Pandemic Studios’ original Star Wars Battlefront titles, released in the early 2000s, became instant classics, thanks to their exciting 64-player online battles and engaging single-player campaigns. They offered a memorable Star Wars experience that many fans were looking forward to reliving in the remastered Classics Collection.
Unfortunately, the Force wasn’t with the much-anticipated launch of the collection, as Aspyr’s remasters encountered a wave of negativity on platforms like Steam, due to egregious technical issues that alienated an enormous chunk of players at launch.
Star Wars Battlefront Takes A Page Out Of Helldivers 2’s Book
The remastered Battlefront collection was beset with server issues right out of the gate. Players have been reporting rampant lag, bugs, and crashes during online matches, essentially rendering the best part of the games, the 64-player online mode, unplayable.
DiscussingFilm reported on X/Twitter that the collection’s launch night saw a staggering influx of over 10,000 players flooded the servers at launch. Shockingly, only 3 servers were initially available, each capped at 64 players. This meant a measly 192 slots were available for players, a number laughably inadequate for a 2024 online game.
Thankfully, Aspyr reacted quickly, adding more official servers within an hour of launch. For those still having trouble logging on, community-hosted servers have also been made available on the server browser. It’s worth noting that similar issues plagued the Helldivers 2 launch as well, where overwhelming player demand led to server woes for nearly three weeks after launch.
Multiplayer Is Troubled, But Singleplayer Is Mostly Good
Despite the rocky start for the online mode, the Classics Collection‘s singleplayer modes remain a bright spot. These campaigns allow players to relive pivotal moments from the iconic Star Wars Battlefront games of the 2000s.
While not groundbreaking by today’s standards, they’re a trip down memory lane for devoted fans, allowing them to blast away at Battle Droids or Stormtroopers once more and reminisce about the good old days of janky animations, dial-up internet, and a boatload of fun.
Moving forward, Aspyr has a significant task ahead. Smooth and polished launches are de facto expectations of gamers in 2024, and the current technical issues threaten to overshadow the remasters’ strengths. If the studio can deliver continuous updates and improvements, they have the potential to redeem themselves and create a collection worthy of the Battlefront legacy.
However, without swift action in addressing the lag, crashes, and server capacity issues, the remasters may forever be remembered as a missed opportunity to recapture the magic of the originals. Only time will tell if Aspyr can make an Arrowhead-sized comeback, but we hope they do.
