What the heck is Star Wars: Hunters?

 That's not a hypothetical. Literally: What is this game?

Oh, what a wonderous and magical time it is to be a Star Wars fan! We're being treated to the greatest game ever made in our subgenre, again, and our near future will be graced with a sequel to the surprisingly solid Jedi: Fallen Order, that is confirmed to be in the works. And what's this? I'm hearing that there is another game which recently got a trailer? Huh? I'm hearing that this isn't even an announcement, but an expansion upon a game that was revealed all the way back in February? That doesn't sound right... I don't know any Star Wars game that was kicking around from back then. Let me look up a little bit about his... hmm, it's called 'Hunters', kay, it's coming 2022, kay, and it's for the Nintendo Switch? Like- only on the Switch? No, wait it's coming to Mobile as we- oh, for the love of the force. Is this more licenced mobile trash which is getting ported to the Switch in order to feign legitimacy? (Damn it, Lucasarts, you were doing so well!)

I admit to being a bit sceptical when I first saw the trailer for 'Star Wars: Hunters' swipe across my holofeed, but that has abated slightly after watching the footage. Now it's replaced my genuine confusion, because I have no idea what this game is. Taking place on a planet that looks exactly like Mos Eisley on Tatooine but I'm assured is not, the trailer is a purely cinematic animated affair showcasing a whole slew of brand new unique characters doing nothing more than trying to kill each other whilst showing off their 'stark personalities'. And the problems, as a Star Wars fan, start there; because I can't even identify what era any of this is meant to be in. You've got a Sith lady and a Wookie warrior, which implies Old Republic stuff. (or maybe 'High Republic', I don't know I haven't read any of it) But then you've got some small dude riding around in a Droideka, which is solidly Clone Wars, and then a Stormtrooper, which is Galactic Civil war. I know that to a non-fan it must sound like I'm picking through straws in search of a needle but I'm just trying to convey how confused and non-informative every inch of this trailer was. (I now know it's meant to be set after episode 6, but that was not made clear from the footage at all)

A problem not at all helped by the fact that there was no Gameplay. Something that is totally groan-worthy when we're talking about a proper console or PC game just kicking off it's marketing cycle, but when we're talking about a mobile game, it's downright suspicious. Too many times have Mobile games been fitted with utterly nonsensical or uninformative marketing material that is simply there to dazzle and lure the curious in. Sure, the danger isn't quite as ever-present when we're talking about a licenced Star Wars product, (Lucasarts aren't going to retexture Lily's Garden and feed that to us) but I still sense a set-up to a bait-and-switch and/or disappointment. At the very least, it contributes to keeping the true nature of this game utterly secret which seems bizarre considering the publisher went so far as to commission a decent quality CGI action-fest to achieve nothing more than what the twenty second title drop did a few months back.

And hanging back on that trailer a bit; it really is only average. Footage like this has but a single purpose achieved through a handful of digestible goals, to spark interest through excitement and wow moments, keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat, and dropping them in the narrative of the skit so that they aren't pondering how they're learning nothing about the real game. What we ended up with, however, is just an incredibly basic action narrative with no surprises up it's sleeve, no peril to it's sequences, no memorable 'wow' moments to linger with me and no significant creative passion behind it. The most creative element are the character designs which were probably shipped to this trailer studio to work with, they bought nothing but the bare minimum on their end. Compare this with another Star Wars trailer which was doing the exact same thing, (advertising a game through misleading cinematics that absolutely did not represent the gameplay itself) such as The Old Republic teasers, and there really is no comparison. One set of works had a heart inside of it, this one does not.

You might be looking at everything I've said thusfar and rightly point out: Wait a minute, you haven't spoken about the game yet. And you would be exactly right because I would love to focus on the actual building blocks of this title if they were at all clear to me. From the context clues of the trailer, colourful characters, fighting in an arena, working in teams, being broadcast, predictably squaring up on opposite ends of the screen at the end of the footage, one might deduce this is a MOBA. But a MOBA would surely court a cast of legacy and established characters to draw in crowds, not a team of contextually-confused newbies. Additionally, I feel like the Star Wars universe would make a bad fit for a MOBA, but then I suppose I would have felt the same about the Pokémon brand, and we all now know how wrong I would have been there.

But this is the sort of speculation I shouldn't need to be doing, because one of the key tenets of marketing is giving people a clue what it is that they're buying. How can you play upon their expectations and build a fort of false expectations if they have literally no foundation from which to lay the first bricks? Better question, why are companies now days finding it such an affront to tag a genre to their product?  ('The Wayward Realms' say hello) I've scoured the Internet and trying to pin down some idea of what this game is feels like detective work. One source calls it an 'arena game' (which I guess is snippet of a genre if you think about it), the official website says its third person (which is evidenced in the screenshots, but doesn't really explain what the gameplay is shaped up as) and the whole thing is definitely going to be free-to-play; (to make room for MTX) so is this their very own Overwatch-like game? (If not, then Battleborn proved it could very much still be a MOBA)

The team behind this enigma of a game, Zynga, also happen to be the monsters behind that mythical tragedy of game we call 'Farmville', which means that whatever this game ends up being it'll likely also be a vehicle for microtransactions and addictive loops. That first bullet point is at the very least a guarantee, the latter depends on how solid the game itself ends up once it's constructed. Oh, and before you start wondering if their morals as a company might guide them to respect the venerated Star Wars licence they've been granted and make something worthy of it; these guys created a Game of Thrones themed slot machine game... so don't hold your breath. This will be an arena game that slobbers after your wallet, that we know, the only variable is if they'll do enough to earn it. 

Since the EA stranglehold on Star Wars games has loosened, we're going to be getting more trash like this filling up the airwaves between the real marvels of gaming, as anyone with a half profitable-sounding idea is given the thumbs-up go ahead. But to be honest, I'd much rather be in this state of roulette regarding which new Star Wars project is good, then the dry expanse with years of 'Star-Wars-less' pining like we were in when EA held exclusivity. You've got to take the bad with the good, and the suspiciously obscured with the tantalisingly promising. But hey, maybe 'Star Wars: Hunters' is a really cool and unique idea, worthy of existence and opening up unexplored avenues of the Star Wars mythos, and the team have just decided to advertise none of that because their marketing team is actually insane. (Crazier things have happened, but I'm putting my expectations very low for now.)