Here’s a review I never really thought I’d do, or at the very least it wasn’t on my mind, but thanks to the re-release of the two “Classic” Battlefront games I thought there would never be a better time to look at these PS2 greats from my early 20s than now. The original Battlefront was interesting because most things I remembered about the PS2 era Battlefronts comes from countless hours playing Battlefront II, I mean I played this a hell of a lot, don’t get me wrong, but as soon as BFII came out the following year I naturally stopped. So I made sure to play this a bunch (including a couple of hours of multiplayer with the same friend as the first time round!) before touching its sequel to make sure this review is focused on just the original. Oh and yes, the Battlefront Classic Collection was rough on launch, but for me who just plays offline by himself or with friends/family split-screen after the first patch I’ve had no issues… Let’s take a look!
Background:
Two Droidekas? In the original Battlefront? Just give up and turn around… (PS2)
Star Wars: Battlefront was released for the PS2, original XBOX and PC on September 21st 2004 Worldwide, with a Mac edition on July 18th 2005 and the wiki lists a mobile port released on November 1st 2005 but let’s face it: a mobile game in the mid-2000s isn’t going to be a port of this one by any stretch of the imagination! It should be pointed out that this game released before Episode III came out, so there are no soldiers / vehicles / locations from that film at all, making it feel very unique as the Clone Troopers all have their Episode 2 designs rather than their more frequently used Episode 3 ones.
It was then re-released on PS4, PS5, XBOX One, XBOX Series, Switch and PC on March 14th 2024 as part of the “Battlefront Classic Collection”. Again as mentioned it launched in a poor state (or by the sounds of it, was in a decent state then a launch day patch destroyed it) but unless you want to play online it’s fine now. If you do want to play online though I hear lobby issues are still a thing.
Gameplay:
Jet-packs and laser shotguns? Why didn’t the Empire have more of these around? (PS5)
It’s funny the original two Battlefront games I played exclusively in third person, while the two modern ones I only played in first person, no idea why… but yeah, this game can be played in their third or first person and is a team-based shooter with good controls though a little bit of auto-aim by default due to not quite being super-tight, plus while you can crouch and go prone, the latter you can’t in the sequel, you can’t run. At all. It’s really weird after playing the sequel so much to go back to just jogging everywhere, but there you go. The objective on each map is to whittle down your opponent’s soldier count by either killing them or capturing their bases, with victory occurring if you take their soldier counter to zero or if you capture all bases on the map and hold them for 20 seconds, and some maps have bases that can’t be captured and must be destroyed, some of which are vehicles like the AT-ATs on Hoth. That’s the general gist of how to win but obviously each of the four factions have their own pluses and minuses, with one faction being particularly broken that I’ll get to in a second. No matter which side you choose each has the same four classes to pick from and a unique unit, with Infantry (laser rifle that acts like a machine gun, grenades, that sort of generic set up), Heavy Weapons (has a rocket launcher that’s good for vehicles), pilot (that can repair things, hand out healing items, basically the support role) and Sniper (has a sniper rifle, funnily enough!)
Proof First Person View exists…. Now to never use it again. (PS5)
As for the unique units: the Republic Clones and the Empire have rocket troops, with the latter have a laser equivalent of a shotgun that is devastating close range, the Rebellion has Wookies that have a lot more health and a powerful Bowcaster that acts similarly to the Empire’s rocket troop shotgun laser (so the two sides are actually balanced somewhat) while the CIS Droid Army have not only Super Battledroids that can shoot machine gun-style lasers but also fire wrist rockets but they also have the Droidekas, that have really hard to damage shields to take down before you can even damage the droids themselves, all while they’re firing their own high-speed machine gun laser blasters. It makes the Droid Army way too unbalanced and I’d forgotten that until a few games in, then it all came flooding back… it’s something they fixed in Battlefront II, thankfully but can be frustrating here. Also on the maps are turrets and most importantly vehicles for each side, from ground vehicles like tanks and AT-STs to rideable mounts like Tauntauns and even space vehicles like the X-Wings and TIE Fighters, something that becomes a separate mode in all future games, which makes sense as frankly they just don’t feel good to control is such small environments here. There are also factions on certain maps that are just the locals, like Jawas, Wookies, Gungans and Ewoks, though even though they’re fun to shoot they don’t count towards lowering your opponent’s score, even if they’re on their side. The exception to this is one map on Tatooine where the Tusken Raiders actually have their own set to two bases that both sides can capture to help themselves, makes for a more unique set up that’s missing from future instalments.
