There are two versions of Star Wars Battlefront I and II. There were the ones by EA and DICE that aced the spirit of the game but plagued it with an economy that drove away the more casual Star Wars fans. The other versions came from LucasArts and Pandemic Games, which were released around the time that the PS2 and Xbox were the consoles of choice. The second game is much more fondly remembered than the first, but both made you feel like you were part of the big, significant battles of the series. It is that duo of games that Aspyr has sought to bring back with Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection, and the end result is very interesting.

Booting up the game goes to a very simple menu where you can register the game, exit, or select between the first or second title in the package. You can return to this menu from either title, and you can even exit out of the game entirely without returning to this menu, but don't expect any further extras from this package.

For anyone who's not familiar with these games, think of them as taking on the blueprint of the old Battlefield games but with a Star Wars theme. You can choose between a soldier with light or heavy ordnance, a sharpshooter, or a pilot, and then you'll be plopped on the battlefield. From there, your main mission is to take over enemy outposts and kill the opposition, as both actions deplete a team's number of tickets. The match ends when one side's tickets are gone but you aren't limited to being on foot. You can commandeer iconic Star Wars vehicles like land speeders, AT-ATs, and X-Wings, to name a few. The funny thing is that anyone can pilot any vehicle, so if you ever dreamt of being a Rebel piloting a TIE Fighter, this is your game.

What makes these games feel special is that they successfully capture the feeling of the battle chaos, regardless of the selected gameplay type. There's rarely a moment where you'll find yourself alone with no enemies in sight. Vehicles are plentiful, and it takes some coordinated efforts to take them down if you aren't in your own vehicle. The iconic moments from the films can be re-created, but the fact that you're playing as a regular soldier gives these fights a greater sense of identity, since you aren't stuck playing as another Skywalker or similar Jedi.

While both games feature this kind of fighting, Star Wars: Battlefront II adds something new with the presence of Hero units. Finish certain tasks, and you get the chance to be a major hero or villain from the series. While playing as Han Solo or Jango Fett might be fun, they're also so similar to regular units that playing as a Sith or Jedi really are the best choices. Between lightsaber melee attacks, fast leaping and sprinting, the ability to throw a lightsaber and a myriad of Force powers, Jedi and Sith would be nigh unstoppable if it weren't for the fact that their swift movements can make each their attacks feel too chaotic. This is fine in large areas but more precarious in narrow spaces. Being the all-powerful wielder of the Force is a power trip, and it becomes equally as exciting to band together as normal soldiers and take one down.

The inclusion of Heroes in Battlefront II opens up a new multiplayer mode, where the teams are comprised of only Heroes on either side, and while the team sizes are smaller when compared to normal battles, the chaos that ensues from blaster fire, lightning, and lightsabers makes the size reduction worthwhile since it is pure fun.

With that said, there are some gameplay choices that are questionable at best. Anytime you spawn into the battlefield, you'll always face away from your objective, so you'll spend your opening moments turning around to face in the right direction. The matches also end rather abruptly. Instead of a stoppage in gameplay when victory or defeat is achieved, you're suddenly shown the words atop a random shot of the field before being sent to the leaderboard and ushered to the next environment. Even compared to the other shooters of the time, the process is very clunky. Then there's the matter of AI. Whether they're your teammates or opposition, the AI is pretty bad. You'll see them do things like spin their ships in circles, run into enemy fire, or run straight into sarlacc pits. They can still kill you — mostly because it only takes a few hits for anyone to die.

The Battlefront Classic Collection is focused on big multiplayer battles, so it is good to see that the online features have been done well. All of the maps from the original two games are present and without any alterations. For the second game, every map is also accessible in Hero Assault mode, so you aren't getting a smaller map pool if you play that mode instead of the others. Lag is practically nonexistent, and the same can be said for warping. This is a real achievement, considering both the age of the games and the fact that having 64 players in one game is still considered huge when bunches of players can be in close proximity at any time.

