Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection

Aspyr is a developer with a history of porting beloved Star Wars games to new platforms, but its track record is spotty at best, often marred with game-breaking bugs and audiovisual issues that ruin the fun for new and returning fans. So the company's latest release, Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection ($35.01), is cause for excitement and trepidation. The bundle (available for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X) includes the original Star Wars Battlefront (2004) and Star Wars Battlefront II (2005) shooters, but a carelessness permeates the package. Containing broken multiplayer lobbies and frequent crashes, the Battlefront games arrive in a state unworthy of their lofty legacy. If you're looking for a multiplayer sci-fi game, you're better off with Helldivers 2.

(Credit: Aspyr)

AV Issues

Star Wars: Battlefront and Battlefront II (not to be confused with EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront and Battlefront II) debuted on PC, PlayStation 2, and the original Xbox. They were released when online shooter battles were still novel affairs, delighting audiences who liked the idea of a Star Wars-themed riff on Battlefield 1942. Both titles were critical and commercial hits, but a lot has changed in the decades since their release. Unfortunately, Aspyr doesn't keep up with the times by adding touched-up audio or graphics.

The issues begin upon boot-up. You’re greeted by a static launcher page that lacks sound, with the option to load either Battlefront or Battlefront II. The first thing you notice is the weird menus. The high-resolution menus pop against the lower-resolution video clips playing in the background, giving the game a sloppy presentation. The Battlefront II menu is worse, as it uses crunchy, compressed video clips from the Star Wars movies.

Battlefront I and II's campaigns follow pivotal battles in Star Wars history, with sprawling text and cutscenes. The cutscenes appear untouched, leveraging the same video clips from two decades ago. They would look fine on a CRTV, but they appeared a mess on our Alienware AW3225QF 4K QD-OLED monitor.

Once in the games, you’ll notice the improved resolution that only highlights the maps and models' basic geometry and flat textures. Battlefront I suffers the most in this regard; Battlefront II's maps feature more verticality and complexity. However, both titles look like games from their time.

Likewise, the audio is woefully out of date, with familiar Star Wars noises that sound like they were recorded from another room (or are missing entirely). This is true of both titles, but it's more prevalent in Battlefront II thanks to the additional voice acting.

(Credit: Aspyr)

Fun Core, Funky Controls

Both games offer single-player modes that are essentially tutorials for the multiplayer action, including a strategy mode where you capture planets called Galactic Conquest, and Instant Action, where you customize a match and start blasting.

Battlefront and Battlefront II are conquest games at their core. You're tasked with capturing points on the map to dwindle the enemy’s reinforcements until the opposing team runs out. The gameplay loop, simple as it may be, is still fun. Each side has classes that add variety: snipers for long-range fighting, demolition troopers with rocket launchers to handle enemy vehicles, and soldiers with jet packs for quickly traversing the map.

Depending on the map, you can enjoy vehicular combat, space combat, or slight variations to your spawn points depending on your allegiance. For example, the Empire has AT-ATs on the Hoth map, while the Rebels tap Snowspeeders (and you can use the Snowspeeders to trip up the AT-ATs, just like in the films).

The controls differ between games, with the second title feeling more modern. Aspyr doesn't keep similar controls across the games, but you can edit the button layout. Annoyingly, there’s no universal control scheme, so you must manually update the settings across games.

Galactic Conquest mode remains a delight, and difficult at times due to the aggressive enemy AI. It's cathartic to jump into an Instant Action match and go Rambo on the enemy team, though it’s surprising to see that even a 64-player bot lobby buckles the frame rate (at least on the PlayStation 5, our review platform).

(Credit: Aspyr)

Multiplayer Madness

Both Battlefield titles support 64 players (a first on consoles), but the experience is poor. Searching for lobbies crashed the games, and joining an in-progress match sometimes wouldn't let me spawn. Lag was plentiful across both games, too. It's well known that Stormtroopers can’t shoot straight to save their lives, but the games' problematic hit detection is highly annoying. This is true in the offline single-player mode, but proves astronomically more frustrating online due to the extra latency.

Battlefront Classic Collection's PC version is plagued with issues, but the PlayStation 5 port suffers from random crashes, disconnects, and the occasional inability to start. That's just the tip of the iceberg, as players have reported different issues across every platform. Couple this with mounting evidence that Aspyr used a modder's work without credit, and you start to see that the Battlefield Classic Collection is, as Jar Jar Binks once said, “in big doo-doo.”

Verdict: See Through the Lies of the Jedi

Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection should be an easy recommendation, but it suffers from a poor port job from Aspyr, a developer already known for dropping the ball. There’s a chance that the games can be patched into a passable state, but it's impossible to recommend the Battlefront Classic Collection on any platform right now. It's heartbreaking to see Battlefront I and II reduced to Bantha fodder when they should’ve been preserved in carbonite. All this comes at the surprising price of $35.01—a cheeky nod to the 501st Clone Battalion, but way too expensive to justify the flawed package. For just $5 more, you can pick up the excellent Helldivers 2, and the lovingly remastered Star Wars: Dark Forces is available for $29.99.

For in-depth video game talk, visit PCMag's Pop-Off YouTube channel.