What An Open World 'Star Wars' Game Could Look Like
As Lucasfilm Games gears up to launch a new era of Star Wars gaming in partnership with multiple other studios, their first project will be something that fans have long been calling for. Open-world games have always been extremely popular among gamers, with choices having real impacts on the outcome of the story, considerable freedom in your approach to gameplay, as well as customization in character look and equipment. Games such as Fallout, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and The Elder Scrolls have all been immense success for their studios and still hold audiences today. Recently, in an Wired article, Lucasfilm Games announced a partnership with Ubisoft to develop an open world Star Wars title. Fans have already begun speculating what this game could look like and what kind of story will drive the player through everything the game has to offer.
While past EA titles have been criticized for their lack of launch content, this would be an opportunity to fix these past mistakes in spades. Part of the appeal for games like Fallout, and even past Star Wars games such as Knights of the Old Republic, is their wide array of missions, characters, and random events. It feels nearly impossible to play every mission, defeat every enemy, or earn every achievement after one playthrough. The mechanic that would be crucial for an open world Star Wars game is the ability to play multiple factions or classes. Deciding whether to be a Jedi, a smuggler, a human, a Wookiee, or a bounty hunter, and making that decision repeatedly on numerous playthroughs, would make for an extremely popular game with fans of Star Wars and video games in general. There is no shortage of characters to choose from, abilities and weapons to wield, allies to meet, ships to fly, or enemies to defeat in this universe. An open world game would be the perfect opportunity to put many of these things on display and let the player run wild through the galaxy and push the limits of their imagination.
This has always been a tenant of George Lucas, to try new things and let one's imagination run wild in a galaxy far, far away. According to an interview withThe Star Wars Show, Dave Filoni has expressed that his favorite episodes of The Clone Wars (a show he co-created with George Lucas) were when they were writing stories and introducing ideas and concepts that were different from the movies, saying that doing something different in the universe that had never been done before "felt like Star Wars." Look no further thanThe Clone Wars episode "A Sunny Day in the Void"as a perfect example of George Lucas askingWhat If?This episode features a diminutive alien (a Zilkin) by the name of Colonel Meebur Gascon, who leads a squad of droids, including R2-D2, on a secret mission for the Republic. Lucas had a vision of a stark white void in which the droids were free to question their roles in the war, the Republic, and even their own existence. In the words of Dave Filoni, "Who in the world would make that?"
With a creative and daring story team, Ubisoft has an opportunity to create a unique part of Star Wars lore. As with Jedi: Fallen Order and the Battlefront II campaign, Ubisoft's game will be considered canon. Allowing the player to traverse through a unique story, potentially outside of the well traversed timeframe of the Skywalker saga, could be a huge benefit to this game. Part of what made The Old Republic so popular was that it was the setting of several extremely well-received games. With numerous new stories being told on Disney+ and in the High Republic era with novels and comics, Lucasfilm has every opportunity to expand their stories into video games as well. Video games have stepped up their storytelling in recent years with games like The Last of Us having profound impacts on players long after the credits roll.
As Ubisoft continues development on their Star Wars game, the first studio besides EA to work on such a title in a decade, fans will continue to add to their wish lists and hype for the game. With their production of games such as Assassin's Creed and Tom Clancy-inspired titles, both action heavy and story driven, Ubisoft is hopefully up to the task. Fans likely have quite a while to wait to have their questions about the game answered while the studio develops what will hopefully be a Game of the Year-quality game.