The Star Wars video game license has been on a roller coaster ride of emotions so far this year from Nightdive releasing an excellent remaster of Star Wars Dark Forces to cancelled Star Wars games news coming left to right and now we have Aspyr who brings us Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection which is a remaster of two of the most renowned and popular Star Wars online multiplayer games on the PlayStation 2 & the original Xbox released back in 2004 & 2005. Aspyr themselves has done some really great re-releases of the classic Star Wars games for modern gaming consoles, from modern releases of Star Wars Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy, Republic Commando, Episode 1 Pod Racer and lastly the two incredible KOTOR games which were all really good. So Aspyr were given the task to do a remaster of the classic Star Wars Battlefront games and anyone would have expected for this to turn out just as good as the other games they released as well.
Unfortunately if you remember during the Nintendo Direct in February where the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection was announced and would release in only a couple of weeks away on 14th March, I immediately sensed a disturbance in the Force and that should have been enough of a warning sign. Because despite all of the nostalgia and long time memories everyone has including me spending dozens of hours playing the classic Star Wars Battlefront games on the PlayStation 2 & PC but more so the sequel, this remastered collection is sadly not very good. It come out in very rushed state suffering from a multitude of issues from terrible online play, odd design choices to dozens of technical issues which ruin what could have been a fantastic remaster of the classic Star Wars Multiplayer games.
Now for people who aren't familiar with Star Wars Battlefront games, the first two games in the series were originally developed by Pandemic Studios and the first was released in 2004 and the sequel Star Wars Battlefront II came out in 2005. These were the original classic Star Wars Battlefront games that were well loved by the community for the multiplayer and playing out popular sequences from both the prequels and the original films. These are not to be confused with the entries from DICE & EA which rebooted the Battlefront games in 2015 & 2017 which although they got better overtime but they did not live up to the original game's fame especially the 2017 game which those who played it know what that game originally launched with.
So now we have Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection which is a remaster containing the original Star Wars Battlefront game from 2004 and Star Wars Battlefront II which is the 2005 sequel in all their original glory with all their game modes and content just like what they had all those years ago.
So before talking about the many issues with the remaster collection let's talk about the positives. For starters the two classic Star Wars Battlefront games have been upscaled to 1080p resolution on PS4 with 4K resolutions on next gen consoles running at a silky smooth 60 Frames Per Second with all of the explosions, vehicles and all kinds of chaos going off. The resolution of the textures on the environment are improved in quality and the character models look a lot more detailed save for some bits of detail that is a bit messed up.
Both games have the Single Player campaign storylines which are the different campaign missions that follows scenes from the films of the Clone Wars and Galactic Civil War eras. Star Wars Battlefront I's campaign does use footage from the films and has same gameplay as other game modes which I'll talk about later on. Star Wars Battlefront II's Single Player Campaign on the other hand is a storyline following the 501st Legion of Clone Troopers which is the exact platoon that Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader lead. The cutscene narrative is told through the commanding Clone Trooper voiced by Temuera Morrison as he gives comments over the events that happen over the course the Star Wars storyline like how he feels about killing the Jedi during Order 66, becoming part of the Imperial Empire who would then fight against the Rebel Alliance. It is well told storyline with brilliant writing and voice acting and still remains as one of the best Star Wars Battlefront campaigns of all time. The missions in the single player campaign of Star Wars Battlefront II focuses on various objectives that need to be completed before you can win each battle and they are vastly enjoyable and yet challenging to get through.
Both games have other modes including the Instant Action modes which allows you to play alone in custom made matches against the AI Bots as well as Splitscreen Multiplayer which allows you to play locally with a friend. Sadly though you can only go Two Player Splitscreen in this version whereas you could go 4-Player in the original Xbox version which anyone wanting to do 4-Player Splitscreen are out of luck.
