot of Battlefront II I went back to Titanfall 2 and I was using the minimap constantly, multiple times a match compared to maybe once in a game of Battlefront. That made me wonder what it was about the two games that made me use their minimaps so differently. 

Let's start with some things I would want from a minimap in a shooter.

1. Show where enemies are in relation to the player.

2. Show where teammates are in relation to the player.

3. Show where any other important locations, like the objective, are, like objectives.

Alright, let's look at both game’s minimaps

First up, Battlefront II

Star Wars Battlefront II's Minimap

It shows a lot of the info you want in a minimap, which direction the enemies are, where your teammates are, and where the objective is. One thing I noticed with Battlefront II’s map is there is not a lot of detail about your surrounding, it only really shows you areas that are out of bounds, either because of physical walls or because of a change in game phase. So let's see how Titanfall 2’s minimap handles it.

Titanfall 2's Minimap

It’s immediately clear that Titanfall 2’s minimap show a lot more detail to the level geometry compared to Battlefront’s. It does show all the other info that we needed, enemies and teammates. Titanfall 2’s minimap also shows some extra detail, it shows the player’s field of view. It also has different icons for Grunts and Pilots which is a problem specific to Titanfall and isn’t really applicable to Battlefront.

But I think the biggest thing that makes Titanfall 2’s map more usable is its location on the screen.

The full screen of Titanfall 2 gameplay

Full Star Wars Battlefront II screen

It might not be clear, but I think the location on the screen makes the usability of the minimap, you spend more time looking at the upper half of the screen in a shooter.

With the minimap on the top of the screen it takes less time to glance over from the part of the screen you already were looking at. The map placement is one small detail that makes Titanfall's fast-paced gameplay feel even better. It could be that Dice, the developers of Star Wars Battlefront II, might not have wanted to have their minimap be a tool to use during a firefight. They might have wanted it to be a tool to find the direction that of the front line. 

I tend to prefer my shooters to be faster with less time between fights, so Battlefront II's implementation of the minimap is servicable, but not exciting. Battlefront II, and by extension most of Dice's Battlefield franchise, tend to focus on large combat areas where the less detailed minimap is all that is needed. I tend to prefer my shooters much smaller scale where a more detailed minimap, in a more easily accessible location on the screen, can be used right after a firefight to try and find the next fight quickly.

The top half of the Titanfall 2 screen, enemies are very visible in this half.

The bottom half of the Battlefront II screen. Most of this space is filled with ground, not enemies.