Star Wars Battlefront has a tractor beam-like pull on the attention and anticipation of the gaming community right now, making it easy to forget that we’re due to get another Star Wars game sometime soon.
While EA also has its hands in this unnamed entry, the developer will not be DICE but rather Visceral Games, the maker of such beloved series such as Dead Space and Uncharted.
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Speaking of that last franchise, the game’s creative team let slip a few more details about what exactly this game will look like.
At this year’s Metrocon in Tampa, Florida, voice actor Nolan North spoke about the project and its current writer, Amy Hennig. North voices the character of Nathan Drake in the Uncharted video game series, a third-person action-adventure game with an Indiana Jones-like storyline.
Hennig was a writer for the franchise before she left its developer, Naughty Dog, and was hired by Visceral to pen the new Star Wars game. North confirmed that we’ll be able to see Uncharted’s influences in the new game:
"“If you’re a big fan of Amy Hennig and her style of story, she’s gone to EA and is going to reboot a brand new Star Wars franchise in the style of Uncharted. I happen to know a lot about it and it’s going to be awesome.”"
But he didn’t stop there. North also indicated that the new Star Wars video game was not the never-released Star Wars 1313 project, but it would be “along those same lines.”
We’ve already speculated previously about what this new Star Wars video game could be (rumors abound that it may focus on Han Solo.) But North’s comments offer the first real clue as to what the style of gameplay will be.
A screenshot from “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.”
The Uncharted series is essentially a lighter retread of the Tomb Raider video games, with plenty of action scenes and puzzles to solve while traversing through exotic settings. It’s not too dissimilar from games such as The Force Unleashed or Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, which both featured third-person gameplay and a story based on fulfilling objectives and missions.
The more interesting allusion is North’s reference to Star Wars 1313, one of the great what-ifs in the franchise. To quickly recap, 1313 was the unofficial title of a game being developed by LucasArts that was reportedly going to focus on Boba Fett and the seedy underworld of the universe. There’s some tantalizing concept art out there that really sold the game as a unique take on Star Wars at the time.
Not only that, but the focus on Fett would give players a refreshing turn as a bounty hunter rather than a Jedi for once in a Star Wars video game.
Check out a gameplay video from E3 2012:
But the project was all but scrapped when Disney bought the franchise and killed off LucasArts, denying fans one of the most anticipated games in recent memory.
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It appears that Visceral’s new game may carry on that legacy. It’s also rumored to be an open-world video game, although that hasn’t been confirmed or hinted at yet.
If all this is true, then EA and Visceral are heading in the right direction. A Star Wars adventure game with a grittier, mature outlook would be a perfect complement to the rampant destruction and playground feel of Battlefront. I’d be curious as to when the game would be set if it features already established characters like Boba Fett or Han Solo, and my guess would be between Episode III and IV.
Let’s hope the game’s developers have the courage to push the franchise in a darker, unexplored direction.