We’ve seen our fair share of ports, remasters, and remakes over the years. Some efforts have absolutely blown us out of the water: Last year’s Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space remakes, for example, were shining examples of how to take beloved titles and modernize them for a new generation while still remaining faithful to what made the originals so great. Others, like the horrific XIII remake, seem more like quick cash grabs aimed to prey on nostalgia. They provide no value to the franchise and add nothing to the conversation, fated to fade into the background and act as proof to the companies behind them that “nobody really wants more of this, or they would have bought it.” It’s a tragic way for beloved IPs to fizzle out.

When DICE rebooted the Star Wars Battlefront series, their games were generally received well, but many fans longed for the traditional gameplay structure of Pandemic Studios’ early 2000s titles. The DICE games were solid, sure, but they lacked the magic and specific touch of the originals, veering more towards the gameplay and spectacle of the Battlefield games instead of leaning into what made the first two Battlefront games great. When Aspyr announced the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection last month, fans were hopeful that they’d finally be able to experience the classics in a modern fashion, reliving their greatest childhood memories of toppling AT-ATs on Hoth or sneaking into an enemy command ship to destroy it from the inside. I was one of those fans, eager to see some of my favorite titles of all time with a new coat of paint and hopeful that the collection would revitalize them with some quality-of-life features that were missing in the original releases. It pains me, then, to say that on the scale of XIII to Dead Space and Resident Evil 4, the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection lies much closer to the lower end than it could have.

Just Like the Simulations

Getting the gameplay out of the way, I’m both pleased and disappointed to report that Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 play and feel identical to the 2004 and 2005 releases. In my efforts to prepare for this review, I went back and played both titles on PC for a brief period of time. All of the same highs and lows of these two titles exist in their purest forms in this collection. Characters control exactly like they used to, and battles play out much the same way as they had when I was a young boy. On the plus side, this means that coming back to the games felt like riding a bike. I remembered every objective from the campaigns, knew which classes and weapons were most effective in which situations, and exploited all of the same weaknesses in the AI as I have for the last 20 years. On the other hand, this also meant that I faced the same frustrating issues.

Star Wars Battlefront 1’s campaign is a standout example of this phenomenon. While the sequel’s story mode is a compelling look behind the curtain of the Clone Army’s 501st Legion, the first game’s single-player missions are effectively just a playlist of battles designed to match the order of events from the films loosely. The only objective in these missions is to wipe out the enemy team, accomplished either by capturing every command point on the map or depleting the enemy team’s reinforcements. Keeping this mission structure in the Classic Collection makes sense, but what really frustrated me was the complete lack of tuning the mode had received. Just like in 2004, some of these missions felt entirely unwinnable. Thanks to poor AI and bad pathing, there are a few levels in the game where your teammates will just bottleneck themselves into a firing range, becoming easy pickings for enemy vehicles and mounted guns. In these levels, the only thing you can do is race to wipe out their AI before they wipe out yours, a task much easier said than done.

What makes matters worse is the complete inconsistency of Battlefront 1’s AI accuracy. On foot, many units struggle to hit the broad side of the barn. It’s fairly easy to walk into a room with five enemies and walk out mostly unscathed. With a few rolls and a very generous auto-aim, you can wipe them out in seconds. That changes the second the enemy steps into a vehicle or a stationary turret. Suddenly, you’ll be hard-pressed to show your face anywhere near these bots and survive. It’s a relic of the times, and it’s faithful to the original experience, but my unbound nostalgia quickly gave way to frustration as I restarted some of these missions three, four, or even five times before learning how to cheese the map layout to pull off a victory. It would have been nice to see the difficulty spikes here properly tuned to provide a more consistent experience across the board.

The same is true of Star Wars Battlefront 2’s campaign. While it’s leagues above the first game in structure, storytelling, and cohesion, there were still moments I found myself getting irritated at its outdated design. For example, during one of the earlier space battle missions, the player is tasked with landing an LAAT Gunship inside the enemy hangar. When I played the original on PC last week, I found I had to fly in and out of the enemy hangar and land two or three times before the game finally realized I’d completed the objective. That same exact issue was present in the Classic Collection version of the game.

