The Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection is a slam dunk on paper. Bringing two beloved classic shooters from the Star Wars universe to modern consoles, complete with online multiplayer, is as close to a sure thing as you can get. As nice as some new bells and whistles would be, we just want to relive our youth with friends. Plus, playing it on the go via Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch is icing on the cake.
The original Battlefront titles are two of the best Star Wars games ever. With Aspyr having recently remastered the first three Tomb Raider titles to great success, you’d figure this would be another home run, right?
Wrong.
Even with Aspyr fixing some launch day issues, Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection is a huge swing and a miss. Could it be because the games haven’t aged well? Perhaps. Are things still sluggish? Most definitely; even when playing through extended matches, there is still the occasional hiccup and stutter. This isn’t the love letter to a classic game I was expecting.
There is one thing, though, that the Classic Collection is good for: booting back up 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront II.
THE STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT COLLECTION MAKES US WONDER IF WE TREATED BATTLEFRONT II TOO HARSHLY
This meme from the Battlefront subreddit says it all.
Battlefront II is not a perfect game. Its launch was an absolute disaster. The servers felt broken, the loot boxes were incredibly frustrating, and the progression system was far from perfect. Despite all this, the game was fun, especially in short bursts.
There’s a cinematic quality present in modern Battlefront titles that the classics just can’t match. If there’s one thing DICE has accomplished in these games, it’s nailing the look and feel of Star Wars. Playing these games is an absolute blast, from the intense firefights on Hoth to the frantic space battles. Compared to the dated feel of the classic Battlefront titles, it’s no contest.
Then again, the old-school Battlefront games aren’t about cinematic feel. They’ve always been about a surprisingly deep battlefield experience. It’s not just about brute forcing your way to objectives. There’s still a lot of strategy involved in flanking opponents, using the necessary classes to counter your enemies, and enjoying some good old-fashioned old-school FPS gameplay.
It’s honestly been fun to hop on a multiplayer session in the first Battlefront game and mess around online. It takes me back to a simpler time. Yet the more I play, the more I’m left wanting. We critiqued 2015’s Battlefront for its limited variety. As good as Battlefront 2004 is, the original Battlefront II is the main attraction. It’s still capable of delivering, but it is still unplayable online for Nintendo Switch at the time of this writing.
Yes, Galactic Conquest exists, but why are we paying $35 when I can buy the game on Steam for ten bucks?
BATTLEFRONT II IS WAITING FOR ME ON XBOX GAME PASS, AND I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE TO CHECK IT OUT
After a frustrating launch day, I remembered that Battlefront II is available on Xbox Game Pass. I booted up a quick match in hopes of playing some functional form of Battlefront multiplayer, only to be met with insufficient available players.
That’s okay; it was the middle of the day on Thursday. It’s not exactly peak gaming time. Eventually, I’d find a match that was nothing short of controlled chaos. But hey, I was playing the game!
A day later, I returned to the Battlefront Classic Collection. Lo and behold, the original Battlefront online was working! I was playing full matches; I was raking up kills!
I was… mainly playing against bots with predictable AI behavior.
There were some fellow humans, indicated by their display name on top of their characters, but they felt few and far between. Frustrated with the experience, I decided to hop back on 2017’s Battlefront II. Before I knew it, a couple of hours had passed. My wife laughed at my frustrations with Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine dominating a control point.
Image Credit: Electronic Arts.
Oh no, I was bamboozled out of my money only to realize the better Battlefront was right in front of me all along.
STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT CLASSIC COLLECTION MIGHT BE PROOF THAT SOME THINGS ARE BETTER LEFT IN THE PAST
Just to make sure, I loaded the Classic Collection on my Switch one last time before bed. I selected Battlefront II, hopped on for a quick match, and…failed to find a game. After searching for and joining a server, I loaded into the game and realized that it was still an absolute mess. My shots were visibly headshotting opponents, but nothing was happening. Vehicles were popping in and out of the battlefield. It only solidified my thoughts: the only good thing the Battlefront Classic Collection does is make me want to play 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront II.
There’s a voice in the back of my head, though, that won’t shut up. These games were excellent back in the day; they were peak examples of what shooters can be. As we know all too well, even the best games from our past can age like a glass of milk.
GoldenEye 007 is one of my favorite games of all time. I said it best in our review:
Once you take the rose-tinted nostalgia glasses off, GoldenEye 007’s age becomes incredibly obvious. The visuals are dated, the controls are rough, and the frame rate occasionally suffers. When everything comes together, though, it’s still an unforgettable experience.
The one thing 2023’s GoldenEye remaster (on Xbox, anyway) does best is give the game some modern TLC. The revamped gameplay makes the game control like a dream come true. It’s so well designed that it feels right at home with today’s console shooters. Compare that with the Nintendo Switch version, which keeps the original controls present, and there’s a night and day difference. Yes, the Switch has online multiplayer, but what good is that when playing the game makes you frustrated?
That’s a perfect way to describe the Battlefront Classic Collection experience. Despite its huge 75 GB file size, Aspyr has not tried to do anything besides repackage these games and profit purely from nostalgia. If I wanted to play these games in their original state, I’d buy them on Steam for less money. If I wanted to play Battlefront online, I’d play the modern versions and have a great time.
That’s what I’m going to end up doing. Judging by how many people I’ve seen talking about it on social media, I’m not the only one.
