Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection: An Examination of a Bygone Era (Review)

Now that it’s 2024, I’m playing the first Star Wars: Battlefront games again.

Like a lot of other people, I have happy memories of the first Battlefront games.

Many early mornings and late nights, my older brother and I would huddle around a CRT TV and scream with joy as we played Battlefront 1 and 2 on a PlayStation 2.

These two old games are back this year thanks to the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection from Aspyr. This collection brings them to a new audience.

These games are like going back in time to a simpler time when you play them again. You can play these old games again if you want to. They are exactly the same as you remember them.

However, these games are a bit strange for people who have never played them or who are more used to current, everyday guns.

Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection is worth seeing whether you’re a fan of the series or just interested in history.

Even though the games are 20 years old, they still feel old.

Since I haven’t played them since they first came out, it can be hard to get back into them today, especially the first one. To begin, the controls aren’t like those you’d find in most current guns.

There isn’t a new, universal control setting that works for both games. It’s pretty easy to aim in the first game because the controls are pretty normal.

Sometimes, the hit recognition is very off.

For example, some force powers or blade hits feel like they should connect but don’t.

There are also game types that last a lot longer than normal Halo or Call of Duty matches, which are much shorter.

But really, that’s what you’d expect from games from this time. Call of Duty wasn’t the hugely popular shooting game it is now at the time.

Multiplayer shooters like Halo and Battlefield were still getting used to each other and figuring out what styles and game features people liked best. Just like this, Battlefront is still being worked on because the creators aren’t sure what makes a good competition shooter.

In fact, the number of features is the best thing about these games. There is a lot of great single-player material in both Battlefront games, but especially in Battlefront II.

The most interesting part is “Galactic Conquest.” But also think about how Battlefront II, which came out just a year after the first Battlefront, added space fights, heroes vs. baddies, and better shooting controls by getting rid of stick reticles.

There’s a lot in this. And for people who don’t want to play with other people online, these games have great single-player missions that you can enjoy playing over and over, by yourself or with a friend. And I think it’s crazy that I would praise a gun game for having couch co-op or versus modes in 2024.

Once more, this part of the Battlefront games shows how the time they were made was. Developers of video games today spend a lot of time making sure that the shared experience is smooth, hectic, and quick. But back then, gun makers put a lot more focus on the single-player experience, making game modes that could keep people busy for hours.

That doesn’t mean that story-driven games aren’t fun these days; they still are. There was a lot of information for people who didn’t want to go online, which was nice to see.

Some things have been changed in the Battlefront Classic Collection that weren’t there in the first game. There are new characters like Asajj Ventress and Kit Fisto that weren’t in the original version, and trigger resistance has been added for PlayStation 5. This is something I don’t like.

For PlayStation 5 players, be aware that the game makes the right trigger less responsive, which makes it harder to squeeze and simulates the feel of shooting a real gun.

This is cool, but it makes your index finger hurt very fast.

The computers haven’t been made public yet at the time of writing.

I can’t say anything about the online experience yet, but I will in a different piece.

If you want to play Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection, I suggest treating it like a piece of history. You might think some of this is “old” or “outdated,” but it also shows how far games have come.

It’s a look back at a different time in video games, when “fun” was still very important and companies were more open with their offline material.

This piece was made possible by a review copy from Aspyr. Thank you for that. As of March 14, you can get Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection for Nintendo Switch, PC through Steam, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.