I felt a similar frustration later on down the line when trying to complete the mission on Polis Massa. Generally speaking, the campaign’s spawn points are fairly forgiving. Polis Massa is the exception. Near the end of the mission, you’re tasked with pushing from one end of the map to the other to destroy a Rebel databank. For whatever reason, the spawn point for this objective is a nearly minute-long walk from the objective itself. This would be fine, except for the fact that this map is built entirely on tight hallways and sharp corners, meaning that if at any point you run into a group of enemies—and you will—they might melt you with sheer numbers before you have a chance to react, sending you back to the start. It’s a minor nitpick, and you could argue that the solution is simply to “get good,” but it feels mostly inconsistent with the rest of the game’s balance, and it’s another example of an issue that went entirely untouched in the Classic Collection.

Weapons From a More Civilized Age

In terms of content, the Classic Collection does bring a few minor but welcome additions. Perhaps the biggest change is the ability to play Battlefront 2’s Hero Assault mode on nearly every ground map. In the original release, this game mode was restricted to Mos Eisley. While it was entertaining to throw Star Wars’ most beloved characters from both eras against each other in a chaotic fashion, being tied to a single play space was frustrating. The original Xbox version of the game did get a patch that allowed the heroes to go to battle in a handful of other arenas, but the Classic Collection marks the first time players can pit characters like Darth Maul and Luke Skywalker against each other on planets like Dagobah, Endor, and Hoth. The added roster of maps adds tons of variety to this already great all-star romp, and it’s a welcome change.

Kit Fisto and Asajj Ventress also make their first appearances on all platforms this time around. These two heroes were previously locked to Xbox as DLC characters that were unattainable on other platforms. Now, they’re included in the lineup with their original abilities and animations fully present, and they feel great. While it’s a relatively minor touch, it’s fun to see these two back in action, and more choices to pick from are always welcome.

Their movesets also make for a nice switch-up from the very standard Lightsaber Throw, Force Push/Pull, Force Choke, and Force Lightning abilities that most of the characters have. Kit Fisto can toss out a Force Orb that acts as a sort of AoE explosive, dealing damage in a small area and staggering enemies. Asajj Ventress, on the other hand, possesses Star Blades, small shuriken-like projectiles that can bounce off walls and block off doors and hallways if used correctly. It’s cool to see these unique powers at play, though admittedly, it’s a bit of a bummer to have them locked to these two characters alone.

All of the previously exclusive Xbox DLC maps are present in the Classic Collection as well. Star Wars Battlefront 2 now features Yavin 4: Arena, Bespin: Cloud City, and two Rhen Var maps from the first game, and Jabba’s Palace is available in Star Wars Battlefront 1. These maps never made their way to PlayStation and were only available on PC through mods, so they’ll be fresh to those who played the originals on those platforms. Cloud City, in particular, is a standout, featuring long, elevated walkways around the outside of the map and a large central courtyard that allows for a variety in your play style. These DLC maps do look pretty much identical to the original game’s versions, however, meaning that they feature the same simplistic lighting with minor environmental weather changes. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it does make them feel a little out of place with the rest of Battlefront 2’s maps.

The Dark Side of Things

While having the complete package of previously platform-locked content is nice, there are a few modern features omitted from this collection that, frankly, I find baffling. First and foremost is the absence of cross-play support. Perhaps Aspyr decided it would have taken too long to work out universal servers. Perhaps they just didn’t want to put any more effort into this project than they had to. We know they already have their hands full with the KOTOR remake. Whatever the reason, not allowing players from different platforms to play with each other is almost certainly a nail in the coffin for this collection. While the servers will likely be populated for the first few months following release, I’d be surprised if PC players didn’t just return to the original versions for the sake of complete mod support, and once the nostalgia wears off on console players, I can’t see them sticking around when live-service games are constantly tossing out new content to bring players back in. It’s depressing to think about.

