Review: Revisiting a Bygone Era With ‘Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection’
It’s 2024 and I’m back to playing the original Star Wars: Battlefront games. Like many others, I have some fond memories of the original Battlefront games. My older brother and I would spend many early mornings and late nights huddled around a CRT TV, playing Battlefront 1 and 2 in the dark on a PlayStation 2, screaming with excitement.
This year, Aspyr has brought back these two classic games and is making them available to a newer audience with the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection. Going back to these games nowadays is like time-traveling back to a simpler time. For those who wish to revisit these old memories, the games have been preserved just like you remember. But for those who have never played these games, or are more used to modern, conventional shooters, these games are a bit of an oddity. Either way, Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection is worth checking out, as a fan of the series, and as a historical artifact.
Even though the games are 20 years old now, they feel older than that. I haven’t played them since they first came out, but jumping back into them today — especially the first one — can take some getting used to. For starters, the controls aren’t the typical controls of modern shooters. There isn’t an updated, standard control setting that applies to both games. The first game’s standard controls have a fair amount of aim assist and sticky reticles. The hit detection can be way off, with some force abilities or lightsaber hits feeling like they should be connecting but aren’t. And some game modes last way longer than your typical Halo or Call of Duty matches which are much snappier.
But really, that should be expected with games of this era. At the time, Call of Duty hadn’t become the big, influential shooter juggernaut that it is today. And multiplayer shooters like Halo and Battlefield were still finding their footing, discovering what kind of styles and gameplay mechanics their audiences enjoyed the most. Battlefront is in this same boat with the developers still figuring out what made a fun competitive shooter.
In actuality, the best part about these games is the amount of features. Both Battlefront games — especially Battlefront II — have a lot of single-player content that is still fairly impressive. The most notable feature is “Galactic Conquest.” But consider as well that Battlefront II — which only came out a year after the original Battlefront — was able to add heroes versus villains, space battles, and refine the shooting mechanics, getting rid of stick reticles to make combat smoother. There’s a lot packed in here. For those uninterested in playing online multiplayer, these games have a lot to offer in terms of single-player campaigns that can be fun to play and replay, whether on your own or with a friend. And how crazy is it that couch co-op/versus modes in a shooter is something that I would be praising a game for in 2024?
Again, this aspect of the Battlefront games is emblematic of the time these games were made. Nowadays, game developers spend a lot of time balancing, refining, and making sure the multiplayer experience is smooth, frenetic, and fast-paced. But back then, developers who worked on shooters put a lot more emphasis on the single-player experience, giving players game modes that could entertain them for hours. That’s not to say modern shooters don’t have great story-driven experiences, they still do. But it’s refreshing to see just how much content was offered for those who didn’t want to hop online.
There are a few changes to the Battlefront Classic Collection that weren’t in the original. They include additional characters like Asajj Ventress and Kit Fisto that weren’t in the original release, or the added feature of trigger resistance for PlayStation 5. This is a feature I don’t like. For those playing on the PlayStation 5, beware that the game creates some resistance in the right trigger, making it harder to squeeze, emulating the feeling of shooting a real gun. As cool as this is, it also wears out your index finger very quickly.
At the time of writing, the online servers haven’t been opened to the public. I can’t comment on the multiplayer experience just yet but will do so on it in a later article.
For those picking up Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection, I recommend approaching it as if it were a historical artifact. There’s a lot here that may feel “old” or “outdated,” but it also shows just how far games have come. It’s a window into a different era of video games where “fun” was still paramount and when game studios were more generous in their offline content.
Thank you to Aspyr for the advanced review copy used for the making of this article. Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection is available on March 14 for Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
