Overview:An HD port of the dead classic Battlefront games on modern consoles, what could go wrong? Well...a whole lot, I'm afraid.
The Gameplay:A long time ago on a console generation far, far away...
The Battlefront games are considered absolute classics for a reason. They took the large team, combined arms gameplay from the then-new Battlefield series and made it work on consoles, all with a Star Wars lick of paint. These games were full of fan service, covering both the prequel era as well as the beloved Galactic Civil War era. Locations, vehicles, and weapons from the series are lifted and recreated for the player, and the fun and frentic battles that occur make you want to return and try new things.
When this HD collection was announced I was excited, thinking this would be an easy slam dunk. Put some decent netcode in, some clever achievements, and some cleaned up graphics and the whole package would just come together, right?
In a word: No. Not even a little bit, unfortunately. Literally every aspect of this conversion is sloppy, rushed, or lazy in some regard. Playing it is an endless exercise in frustration. You just see nothing but missed opportunities or hair pulling irritations at every corner.
The Problems:Even before starting the game the problems begin. This game requires a 60GB install, which should give you an idea of how lazily they've optimized this mess. It's kind of shocking how big this footprint is for a pair of games that are two decades old.
Right off the bat, you'll see the loading screen: a static bit of art with options to load Battlefront 1, Battlefront 2, or register your game. It looks like a placeholder that was supposed to be given a full replacement, but then just wasn't.
I had convinced my gaming group to buy in on this game on day one. This was a HUGE mistake, as the game does not support parties of any sort. You can make your own session, but there are no options to make, say, an unbalanced team and take on the AI together. You can TRY to join a public game, but we never were able to all get in the same game, at least one person would see a message stating "this game no longer exists", even if only 1-2 people were playing.
So with viable multiplayer off the table, all you're left with are the single player options. And this is a much weaker proposition in 2024, especially considering how the shooting can swing between "floaty" to "grabby" with aim assist turned on. There are bugs where you'll CLEARLY shoot someone and the shots will just pass through them. Vehicle driving just feels clunky, with turning radius being far too slow and tedious for most craft.
The Achievements:Even the achievement list is irritating. There's zero effort to balance achievements between the games. The first game will give you achievements for beating the first two campaigns. Literally ALL of the remaining achievements are for playing Battlefront 2. And most of these are RATHER grindy, requiring winning awards that can only be scored once in a round, and needing 64 of those awards. Hope you feel like playing hundreds of rounds of bot matches chasing these awards!
There's nothing for doing clever plays, playing as heroes, doing literally anything in space, etc. It's SUCH a missed opportunity, but it's par for the course with this collection.
2.0