Star Wars Battlefront: Classic Collection – Review

It might be 20 years old, but when asked about great multiplayer shooters one game that always accompanies the Call of Duties and Battlefields of the world is Star Wars Battlefront.
The immensely popular shooter first released in 2004 and the sequel Battlefront 2 a year later.
Fans went wild for the large battles between factions filled with well-known characters from the Star Wars universe.

Over the next decade, Disney picked up Lucas-arts and EA grabbed the license for Star Wars Battlefront which led to the impressive Battlefront Reboot in 2015, sadly EA’s greed came full circle with a massive backlash over the otherwise impressive Battlefornt 2 reboot (2017) which was plagued with pay to win mechanics which ultimatwely ruined what could have been one of the best shooters in the galaxy, but here we are, burnt by a lightsabre and still asking for more, so it’s a perfect time to return to the Battlefront with the Classic Colleciton.

Comprising both the original 2004 title and its sequel from 2005. Both games may look a little basic by today’s standards, it is unfortunate that despite a few sharpened textures, there’s no visual overhaul.
we’re very much getting the same games we played 20 years ago, but rather than game-ruining paywalls, those classics are brought into the modern era to the latest hardware for everyone to enjoy the franchise the way it was before corporate greed took control.

For the uninitiated, Star Wars Battlefront features large open battles, with the ultimate aim to beat the enemy team either by controlling points on the map, or defeating a set number of enemies.
Each battle, between two factions will give you a choice of fighters, from Tie-pilots to Imperial Droids weilding weapons ranging from pistols and assault rifles to missile launchers and automated turrets. You won’t find weapons lying around so you’ll have to utilise your chosen class’s arsenal as you push forwards towards victory.
Being set in the Star Wars universe anyone with an interest int he behemoth sci-fi franchise will know the vast majority of characters and there’s nothing more engaging than reliving those large battles seen in the movies, with a wide range of maps available from popular locales and plenty of typical Star Wars action, Battlefront was a perfect game for both shooter fans and Padawans in training.

Battlefront 2, might have only been released a year later than the original, but it added an even more impressive campaign mode, more maps, more game modes as well as the ability to take control of “Heroes” which let players jump inti the boots of characters such as Luke SkyWalker, Han Solo, Darth Vadar and Darth Maul.
It was overall a much more complete package which maintained the same quality gun-play and exciting multiplayer battles.
Because of the similarities in gameplay and the massively expanded options, it’s fair to say Battlefront 2 is likely to be the much more popular choice from the colleciton, but there’s no doubt people will still be happy to revisit the original too.
While the Classic Colleciton does stay very true to the originals, it does also include extra characters and maps as well as an expanded hero assult mode as well as Galactic Conquest.

The overall presentation of the package as a whole as well as both individual titles are exactly as expected, they look and sound just like you remember, even down to the FMV sequences.
Obviously with 2 decade-old source material it’s never going to look amazing, but things have been sharpened up a little, and everything runs perfectly smooth.
It’s hard to judge online play as the servers weren’t populated enough prior to release, but there’s nothing obvious to suggest online play wont be any bit less smooth and impressive as the offline sections of the game.

It’s impossible to praise the presentation too much, when so little has been changed, but by todays standards, it certainly doesn’t look terrible and there’s plenty of modern releases that could only dream of running as fluently or prividing such a fun experience.

Looking at alternatives, EA’s Battlefront II is obviously hard to ignore, despite it’s launch issues, alot of patches and free updates have been released since, making EA’s 2017 remake an arguably far more complete package than either of the originals, gameplay is very familiar across the entire franchise but with far more detailed graphics, characters and environments and the now low price tag of only £19.99, it makes the Classic Collection a little harder to recommend at around the £30 mark (currently £26.31 on pre-order).
Some will point out that the Classic Collection is two games, but after a first few exploratory hours, most gamers are likely to choose one of the two titles (most likely 2005’s Battlefornt 2 Classic) and invest time with that. but without the long-term persistent progression found in today’s multiplayer shooters, it’s just not likley to hold the same weight long-term.

There’s Star Wars Battlefront: Classic Collection is a fun, exciting and top-quality game, even after almost two decades both titles provide a great shooter that’s just fun to play but might not hold the longevity of more modern shooters.
I’d personally rather spend time with 2017’s Battlefornt 2, but purists looking for a hit of nostalgia will find more than enough reason to invest time into the Classic collection.

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