There is also the Galactic Conquest Mode where you select one of four available factions to play as and then you start taking over planets to conquer the Galaxy. The Galactic Conquest Mode in Star Wars Battlefront I has eight different planets with varying benefits and each planet you take over will allow you to use any of the planet benefits till you take over all of the planets and attack the enemy faction's main base planet to win the mode. While it is cool and enjoyable Star Wars Battlefront II easily has a more expanded and improved Galactic Conquest mode than the original where there are more planets to take over and you even earn Credits from battles which can be spent on purchasing upgrades. You start with only one ship and only regular soldiers but you can purchase additional soldier classes from Sniper Troopers, Engineers and Heavy Rocket Launcher Troopers. You can even purchase additional ships for getting around the map screen easier and to use for Space Battles alongside bonuses from having a Hero Character come into battle, enhanced Blaster Damage, Additional Reinforcements and sabotaging enemy vehicles. Being able to earn Credits from battles and getting the available upgrades helps make the Galactic Conquest game mode more unique than the standard game modes as the upgrades allow you to have an advantage over your enemies but they can also use upgrades and get additional troopers against you. It is a system that works fairly for both the CPU and also the Player and it is absolutely fun to mess around with all of the available upgrade perimeters to see how much you could screw the CPU over.
As for the actual gameplay which is classic Star Wars Battlefront like how it was back then all those years ago. Rather then just run around each map trying to find and take out other enemy players till the match ends Star Wars Battlefront is team objective based with the main game type being called Conquest where two teams try to take over the different command posts on the map to deplete the enemy reinforcement counter. Each map has about six different command posts to take over and taking over one of these allows your teammates to spawn at different points to get around the map more effectively. The more command posts your team has in control the faster the enemy reinforcement counter drops and the match ends when the enemy's entire reinforcement meter is depleted. Each map is very diverse in which there are plenty of different paths you can take to get to the different command posts so you do have many different ways of getting around, if going in from the front doesn't work why not take the back entrance. It is an intuitive system that you have different ways of taking command posts but you need to keep moving to the next one to take over while also making sure that the other command posts your team has isn't about to be taken over by the enemy team.
You have a couple of different classes to play as from from standard troopers, sniper troopers for taking out targets from afar, Heavy Troopers that carry explosive Rocket Launchers, Engineers that use a Shotgun and can repair medical and ammo droids as well as build turrets to use as well as special classes that are exclusive to certain factions. These are either Wookies for the Rebels, Dark Troopers for the Imperials, Jet Troopers for the Republic and those annoying Droidekas and special classes like these are enemies you want to prioritise the most. Star Wars Battlefront II has more classes to play as including some special classes that you can't play as till you get enough points to use them. These include the Clone Commanders who have Chain Guns, Imperial Officers for the Imperials while the Rebel Alliance has one of the most annoying class types in the game which are the Bothan Spies who can turn invisible and melt you with their guns without warning. I had a ridiculous amount of deaths from those cheap pests who just suddenly come out nowhere to with their stupid invisibility traits and get me a ridiculous percentage of the time.
Using different classes is useful in certain situations which can level the playing field, there are also vehicles which can be used for not only transportation but also to engage in vehicle based combat from Tanks, Speeders to the iconic AT-AT and AT-ST Walkers. Some of the vehicles are great and fun to use but however the Walkers in the first game are disappointingly weak and can be put down quickly with a few rockets compared to regular vehicles that take more explosives than a AT-ST which is an insult.
The two Star Wars Battlefront games handle the Hero Characters differently from one another, in Star Wars Battlefront II if you earn enough points during a match and do well you'll get the option to play as one of the Hero Characters. These can either be Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader or having Princess Leia or Han Solo or Chewbacca and Boba Fett and Emperor Palpatine available to play as depending on what map you are playing. This means that you can't play as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader on every map it does mix up the available heroes to play for each of the different factions but if you want to play as your Hero or Villain then you need to notes of the maps that some characters are going to be available on. Compared to DICE & EA's Battlefront II you can choose to play as any of the Heroes or Villains from the Star Wars Universe in most of the game modes provided that they are not already taken by other players. The Hero Characters have multiple different abilities that you play around with and are operated on a timer that slowly goes down but taking out enemies gains extra time while taking damage lowers it. Playing as one of the Hero Characters are great for gaining advantage of the playing field but they can take some time of getting used to. If you are playing Star Wars Battlefront I though you can't play as any of the Hero Characters at all and instead enabling the Instant Action Heroes option in the menu will have the Hero Characters appear in the match. They can't be killed in the traditional sense either like regular blaster fire isn't going to do any damage to them but a well placed explosive shot and a well placed mine can knock the Hero Character flying which you can possibly knock them out of the arena in some maps which is one of the achievements you can actually get in this version.
