Do you have fond memories of playing the 2005 version of Star Wars: Battlefront 2? Do you wish with every fiber of your being that it had official online servers again? Well then, good news: your wish just came true, somehow.
On both Steam and GOG, the PC version of the original Battlefront 2 has been updated with 64-player online multiplayer support and crossplay, so that you can battle or just front (if you’re not good at battling but want people to believe you are) with friends on either platform.
While Disney, the game’s current publisher, didn’t say precisely why it decided to do this, odds are good that it’s a promotional thing for Star Wars: Battlefront II, EA’s new-gen Battlefront game that’s coming out next month and having a beta this week. It’s a pretty neat promotional thing, though, given how much people adore the first Battlefront 2, which is regarded by some as the best multiplayer Star Wars ever.
Battlefront 2's return, however, has so far been less a Return of the Jedi triumph and more an Empire Strikes Back series of unfortunate events. As of now, most players are complaining that they can’t actually connect to the new multiplayer servers, likely because they’re swamped. This makes sense given that, in the past 24 hours, the game has jumped from having a few hundred concurrent players to thousands.
It’s also a bit darkly humorous that Disney decided to resurrect this game ahead of EA’s Battlefront II, seeing as it’s given rise to a renewed chorus of chants about how much more people liked the first two Battlefront games than EA and DICE’s reboot. Here, for instance, is the current top review on the Steam version of Battlefront 2:
Savage. I thought EA’s first Battlefront was fine, but I’d be hard-pressed to tell you a single memorable moment from my time with it. Also, it got old fast. Hopefully the new one is better! In the meantime, we’ve got the old-old one. If it starts working.