2018

What Star Wars Games Are Missing

stargrace September 9, 2018 No Comments

There have been a ton of Star Wars games over the years. Even now, in fact, there’s a great variety in gaming. Battlefront is effectively a modern shooter built into the Star Wars universe, and in the mobile category you can find in-depth Star Wars RPGs that more or less allow you to play through that universe at your own pace. And those are just a few examples. As strong as Star Wars gaming has been over the years though, it still feels like we’ve never quite landed on the perfect game – a console/PC experience that turns the entirety of the Star Wars saga into a playable adventure, with tie-ins to the film and free will alike. It’s an ambitious idea, but one that is perfectly achievable in modern gaming.

I’d never take it upon myself to be able to design a full blueprint for a game like this. But I can speak to some of the things Star Wars games have mostly been missing….

Sith Control

This is not a suggestion that you can never control a Sith in a Star Wars game. That’s far from the case, and in fact you can even play as Darth Vader in the Battlefront games. However, a full tale either going through a Sith’s extended story or digging into the background of a character (given that the Sith lords are usually somewhat scant on backstory) would be new. There was an Arkham Asylum-like game in the works called Battle Of The Sith Lords that one article listed as one of the most exciting Star Wars games to have been canceled, and it was going to dig into Darth Maul’s background. As a whole game that might be somewhat limiting, but the option to play a story like this, among others, could be a lot of fun.

Side Games

When you think about it, the Star Wars saga is full of little side games and challenges that could be tons of fun as bonuses in a bigger video game. There’s the lightsaber training when Luke Skywalker is catching and deflecting laser bursts from a tiny floating device. There’s the pod racing from Episode I. Casino content is also beginning to be prevalent in Star Wars, from the Mos Eisley Cantina to the Canto Bight casino from Episode VIII. Any or all of these games would be very cool side activities within a broad adventure game.

Full Narrative

Lots of Star Wars games have promised something along the lines of being able to play your way up from a nobody in the galaxy to a key player in the war and rebellion. And sometimes, they just about deliver on the promise. But in a vague sort of way there really hasn’t been a game that you felt like you could take all the way through, either as an established character or as one you created following alongside the story. A full narrative adventure would take us through Star Wars like nothing else ever has.

Incorporated Lightsaber Play

Thanks to virtual reality, there are examples of lightsaber play in the category of Star Wars gaming, and it’s far more sophisticated than anything that came before. Lightsaber combat is something most ordinary games just can’t quite get right, and the chance to integrate VR or AR play within a bigger console game could just be the key to perfection.