It is very disappointing though however that in the this new version of Star Wars Batlefront II the CPU does not use any of the Hero Characters in any regular match at all, ever. Having the Hero Characters on the playing field including the enemy Hero Character make the bot matches more intense and when both sides of the battlefield have their Hero Characters out they are giving their teams a helping hand. So when the CPU doesn't use their Hero Characters it doesn't have the same intensity as it should. At least in the Instant Action mode in DICE & EA's Battlefront II the CPU uses the Hero Characters against you which is the way that the game is meant to be played. Even the original Xbox version and also the PSP version of Star Wars Battlefront II had the CPU using Hero Characters in the Instant Action Mode and that alone made those versions so brilliant so what a wasted opportunity for Aspyr to not improve the CPU to make them use the Hero Characters in the Instant Action and that's a shame.
The games can be played in either First-Person Mode or Third-Person Mode which you either enable as a button that you press any time or switch around in the options menu via preference. What is cool also that with the Blaster Type Hero Characters they can be played in both perspectives as well including First-Person and it is cool to play as a Blaster Hero in First-Person which was one of the things that was absent strangely in the DICE & EA's Battlefront games. I always wondered why DICE & EA never allowed First-Person camera for the Blaster Heroes and reinforcement class characters.
In terms of how they play is something that is difficult to criticize without being cruel because they are games of their time, but Battlefront II though has aged the most because it has some of the mechanics of modern shooters such as sprinting so you can get around maps quicker. Both games don't control too bad despite the aiming being incredibly floaty in Third-Person so I found aiming easier and more responsive in First-Person and you can customize the controls to your liking like you could in the original versions. The games have got a very reliable Aim Assist which helps a lot with the shooting which will lock onto the nearest target and you can optionally have the aiming stick onto an enemy so you don't have to rotate to a new target. Star Wars Battlefron I on the other hand has no sprint mechanic and the overall movement is slow which can make navigating around maps take longer especially if you are playing on sides that don't have any Jetpack Troopers.
The CPU AI for both games are pretty capable of holding their own in combat, they are often mobile in how they move about and get out of the way, they utilize Turrets and Vehicles and are reasonably accurate and can easily group to attack well. The only thing is that they can be annoying when they frequently throw grenades, and because the two Star Wars Battlefront games are old there are no on-screen Grenade indicators to let you know when a Grenade's been thrown at you aside from when your allies on your team warn you about them. I usually get killed not because that I was often shot down by snipers or outnumbered by having dozens of enemies at me, or not because enemies had Turrets or Vehicles ready but because the AI often times throws one of those things near my feet. I have had plenty of times where I go to attack only for a Grenade to suddenly explode in my face without warning sometimes you don't even notice a Grenade about to go off until it is too late. Matches against the AI Bots can only get annoying simply because they would often prefer to throw Grenades rather then try to aim and shoot at you and this wouldn't be so annoying if they only do it if you are in vehicles not when I am out of cover and in plain sight.
Star Wars Battlefront I only has the regular standard game mode which is the Conquest where as the sequel has more game type modes that you can play as well, these include Capture the Flag where you capture the enemy's flag while defending yours, Hero Assault which is just Heroes VS Villains where you play as just the Hero or Villain type characters, Hunt is where one team plays as Troopers where the other team plays as a different species like those annoying pesky Ewoks on Endor and lastly Star Wars Battlefront II introduces the Space Battles. These are battles where you take up the Starfighter Ships into space against enemy Starfighter Ships while dealing with enemy battle ships that you can get into to deal a massive blow to the enemy unit.
