Star Wars
With Star Wars Battlefront II going into a story on the side of the Empire, the team for this new Star Wars goes into how they are going to make it exciting
It caught a lot of attentions when it was announced that Star Wars Battlefront II was going to be talking the story to the side of the Empire in the overall story by following along the exploits of Imperial Commander Iden Versio. I know it caught my attentions even though there are a lot of fans that wished DICE would just pump out another title in the vein of the established heroes in the universe. I'm sure that EA would have liked to go the safe route with Star Wars Battlefront II but I'm seeing it as something that will truly shine when it launches on November 17th for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. I have high hopes indeed.
That is why it excites me to see that the team has gone together and given us a better idea on the story behind Star Wars Battlefront II in both the multiplayer and single player aspects of the game. Granted, I am not completely inundated in all of the lore of the franchise, but I was always under the assumption of a few things in the franchise and it looks like that will be turned upside down and lead less hardcore fans to a better understanding of "the bad guys" in the universe. Maybe Star Wars Battlefront II will live up to the "heroes write the history" adage and show how the Empire could be a good thing. Kind of like our current political party system in the U.S. Maybe that is a bit much to hope for.
Star Wars Battlefront II — The Story Of An Imperial Soldier
Star Wars Battlefront II will chronicle the mysterious 30-year gap between Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi and Episode VII: The Force Awakens. How did that come about?
Steve Blank: We’re constantly talking with EA about the future of Star Wars in gaming, what that looks like and wanting to tell stories in that space… Motive pitched us a story that would span that time, from Return of the Jedi through to the events of The Force Awakens. Their writers, Walt Williams and Mitch Dyer, are really big Star Wars fans. They had done their homework.
In the leadup to The Force Awakens, we had started to develop a series of new stories that were starting to fill in some of that gap in time. These guys had read all of that material: Claudia Grave’s Lost Stars, Chuck Lendig’s Aftermath, Greg Rucka’s Shattered Empire, all these different pieces.
So when they came with their pitch, they had already integrated all those ideas we had started to put out into the world. So when they shared all of this with us, we were immediately on board. It was a fascinating prospect to do this in a game space, to tell these stories more visually. You get great visuals in a comic, but with the novels you don’t get a great visual element. It felt like a space rich to explore in a game.
Another great thing they included was to do it from an Imperial point of view. It hadn’t really been done before, at least not at that fidelity. So they sold us from day one on that idea, and we put our nose to the grindstone — working on all the details of what that would become.
To be honest, I always thought that the Empire in the Star Wars universe worked much as most believe that the Nazi worked with the propaganda and "brainwashing" to the beliefs. At least that was always my take, but it looks like my personal cannon will be altered here as DICE will explain that better as all of these characters and Commander Iden Versio have made the choice to join up and not forced into it at all. Interesting things indeed and now I'm actually super excited for Star Wars Battlefront II to launch after the minor let down I had with the previous title. I am a sucker for a good bad guy or villain group though so there is that too.
How do you feel about the story we are getting for Star Wars Battlefront II though? Do you think it will put players off not to be able to play the "good guy" side mainly or will it lead to more fun as it is something is generally not explored? Did you have the same preconceptions as I did about the Empire here or was it only me? Let us know and then discuss down in the comments. Hopefully there will be a lot more for Star Wars Battlefront II before launch and if there is, we will have it here. Stay tuned to the site here to be sure to be up to date on all of it.
