Star Wars Battlefront Collection Needs More Work

We’re currently living in a golden age of remakes and re-releases, whether it’s Star Wars or something else, if that’s your thing. Given how poor official preservation of retro video games is, this is the best option out there. After Aspyr’s success with LucasArts classics and other IPs like Tomb Raider, expectations were high for the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection. Does it shine as brightly as other returns from distant galaxies?

The past and present importance of the original Star Wars Battlefront game, developed by Pandemic Studios, cannot be overstated. They are the shining example of success achieved by simply transferring a tried-and-true “original” formula to a well-known entertainment venue. With the popularity of EA DICE’s early Battlefield games, some thought it would be a good idea to do so, except for Star Wars. It turns out that they are right.

Ironically, DICE ended up rebooting the best-selling Star Wars video game series after Disney took over Lucasfilm and everything it owned. Star Wars: Battlefront ’15 largely felt rushed to meet the deadline set by The Force Awakens, while its 2017 sequel had a poor launch and struggled to achieve cult status before finally reaching cult status. to many obstacles (and still retains a dedicated community today).

The truth is, many gamers still reject modern versions of Battlefront and simply continue to play the modified version of the original on PC. However, modern consoles have never received a re-release of either game… until now.Note that they seem to work Just right It runs on the Xbox family of consoles through backwards compatibility, but the original OG Battlefront console version always lagged behind PC consoles in terms of features. Aspyr’s update series addresses most of the issues.

All in all, I’ve had more fun playing Battlefront Classic Collection so far than trying to try the original version nearly 20 years later (I never stopped playing them). While they remain largely unchanged on the surface, true Battlefront nerds will notice some small tweaks and subtle improvements, especially when it comes to bringing PC-specific features to consoles and ditching the dull Battlefront 2 PC menus And when turning to the movie menu. In the PS2/Xbox version.

In addition to adding some BF1 maps to BF2, opening XL mode (64v64 Chaos) to all platforms, and bringing back cut content like Asajj Ventress and Kit Fisto (originally an Xbox exclusive), there are some subtle but welcome additions to the lighting and lighting aspects The change. Sharper textures, which range from pretty good to crap with AI upgrades, will only bloat the file size. The NPC AI is still dumb as a brick and only becomes useful in numbers and the player guides them in the right direction, but that’s what we all remember from OG Battlefront.

Even more important to PC gamers (the collective who have been working on these games for a long time) is the addition of proper gamepad support, which makes the Steam Deck perfectly capable of running these games out of the box. It’s one of my favorite improvements to date, and coupled with split-screen multiplayer and achievements, it will keep even the most seasoned gamers busy for a while if they want to express their love for these classic games. Hey, any excuse to keep fighting the Bespin platform bridge is welcome.

The other side (credit?) of the coin is that over the years, PC gamers have either “unlocked” most of the new features or already enjoyed them at the time. So if they don’t care much about achievements, split-screen, and gamepad support, this pricey version is hard to recommend to them. However, despite some annoying bugs and glaring issues, I’ve poured hundreds (if not thousands) of hours into the original on both console and PC, and I can safely say that they’ve never felt so snappy. And can better adapt to modern systems.

Some of these issues, such as some audio cues and menu misbehavior, were acknowledged during Aspyr’s pre-release and will hopefully be fixed. Nothing unusual. Of greater concern are issues such as graphical glitches that didn’t exist before, ability and gear icons that take a while to refresh when switching categories, or online abilities that haven’t been properly tested yet. For example, the fact that servers hosting players’ FPS are still tied to the default tick rate in BF2 is embarrassing to say the least, especially when quick fixes have been around for years.

Most of these issues don’t impact the offline experience, which is still as rich as you remember it and much better than many modern games’ offerings (Galaxy Conquest is still GOATed), but they certainly ruin the overall enjoyable experience , and could impact early sales and general sentiment surrounding the re-releases of some of the most popular Star Wars games.Currently, I personally recommend removing some critical patches if What interests you most is playing games online.

So far, Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection feels like an important release for non-PC gamers who want a healthy dose of nostalgia (from a game that’s actually become obsolete), and for those who have grown up from A middling version for those who have never left one of the most memorable Star Wars battlefields.

History tells us that Aspyr can correct their mistakes. I just hope we don’t have to go through another problematic Star Wars: Battlefront release cycle in 2024.