The Classic Collection was meant to bring balance to Battlefront, not destroy it.
Aspyr sure is running hot and cold at the moment. Right after last month's well-regarded remasters of the first three Tomb Raider games, the company has put out the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection, an uprezzed repackage of the original, beloved Battlefront games. It came out today and, well, oh dear.
With over a thousand Steam user reviews already in, the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection has spiralled down to a "Mostly Negative" overall rating, as fans complain of bugs, crashes, server issues, and a borderline-unplayable multiplayer mode.
"Probably one of the worst launches of all time," writes Steam user Dinkleberg, "none of us can get in a game and there are only 3 servers." Similar complaints appear endlessly up and down the game's Steam review page, which is currently a sea of red, and many users are imploring each other not to lose their two-hour refund window. "Don't waste your two-hour refund window till confirmation of fix," writes a user named Nightnight, "Currently, game is totally unplayable. Even if you manage to get into a server, players cannot spawn."
The state of the games' servers at launch are a frequent point of complaint. The original Battlefront games were adored for their multiplayer, but numerous players around the internet report that the Classic Collection launched with a sum total of three dedicated servers—64 players each—to serve almost 10,000 concurrent players. Players can host their own servers, which should help, but some users report that feature isn't working properly for them either.
-10,000 people playing on launch night.-Only has 3 servers that have 64 slots for a total of ~200 players.-Multiplayer doesn't work otherwise.-Price Tag of 35 USDJesus Christ I am so disappointed this is robbery, don't buy Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection pic.twitter.com/JB7oCTHzghMarch 14, 2024
Having checked out the games myself, the situation appears to have been rectified to some extent. Battlefront 2 has significantly more than three dedicated servers while the first game has a total of five. Not many, but adequate to serve the number of players I found in Battlefront 1 when I jumped in earlier today.
But it wasn't just servers that angered players. Multiple gaming subreddits are currently awash in complaints about the collection, particularly the Battlefront subreddit itself. Complaints range from floaty controls, to crashes, to stuttering, to incredibly barebones options for playing with friends. My own experience echoes many of those complaints: Attempting to get into a game of Battlefront 2 left me hanging at character select for a full minute before I gave up and rejoined the server.
But what baffles players most of all—myself included—are the space requirements.
On Steam, the Classic Collection—which hasn't really been marketed as a full-blown remaster—wants an incredible 62.87GB of storage space where the original games only needed 12.39GB combined. Players have been left wondering why they need so much space "just for these two old ass games with barely anything done to them," in the words of Reddit user UnXpectedPrequelMeme, who adds that they "need tons more space to be taken if I do want to mod them… I'm left just wondering why I bought these."
So, maybe hold off on grabbing the Battlefront Classic Collection for now, at least until Aspyr puts out an update about the state of the game going forward. I've reached out to the company to ask about that, and I'll update this piece if I get a response.