The classic 2005 Star Wars Battlefront II game to me can still to some degree hold up really well and still be a good old time two decades later. I always have a fantastic time wrecking all kinds of havoc on the Rebel Scum either as a Stormtrooper or when I pilot a walker or a tank to blow up dozens of Rebels, all while I have a nice smile on my face as my Imperial Empire team mates complement me as I have their backs as they take over command post after command post. My favourite moments are when I enjoy playing the Endor map as the Imperials mostly because I get to not only murder all of the Rebels but I get to unleash destructive power on the Ewoks that make some seriously aggravating sound effects that make me want to shoot them straight away. I also enjoy playing as the Republic Clone Troopers blowing away dozens of Droids with all of my Clone Trooper pals behind me as either an Ark Trooper or a Jet Trooper. “Just like the simulations!”
The original Star Wars Battlefront game is also fun to play as well but playing it today it only serves as a stepping stone for what Pandemic would improve upon for the sequel. I do like the maps for it though and being able to play through scenes from the films from the prequels to the original trilogy in the Single Player Campaign are pretty cool. Like that one mission where you as the Droids fight against the Gungans and the Naboo Security, or the one mission where you fight against the Rebel Alliance while you have to be careful of the Tusken Raiders. It has its share of brilliant moments that were worth playing but it just can't stack up to the sequel in terms of playability and gameplay mechanics.
The gameplay and the map balancing are reasonably well balanced for the majority of maps and how victory on most maps are obtained by which of the two opposing teams has players coordinating and working together and if your teammates are holding all of the command posts for the good majority of the match you'll easily deplete the enemy reinforcement counter within moments. There are only a few maps between the two games however where there is no balancing and instead favours one side over the other leading to some unfair matches. Endor for instance has those Ewoks that the Imperials have to be wary about while the maps of Kashyyyk especially the Kashyyk Islands map will have the Wookies that are more of a threat then a standard trooper and they can easily make for an awful time playing on either the Imperials Side or the Separatists Side. What doesn't help that alternative species like the Wookies and Ewoks that help one side do not deplete the Reinforcement Meter and they tend to spawn quite quick making them a nuisance. At least Aspyr has at least made the Hunt Mode a bit more fair now at least for the Endor Hunt Map where in the original versions the Ewoks had an unfair advantage over the Imperial Players. The Ewok Players would somehow get more points than they should from a single kill whereas in the new versions they don't have that advantage now in place of the Ewoks being so dumb, well at least they get what was coming this time now. So there is some rebalancing to some of the maps while some others you hope that you have good teammates on your sides to get through some of the unbalanced maps or just play on the sides that are more likely to win.
I know that I am praising the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection a little too much but the two games can still be rather enjoyable to play when it comes to actually playing them offline and there isn't a whole lot of issues with the gameplay mechanics between the two games. When it comes to the Online Multiplayer however is when all of the big major issues with this remastered collection stand out.
The Online Play of the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection is abysmal, it suffers from a laundry list of issues, most notably the constant server lag making everything delayed, players getting booted out of the server to complete game crashes. I played both Star Wars Battlefront I & II in this collection online for like an hour each and my experiences with them was either finding only few servers with very low players playing and 3/5 of the matches that I tried to log into I either suffer with a match that has horrendous lag or I get booted out of the lobby literally seconds later after joining one. You can either just hop in using Quick Match, search to find any of the available online servers to see how many people are playing or just Create Your Own Server. Even then it does not take long to start up a server just to see how long it lasts before either the server messes up and boots you out or the game crashes up on you. To simply put it the online play is just unplayable and it is no surprise that people just abandoned the Online Multiplayer after launch and that is a major shame because when it comes to Star Wars Battlefront it is well known for the online play. So to have the Online Multiplayer suffer from such horrendous lag spikes and constant disconnections makes for one of the worst online gaming experiences. On top of that for whatever reason when you die and go back to the spawn screen the camera completely has a hissy fit when it zooms out in the Online Multiplayer yet it does not happen in all of the offline game modes. So you were really hoping to share many nostalgic memories of the two classic Star Wars Battlefront games online then you are going to be seriously horrified that Aspyr truly screwed up the Multiplayer in so many ways.
