Star Wars: Battlefront Collection | Xbox Series X Review | 4/10 “Turned To The Dark Side” 💩 #StarWars

There are two things I have a deep hatred for that are part of a lot of childhoods, and they are E.T, and Wookiees. Now, I won’t go into why I hate Mr Extra Terrestrial, but Wookiees are related directly with Battlefront 2, as a kid I loved these games, my friend and I played them for hours and hours - they are highlights of my childhood, but one memory sticks out and that's the time - whilst fighting a particularly tough battle - it came down to 10 vs 8, our team finally had the lead after replaying this missions several times, and victory was finally in sight! I had a fool-proof plan to win… get in a ship and take the enemy down from the skies. As I made my run to the ship, a Wookiee ran from the other side, entered the ship, and then flew it straight into the landing bay door destroying not just himself and the ship but also my hopes and dreams. As I stood in the landing bay filled with hate and disappointment, the enemy overturned the deficit and won. That moment changed me, I became a different person… I was now... a Wookiee hater.

So now, 19 years later I was excited to finally replay these fantastic games and let all my hate and disappointment go. Sadly, the state that the game launched in gave rise to a different hate and disappointment - having games released in these rough conditions is becoming far too frequent, and what's a shame here is that the game underneath the problems has a lot of value and still holds up all these years later.

Having all the content in one place is a real dream, all the DLC being included is a great expansion, missions and arenas I had never seen before. The campaigns are still fun and engaging, the maps are well-designed and give great areas for mass fire fights, the variety of different characters and weapons are fun to explore, different maps call for different tactics - so you get to really cycle and learn which trooper fits the given situation. I was really surprised how well it holds up so many years later, I had fun going through the campaign.

Sadly a lot of this is undermined by the state it was released in, first the aiming in Battlefront 2 was screwed up, if you were playing as a stormtrooper you could at least say it was film accurate, it is playable, but a problem that should have been fixed before it was released,

Online is even worse, there were a lot of people playing online but it was a real struggle, it didn’t run well, your aiming is screwed… it was one of the worst online experiences I’ve had.

The frame rate of the film footage is poor, there are also audio problems that spring up from time to time. After a while I realised that even though I was having fun through the campaign, this collection just isn't up to scratch, and my nostalgia was doing a lot of the work.

I imagine a lot of people are just going to turn to the originals, they are cheaper and - with mods - a vast improvement over this.

SUMMARY

What could have been a great reminder of two of the best Star Wars experiences are sadly ruined, a poor update of beloved classics.

After 19 years of Wookiee hate I have now forgiven them, my hate and disappointment is now aimed at this collection, Star Wars: Battlefront has gone from the Light to the Dark Side.