Sniping Gunguns is fun, regardless of blurry textures! (PS2)
Lastly in terms of combat each side has a hero / villain that can spawn to help their side under certain circumstance, that being Luke and Vader for the original trilogy factions, and Mace Windu and Count Dooku for Prequel era (which is odd, you’d think they’d have gone for Obi-Wan, really…) but unlike future games they’re entirely non-playable. The maps tick all the obvious boxes for each film: Naboo for Ep. 1, Geonosis and Kamino for Ep. 2, Tatoonine and Yavin IV for Ep. 4, Hoth and Bespin for Ep. 5 and Jabba’s Palace (for PC and original XBOX only originally. Now for everyone on the collection!) and Endor for Ep. 6, normally with two maps for each planet. It also has the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyk before its appearance in Ep. 3 but it looks pretty close thanks to being featured in expanded media beforehand (plus they probably got a sneak peak at some concept art), and most interestingly Rhen Var, a snowy planet that has a large ruined Jedi temple on it that had made a few appearances in other media but not much really (or at all in the new Canon!) and was entirely removed for BFII in favour of new Episode III planets, though in the Classic Collection it was added to the sequel, so that’s something to look forward to.
As for modes? Well, there are a few at least. Single Player has two “story modes”, one for each trilogy, but really it’s just playing a regular game on each map with some scenes from the movies dotted about and some bad impersonators reading briefings (the Emperor Palpatine one in particular was REALLY bad…) you do unlock classes as you go and get a little info about playing them so they also act as sort-of tutorials as well. Then you have “Galactic Conquest” which is like a simple board game where you pick a side and compete against the opposite army and select planets under the control of the opposing side to attack, if you win on the first map the planet becomes neutral and if you win on the second map it becomes yours, with each planet granting you a bonus like more troops, health regeneration, spawn a hero on the field, that sort of thing that you can activate at the start of each round (only one each though!). Each side also has a planet that act as “final areas” that you can only attack after all other planets are under your control. These are the planets with just one map, so all the maps get used one way or another. It’s a fun game, and you can play against a friend or the AI.
One person on foot, one person in a vehicle on Hoth at the same time?! This really blew me away back in the day. (PS5)
The other mode is “Instant Action”, which as you can imagine is just pick a map, pick an era (with the exception of Hoth, Endor, Kamino and Geonosis, which are locked to their respective canon eras) and off you go! This is also single player and split screen friendly. That just leaves online, which allowed Instant Action but I’m sure was still plenty fun for those few who had PS2 online, or the people who played XBOX and PC back in the day, where it was far easier and more common. Still not my thing though… That’s that! The Collection version is literally a port, with upgraded textures and lighting being the only additions, unless like me where the PS2 version never got Jabba’s Palace, then that’s new, though it appears in the sequel so it didn’t feel very new to me, in fact it felt more familiar than the original Battlefront maps that weren’t ported!
Graphics and Sound:
Flying over Bespin in a bomber… Sounds a bit risky for all troops on the ground, friend or foe to be honest! (PS5)
At the time they were fine, a little blurry, muddy textures in parts but I was happy with seeing all the soldiers and vehicles on screen at one time, especially split-screen. The Collection version is very nice, all things considered. It’s widescreen, textures and HUD have all be HD-ified and it generally looks like a spruced up PS2 game in the right way. Again, worth mentioning that this is now, at launch there were a fair few texture issues and invisible wall collisions, but again, they’ve been fixed now…
Sound is good. I mean, the soundtrack is literally all the classic songs from the films and the sound effects are also taken straight from the source so it’s kind of cheating there, and while some of the impressionists are pretty terrible Temura Morrison himself returns to voice the Clones, which is pretty neat (though funnily enough it sounds wrong after so many seasons of the Clone Wars cartoon…) So it scores highly in the sound department, but much of that wasn’t anything the developers did!
Thoughts Then:
Look out Uncle Owen! (PS2)
At the time I was addicted for a while and then continued playing split-screen with friends and family for a good… year, then Battlefront II came out and I never touched it again until the Collection version a month or so ago. That’s what happens when you release a direct sequel that improves on everything so soon after the original! Still though, it was well-played that year, I can tell you.
Thoughts Now:
Both Rhen Var maps are actually really fun. Looking forward to seeing them with the Battlefront II engine next! (PS5)
Now? It’s fun enough, the shooting is still satisfying and the maps are well designed, but the factions aren’t well balanced and stuff like not being able to run, the flying vehicles being pretty useless and the heroes being non-playable hold it back, especially when packaged with the sequel! Still, can’t say it’s bad necessarily, just outclassed by its older brother.
Hogan Reviews 