There are also other issues about this Classic Collection that I find ridiculous, for starters I truly hate what happened to the Award System in Battlefront II now. To give you an understanding of what I am talking about let me break the whole thing down. When you get points or get a number of kills with a certain weapon like a Standard Trooper Rifle, Blaster Pistol or a Shotgun in one life you earn a Medal Award for an impressive streak which earns you a powerful version. These Awards can either be Energy Regen, Improved Damage you do to enemies and also one for Reduced Damage you take, the 3-Shot Burst Award Rifle, Award Pistol that does not operate on a heat system and so forth. These are upgrades that you can get if you are doing well in matches and are worth getting to get the advantage against other players. Normally what happens is that after getting 64 Medals for any one of the 9 Awards and get it Legendary Rank you are supposed to get the Award Upgrade permanently and start every single match with the Award Upgrade on all game modes after you worked so hard to unlocking one of them. It seems however that “I find Aspyr's lack of faith disturbing” as they somehow even managed to mess that up after they released an update patch because the game does not give you the Award Weapons and Bonuses at the start of a match, not even in the offline game modes after you have gotten 64 Medals for a Legendary Award upgrade. That means that you have to do the requirements during the match again just to get them when you already done 64 of the Medals to begin with which is just stupid. People online have reported this and can also confirm that it is indeed is a legitimate game bug that completely messes up the progression of getting your Legendary Awards after spending hours unlocking each Award and getting 64 Medals each for Legendary Rank for all Awards.
People also reported that the Classic Collection removes the cutscenes from the two games which got resolved with a patch. Well there is something that needs to be said about that, the Classic Collection has a new Streamer Mode that when enabled disables the music and also the cutscenes which uses scenes from the films but the 501st Legion Journal Cutscenes will still play regardless. This feature helps for people who want to stream any of the two games on social media websites without getting any of their channels hit with copyright strikes. So both of the games in this collection have all of the cutscenes just that you have to turn off Streamer Mode in order to see them or hear the iconic John Williams music score.
I also noticed that with Star Wars Battlefront II the Analog Stick aiming sensitivity was far too slow even on the highest setting like it literally takes forever to turn around on the default setting and I also noticed that there was no options to invert the Y-Axis aiming for Vehicles or Starfighters and the default setting for Vehicles or Starfighters is inverted which can cause you to lose control and crash into walls easily.
There is also some bizarre texture issues that I noticed as well and these point out to Star Wars Battlefront I like some of the textures on some maps would constantly flicker about and I also noticed a case of pop in on one of the maps. On the Yavin 4 Temple Map on Star Wars Battlefront I the water stream is messed up and not rendered properly as it is just a scrambled mess that scrolls upwards slowly showcasing bad rendering. Also the text font used for this version is different also with any options to change it so you're stuck with the font style.
The ultimate kick in the pants with the Classic Collection is the controversy about the DLC characters. For people who don't know, the original Xbox version added DLC which not only added some maps from Star Wars Battlefront II but it also added two extra hero characters to play as that are Kit Fisto & Asajj Ventress who were from the awesome 2003 Star Wars Clone Wars Cartoon. PC Players did feel like they were missing out on something they should have had so a fan did a mod where it takes two existing characters and reskins them to make them look like the two DLC characters. Aspyr decided for the Classic Collection that the two DLC characters should be included in it except however this version used the fan made mods without the author's consent which did lead to misleading information from not only trailers and advertising but to the author who is understandably angry that the content he made for got used.
Now Aspyr is well aware of the ongoing issues with the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection, they know that the Online Play is a disaster, the amount of technical issues with the game, some of the missing options that should have been there to begin with, the use of a fan mod and the list goes on. They are releasing patches to address the vast majority of the issues but it is already too late, like I said people already gave up on the Online Multiplayer with all of the constant Lag Spikes and frequent disconnections and hardly anyone is seen playing the Classic Collection online now. Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection is completely unplayable online and the only thing you can do about is just play the Offline Game Modes with the AI which is a major outrage.
At least one thing you can take away from the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection is that it does have 64-Player support including 64-AI Bot Support as well which makes an already chaotic Online Multiplayer Game more insanely chaotic and it is impressive that Star Wars Battlefront II is able to handle 64-AI Bots without hindering performance and it is super fun just having so many Bots in a match to take down even if makes the whole thing super chaotic.
