Ever since it was announced that Ubisoft and Massive would be helming an open-world game set in the Star Wars universe, there has been a ton of speculation as to just what exactly this game was going to be. Very little is known about the game, and fans are wondering when in the Star Wars timeline it’s going to be set, whether the game is going to be single-player or multiplayer, and a slew of other things.
One thing this new Star Wars game might do is borrow some aspects from other Ubisoft franchises. While there is some formula to most open-world Ubisoft games, each franchise does have its own intricacies that make it unique, and one title that this new Star Wars game should borrow from is a Ubisoft property that been around for quite a while: Assassin’s Creed.
One of the things that Ubisoft, especially the most recent entries in the Assassin’s Creed series, has done well is creating an open-world that has quite a bit of variety. There are wide stretches of land mostly untouched by people, bustling cities with a lot of nooks and crannies, and everything in-between. There’s so much variety to an Assassin’s Creed open-world that it keeps players interested despite the world’s massive size.
This should be a relatively simple thing to accomplish with a Star Wars video game, exponentially more so the more planets are included. If the game included Tatooine, for example, that immediately gives at least three or four different environment types: the populated areas, like Mos Eisley, where there would be clusters of buildings and plenty of people; There could be the sand dunes, which would be largely unpopulated and could see some more dangerous creatures pose threats; the rockier, vertical areas could see Tusken Raiders pose a threat, or an ally; and roaming palaces such as Jabba‘s, which could be found anywhere in between and house any number of unpleasantries. The more planets added, the more possibilities, especially if those planets differ drastically from each other, such as Coruscant, Kashyyyk, Bespin, and so on.
One thing the Assassin’s Creed franchise has adopted as it’s gone along is gameplay on a ship. (Not a spaceship, a boat, but still.) Some of the games have gone further with this than others; Black Flag, for example, had some ship combat that actually had quite a bit of depth to it while others have mostly just featured the ability to use a ship to get around, but either way, this is something that could translate very well in a Star Wars game.
Star Wars content, whether it be movies, comics, games, or shows, almost always feature space travel as a prominent part, because characters have to get from Point A to Point B when Point B is often on another planet entirely. As a result, excluding any kind of ship gameplay would be a little bit awkward. This could go a few different ways, ranging from full-on ship combat, where the player can get attacked and fight in space. Players might be able to customize and upgrade their ship, giving it more/different capabilities. It could also go more the Mass Effect Andromeda or Outer Worlds route, where the ship can be traversed and characters can interact in the ship, but it’s only function is being a pretty place to look at.
One thing that gives the worlds in Assassin’s Creed that little bit of extra weight is the fact the worlds are, in general, real. Creative license is definitely given here and there, but all in all, the construction of the world is coming from a historical context. Ubisoft does its research, and in doing so, it creates a world that is believable in execution and detail.
Star Wars is, obviously, a fictional reality, but that doesn’t mean Ubisoft and Massive can’t come at the game from the perspective of creating a living and breathing world that feels real. Little touches of lore or world-building can go a long way in making a world feel like a place that a player is visiting, as opposed to a world created for a player to play in, and that same approach should be taken for the Star Wars game.
The more recent entries into the Assassin’s Creed series have thrown decision-making into the mix, and it’s been a fun addition. Giving the player choices to make in the world makes the player feel a bit more ownership in the world, and keeps them a bit more invested in the story, as long as it’s shown that those choices have ramifications. While this could be difficult to pull off in the Star Wars universe, where details are meticulously handled and each entry builds off of the other, it could be pulled off if those decisions are things that only effect the characters in the game.
The most recent Assassin’s Creed games have had an absolutely huge list of targets to go after, and it can be immensely satisfying to tick each name off the list one by one. If players assume the role of a bounty hunter in the open-world Star Wars game, this is a very simple thing that could be a really fun addition. Give players the freedom to go after whichever target they want, whenever they want, and it’ll truly feel like there’s a galaxy that they get to explore, instead of like they’re on a guided tour.
Things could still be limited a bit so the game kept the player in certain boundaries until it wanted them to escape, by either giving the player high-level enemies that they need to level up in order to fight, or by revealing groups of targets over time, keeping the player pointed in the general direction that the game wants them in.
Ubisoft and Massive’s open-world Star Wars game is currently in development.
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