Star Wars: Battlefront II is the sequel to Star Wars: Battlefront in terms of franchise and multiplayer, but unlike its predecessor, this game features an original campaign that bridges a gap in the main canon story between the Episode VI and Episode VII movies. The campaign follows the story of Iden Versio, leader of an Imperial special forces team known as Inferno Squad. You are who Stormtroopers call when they're in trouble, and Rebels know you well enough to fear you. As the story starts somewhere during Episode VI, after a couple of introductory missions you are dispatched on Endor, a satellite-moon where the shield array for the Death Star is, and Han Solo with a group of rebels is about to take it out so that Rebel X-Wings can attack the Death Star. You are too late and the Death Star is destroyed... and as we know from the movie, the Emperor along with it, even though Darth Vader killed him before the explosion, unknown to Iden. As a true believer in the Empire, Iden's plan is to avenge the Emperor and bring the Rebels to their knees.

While the story protagonist is Iden Versio, certain missions also let you control other key characters from the Star Wars universe, namely Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo. At any point during gameplay the game lets you switch between 1st and 3rd-person perspectives with the exception that characters other than Iden can only be controlled in 3rd-person. There are a variety of pistols, rifles, rocket launchers and laser guns to choose from and equipment can be selected at the beginning of each mission or changed upon encountering weapons crates. As Iden switches sides in the story, the player also gets to control different types of space fighters such as X-Wings or Tie Fighters, as well as walkers such as AT-STs. Iden doesn't fight alone, however. Even when her team isn't with her, she has a trusty bot attached to her back which helps her dispose of her foes in a silent manner, hack open doors and access computers. Aside from story and multiplayer modes, there is also an arcade mode available which lets you choose an Imperial character and fight waves of enemy combatants in an allotted time offline. By earning more points, you get to unlock better weapons or characters, such as Kylo Ren. The arcade mode works as an introduction to gameplay and controls, becoming available while the game is still installing and the campaign and multiplayer modes cannot be played yet.