But the final nail in the coffin with this whole collection is the absurd storage requirement and pricing. Why does this Classic Collection need to take up 55.14 GB of storage space to install it? Why can't I just purchase and install one of the two games separately instead of being forced to have both of them? That's right you can't even choose what Star Wars Battlefront game that you want to have on your hard drive. Then you also have the outrageous price tag itself which the whole thing costs approximately £30 and what you are getting out of this is two Star Wars Battlefront games that clearly have been rushed out the door suffering with Online Multiplayer issues and other technical problems. £30 is just too much for these two classic Star Wars Battlefront games especially for what content they have on offer. You can get the original Xbox versions of the classic two Star Wars Battlefront games on the Xbox Store for £8.99 each with them offering the same amount of gameplay and content as the games on the Classic Collection. You could even get the PC versions on Steam for about £8.50 each as well, heck you could even get the physical copies of those games on the PlayStation 2, the original Xbox or even the PSP version of Star Wars Battlefront for WAY cheaper and are far superior versions to play other this. At least the only consolation I can think of for this is that if you have purchased the Classic Collection for the PlayStation 4 then you also get the PlayStation 5 version also so it is only reasonable in that aspect.
Having to force myself to do this review of the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection hurts me and it personally hurts me so much seeing one of my personal favourite Multiplayer games that I played so much back in the day (namely Star Wars Battlefront II) get such a terrible treatment with a rushed release on modern platforms. Aspyr should have delayed this Classic Collection by a month or two to see if the Online Multiplayer and all other assets were working before releasing I. Instead they just rushed it out and just to even play a match on this collection is enough to break my heart. I really expected better from this collection and I expected better from Aspyr and shame on them for remotely screwing this whole thing up after the efforts they did with the other Star Wars games and they should have known better by now. All I can say is that we deserved better, you all deserved better but at least they are aware now how bad this collection is and even admitted on Twitter about it, so they are they screwed up badly. I still stand by my point that the two Star Wars Battlefront games are still really enjoyable games that can hold up well at least compared to other Online Multiplayer FPS games but this collection just do them any favours. I still play Star Wars Battlefront II (2005) whenever I am in the mood to blow up some Rebel Scum on foot or as a AT-ST Walker or just as a nice relaxing time killer.
Even if this was to be your introduction to the two classic original Star Wars Battlefront games “These are NOT the versions you're looking for.” when playing offline the Classic Collection is to an extent fun and still enjoyable in 2024 but the awful Online Multiplayer combined with graphical glitches, game crashes, some missing options, the controversy with the Hero DLC Characters and so on really ruin what should have been a fantastic chance to relive two of the best Star Wars Online Multiplayer games. If you have your original PS2, Xbox, PC or even the PSP versions of the original classic Star Wars Battlefront games laying around and still play those then you shouldn't waste your time and money on the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection. If you for whatever reason don't have the means to play original versions of the Star Wars Battlefront games and want to play them and can ignore playing the Online Multiplayer and is willing to just play the offline content then you will likely get some enjoyment out of it. Only purchase this collection if you have no other options and/or when the studio fix up all of the major issues in the coming months. Word of advice though, “Don't choke on your Aspyr-ations!”.
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Game Score: 6.0/10
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Game Title: Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection
Platform: PlayStation 4
Developer: Aspyr
Genre: First Person/Third Person Shooter
Age Rating: PEGI: 12+
Release Date: 14th March 2024
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The Good Points:
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Both games play decently well offline
64-Player/AI Combat Support leads to overly chaotic fights in the best way
You can play as the Blaster Hero Characters in First-Person
Star Wars Battlefront II's fantastic Rise of the Empire Campaign still shines today
The Bad Points:
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Graphical Glitches
Online Multiplayer suffers from atrocious lag spikes, frequent disconnections and game crashes
Legendary Awards don't let you start a match with the awards you unlocked
Missing Invert Y-Axis options and the aiming sensitivity on Star Wars Battlefront II is too slow
Controversy with the Hero Characters Kit Fisto & Asajj Ventress
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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