A really neat idea has been tossed around between Graev and I over the past couple of days about Star Wars game that could be made by Rockstar Games. Rockstar made the Grand Theft Auto series as well as Red Dead Redemption and really created a new type of genre of open-world sandbox gameplay. I’ve been going back and forth about what the premise of the game would be and I’ve decided that, given Rockstar’s modus operandi, having the character be a smuggler or shady character at the start would be best. The game would be set in the time right around the Clone Wars or at least some time period when Coruscant, Tatooine, and other planets had a ton of flavor to them and the galaxy was less structured and divided.
Starting off as a Smuggler or shady character you could take jobs from characters and evolve a story that had you going and choosing between pure villain and perhaps ultimately working up to a more respectable hero. Think about all the types of activities that you can do in GTA/RDR/Saints Row type games — exploring, fighting, all sorts of mini-games, customization, etc. Since it’s Star Wars, you would be able to leave a planet and fly out in a space ship (once you were able to afford one of course) and fly to other planets which you could fly down to and have several cities on. Imagine starting on some planet like Tatooine as thug and do odd jobs for The Hutts. Other factions could offer you jobs and you could even do pod racing to earn credits. The possibilities really are close to endless with Star Wars. When you have the cash you can get a clunker of a ship and start doing smuggling runs as well as be capable of flying to other planets like Coruscant.
Along the way your story could have you crossing paths with familiar story arcs for an added cool factor. The end result could be you earning a place among the top thieves and villains, owning your own ‘hive of scum and villainy’ (or multiple ones), having a fleet of star ships, ousting a Hutt and taking over, or cleaning up the crime and helping to fight back and preserve peace and even work with the Jedi order to police the galaxy. There’s so much that Star Wars can lend to this type of game that it might even be too much.
Star Wars a la GTA. That’s something I would play.
Totally agree. Would love to play a GTA style SW game. If they throw in some nice roleplay and have difference classes etc then I’d be sold.
The only downside I can see is that most GTA games tend to be quite adult and that’s contrary to the SW universe. I can’t really imagine LucasArts allowing players to hi-jack a speeder and zoom around, mowing people down 😛
Fantastic idea! I wonder what other themes would fit the GTA platform…
Here are a few if my suggestions:
1) Lord of the Rings — pretty easy to visualize the combination of the two. I’d love to hijack an oliphant!
2) Super Mario Bros. / Kart — oh, this would just be too perfect!
3) Harry Potter — brooms instead of cars?
LotR I think, yes, would be a good universe for an open world sandbox game.
I don’t think I can agree with Harry Potter though, it doesn’t seem to lend itself to non-structured gameplay.
Super Mario… hm, I’m thinking the same problems with Harry Potter would apply.
Oh, but Harry Potter DOES lend itself to unstructured gameplay, more so than many other settings. In the right hands it could be the Red Dead Redemption of licensed games.
I wish I could remember where the article was, but I read a suggestion that the Harry Potter games be recast in the mold of Bully. Seriously, think how freaking awesome it would be if Hogwarts was the open world. Go to class and level up your magic skills or romance the girls or play quidditch, all the while being involved in a storyline that has you unmasking a Deatheater or something. I honestly want someone to convince JK Rowling to just write the plot and have veto power over what content she didn’t design, and then she can just watch her bank account grow to even more astronomical proportions.
Epic win.
I think the Rockstar model would suit a Firefly/Serenity universe better than StarWars.
Of course it would be almost exactly the same game and story, but Firefly suits a grey morality better than Star Wars.
This also sounds a lot like.. Mechwarrior? The original one that had you able to go to any planet and build your rep while still semi-following a story line. THAT would be a 21st century remake I’d play in a heartbeat.
It’s called masseffect 😛
@Mcface: Not anywhere near the GTA style. Mass Effect is closer to the store’s generic sci-fi brand of KotoR than it is GTA.
I think the original Star Wars trilogy would fit with a Rockstar game pretty well. I mean, Han Solo and Chewbacca were both criminals.
Anyone remember “Car Wars” by Steve Jackson games? Now that’d suit the ambiguous morality of your standard Rockstar game quite nicely. I remember playing the “Autoduel” PC game back in the day and it had a very open-world feel.
No, I’m sick of the star wars IP. New game or not they need to shelve it for a few years after TOR because it’s becoming stale and convoluted.
Bully type game in Harry Poter world would be hilarious
Do you seriously think that Lucas would allow anyone to “defame” his belowed brainchild of a.. a… a…
Well, “Greedo shoot first”, start your thinking here. Same goes for Potter.
I agree with Mesar in #6 that Firefly (no Serenity crap pls) would suit much much much better for any Rockstar game – and Whedon probably wouldn’t mind it either.
i was reading this and thinking “wow this is stupid” then i keeped thinking about it more and more and now i want to play GTCoruscant >_>
I always thought Shadowrun (old Genesis game based on a PnP RPG) would have made an awesome GTA-like game. Its core gameplay revolved around doing “runs” (missions) for various Mr.Johnsons (shady mission givers). Sometimes you’d be gunning down thugs, sometimes you’re breaking into a building to steal some documents or “rescue” an employee being held captive. You could even “hack” security systems to turn off alarms, steal data that you could sell to a fence, etc. All the while you were unraveling the mystery of your brother’s death. Pretty cool game, a GTA-style reboot would be awesome. A weird fighting game based on the IP was released not that long ago. It failed miserably and probably killed any chance of the game that should have been made ever being realized.
Great idea, Keen! I’m not a huge fan of the Star Wars milieu but that would be hella fun! I would certainly play it. (And Firefly would be an awesome setting as well!)