If Aspyr wasn’t even willing to add cross-play to their titles, then we’d be a little optimistic to hope for any more significant quality-of-life improvements. That being said, I couldn’t help but feel especially frustrated with the package when I consider what it could have been. Star Wars Battlefront 1 is a great title, but it lacks so many of the additions that made the sequel great. For example, Battlefront 1 doesn’t have sprinting, forward rolling, space battles, or even playable heroes. On the other hand, Battlefront 2 lacks a few of its predecessor’s unique touches, such as the ability to go prone or pilot air vehicles on land maps. I’m not blind to the fact that creating a best-of-both-worlds collection that includes all of these features in both games would be a much more strenuous undertaking than a simple port job as Aspyr has done here. Even so, it’s a bit disappointing to wait 20 years to play these games again, only to have them virtually unchanged and brought to modern systems in such a basic way.

To be honest, “basic” might even be overselling it. I ran into several bizarre issues during my time in these two titles, including map textures that were missing, geometry that was entirely invisible and blocked my movement several times, and even a jarring color issue on Hoth where half of the snow turned pink. Star Wars Battlefront 1’s maps also suffer severely from draw distance and far-object rendering issues, which is especially jarring when Battlefront 2 loads its maps so much better. It’s just strange to think that they couldn’t find a way for the Battlefront 1 maps to live up to that same standard. These issues are all fairly minute in the grand scheme of things, and I choose to believe that Aspyr will work to patch some of them out in the coming weeks, but it did give me pause and cause me to wonder just how quickly they turned these games around for modern systems.

A Bright Center to the Universe

Even though this package is half-cooked, there’s still a natural charm to Pandemic’s Battlefront titles that is impossible to deny. Battlefront 2’s campaign, the strategic Galactic Conquest mode, Hero Assault, and the staggering body count of XL are just a few of the many great things to experience in these titles. While the texture quality and resolution have been significantly improved, the actual graphic quality of the games has been left mostly untouched, a decision that I actually think serves to their benefit. It was better to see these games how they look in my head. Upgrading the graphics by any truly impactful measure would massacre the early 2000s charisma of their look and feel. Ultimately, that’s who this package is for: people who are looking to get back in touch with who they were 20 years ago.

I didn’t get a chance to experience the online multiplayer in my time with the Classic Collection, but I fully intend to spend a good chunk of hours on the servers once the game becomes available to everyone. Playing battles split-screen with my brother back in the day was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in gaming. I’m hoping that being able to hop into massive battles alongside my friends as an adult will recapture some of that same magic. Holding down command points, getting into dogfights, and clashing lightsabers with a community of like-minded Battlefront fans is sure to be a blast, even if the experience as a whole is short-lived.

Verdict

Would I recommend picking these titles up if you’re a recently converted Star Wars fan and you’ve never played them before? No, I don’t think I would. The inherent value of the Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection lies primarily in its nostalgia factor. For those of us who grew up playing Ewok Hunt on Endor and abusing Anakin’s Force Choke in Mos Eisley, this package will feel like home. But it’ll feel the same way home feels when you move out for the first time and come back to find that your parents are not idols but normal people, and flawed people at that. The Battlefront Classic Collection presents Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 in their most faithful forms and refuses to elaborate on them, down to every quirk, fault, and irritating repetitive bug.

Making these games accessible on modern systems is great, sure. Making them accessible by modern standards would have been better. The Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection is a delightful and painful romp through old stomping grounds that will likely lose its short-lived luster in a matter of weeks. The good old days are not as good as they seem. It’s time to let the past die. Kill it if we have to.

Score: 6/10

Pros:

• A nice avenue to play some classics on modern systems
• Texture quality and resolution improvements remain faithful to the original vision
• A sizable chunk of content to play with a good sense of variety
• Smooth, consistent framerates across the board

Cons:

• A severe lack of significant or meaningful upgrades or quality-of-life features
• Missing textures, invisible objects, and unpredictable mission difficulties galore
• No cross-play
• There is no option to disable adaptive triggers on PS5

Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.