The big feature for online play is that both games support up to 64 players per match. Considering how the original games on the PC were restricted to 32 players online — and even fewer players supported on the original consoles — this feature alone is worth a purchase for those who still want to jump in for a few matches. For those who are afraid that there aren't going to be enough people for a proper match, the game supplies bots to fill in the slots, so that there's always a game with players present, based on what we witnessed during the review period. For those who really want to go old-school, LAN play is also available for both games; this is also welcome, since it seems like a real rarity in modern offerings.

The online game is strong, but considering how old these games are, it shouldn't surprise people to see that both titles had a number of offline modes. Instant Action is essentially an offline version of the multiplayer game, but you can customize your playlist of maps. Galactic Conquest employs quite a bit of strategy, as you'll initially choose which planet to fight in before selecting an occupied planet for a bonus throughout the match. Your opponent will do the same, and the fight commences. Win the fight, and you go through the process again. Lose, and the roles are reversed, with the game ending when all planets have been conquered. It's a neat mode that offers some replayability, mostly because of how many different combinations can be done for each run.

There's also the campaign mode, which is split up into two parts in Battlefront, each covering either the original trilogy or the prequel trilogy for battles and participants. You eventually get to play both sides of the skirmish, but the issue is that there's nothing distinct about the mode. Except for cut scenes, the matches play no differently from Instant Action mode, so it doesn't feel very inspired, unless you really want to fight in these battles with some context. By comparison, the campaign in Battlefront II is much more focused and tells the story of how Darth Vader's 501st Battalion became feared across the galaxy. It comes with a distinct list of objectives to complete, so you're getting the Battlefront structure but with more of a distinct purpose behind it, and that makes it more enjoyable.

One thing that might surprise PC players is the presence of split-screen play. Provided you have two gamepads, you and a friend can locally enjoy any of the offline modes without any compromise — provided you're fine with a horizontal split configuration. Since this was previously a console-only feature, its presence is welcome for those who primarily play on PCs for the power but want console features.

The audio remains untouched from the original versions of these games. That's a good thing, since the quality of the originally sound in both games was good, and it hasn't degraded after all this time. The voice work is still good, with the stand-ins for the original actors doing a good job of replicating well-known voices for some characters. The same can be said for the random lines used for the regular infantry, which is who you'll be playing as most of the time. The music is used sparingly, so you aren't inundated with the music from the first six movies, so it feels special when it does play. The sound effects are also authentic and sound great, especially on a surround system, making it a treat for Star Wars fans.

Graphically, the Battlefront Classic Collection is mostly good, considering that it isn't a full-scale remake of the original titles. The environments get the most love, with each environment sporting nice details and only a few instances of textures with low resolutions. Particle effects like from explosions are fine, and the character models animate nicely enough, as long as you don't look at some of the faces for too long. There are two gripes. The first is from players who use an ultrawide monitor; the game tries to conform to that format but does so poorly. The gameplay in this format is fine, but things like spawn selection and the main menu get cut off in the first game. The second game fixes the issue but has errors displaying the troop selection. The other issue concerns the various pre-rendered FMVs, as it doesn't appear that any work has been done to make them look good at high resolutions. Some brighter scenes may be fine, but go to a dark scene or transition, and you'll notice some very heavy macro-blocking as a reminder of the games' age.

The game has already been verified by Valve as being Steam Deck compatible, something also verified on a Linux PC, and a quick runthrough shows that the game performs pretty well on the device. The options are minimal when it comes to changing the graphical elements, and the games run at the device's native 1280x800 and are locked at 60fps at all times. Battery life is also good, with a full charger on the LCD edition of the Steam Deck getting over five hours of playtime.

Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection is an imperfect collection that still provides a good hit of nostalgia and fun for those looking for a simpler multiplayer escapade. Despite some issues like music dropout in the first game and bad respawning in both games, both games successfully deliver the idea of big, chaotic Star Wars battles without the modern "features" of experience creep and gacha boxes for upgrades. Online players are going to have a good time thanks to the absence of lag and the presence of 64-player battles with bots to fill the empty slots. Offline players will like the ample number of modes along with split-screen play. Unless you want to put in the work of implementing various mods to bring the older games up to speed, you're better off grabbing this package and diving in.

Score: 7.5/10