Star Wars Eclipse

 That went from 100 to 0 real quick.

Okay so I usually know what I'm in for when it comes to a game reveal, I can typically identify what the game is or what it's about within the first frame of footage and from there I've pretty much made up my mind with expectations: am I more likely to be happy or is this trailer going to have to put the work on me? I'm signalling out myself but the truth is that we all operate with this level of informed instant judging that makes our situational awareness so rapid. So rare it is, then, for a game reveal to not only keep me guessing as to what it is, but take me on a rollercoaster of emotions from the highs to the bittermost lows. I feel like I'd been through my very own anime arc when I was on the otherside of this trailer and I've just got to convey a bit of that journey with you today.

So it started with the reveal of the Lucasfilm games logo and my knee jerk reaction was that we were finally seeing that Indiana Jones game that Bethesda is said to be working on. Of course, in hindsight that's a ludicrous expectation what with their efforts split between Redfall, Starfield, TES VI and post release support for Deathloop, but that was where my head was at. And I wasn't at all shaken by the scenes of shirtless men pounding on suspended metal dishes with a drone groan to compete with the clarion call of the Sardaukar. Heck, that ain't so out of ordinary for Indi, The Temple of Doom had stuff like that going on. But then we saw a busy market street with Duros wondering around and I figured that this might actually be something else instead. Fair enough, but that was my mildest emotional twist.

Because the thing about this trailer, and I've watched a few times since to make sure that I wasn't giving it an unfair shake; there's no story to it. And I'm sure someone out there is going 'duh, it's not a story trailer', but to them I'd say that you might be misunderstanding me. When planning out a video of any sort, a trailer is no exception, you make a storyboard in order to inform which scenes go where, how they might look, that sort of thing. This just naturally makes it so that there's some flow, even if not a traditional narrative, to most trailers; every scene has a purpose, usually to get you hyped and involved in the trailer and to move from quickly digestible action sequence to another so that everyone can keep up and have some understanding of what sort of experience they're being sold. But somehow this trailer had none of that. Scenes just happened. Yoda in the throneroom, some Jedi with lightsabers, more Jedi but they're fighting this time, now a space battle, back to the bald guys, or look there's an eclipse happening. It felt more like a pitch for a potential Star Wars game than a trailer for a specific game.

And of course, that left me totally clueless. Heck, for a moment I even thought that this is a first look at that KOTOR remake which is being made, despite knowing that story back to front and not seeing anything familiar here. I mean there was the Jedi council in Courasant, but then there was a yellow saber, (much more typically scene in the Old Republic era) nothing was adding up. Maybe it was Fallen Order 2? Nah, Yoad wouldn't be in that! Some wild thought even considered that this might be the announcement of KOTOR 3 that we never thought would happen, but alas we were short-changed. I spent the entire trailer totally lost and bewildered, especially since the recognisable Star Wars visuals seems era-confused with bits from everywhere being haphazardly thrown together. And then we saw the title; Star Wars Eclipse. Oh, a brand new Star Wars game! Well I always love to see this universe in a new l- by Quantic Dream?- well that goes all of that optimism.

I know that sounds sudden, but this is a David Cage game now. Nothing can save it. For years Cage has been this loveable goofable that just wanted to marry together the disparate areas of video games and movies. Oh, not in a revolutionary way that pushes forward both mediums, but in a gimmicky way where 'your actions have (typically limited) consequences' and all the characters are rendered in as uncanny valley as current tech can manage. I mean I hold no ill will to that sort of game, I like a few of them quite a bit in fact, but then Cage started to take himself a little too seriously. Somewhere between 'Beyond Two Souls' and 'Detroit: Become Human' he adopted that surliness that all 'artists' get when they see themselves as better than their piers, and thus he developed this perception that traditional games were 'backwards' or 'unevolved'. Just read his thought back in 2013 where he claimed games need to 'grow up', or 2012 where he called for an 'Apocalypse now' type shooter. (In his defence, 'Spec Ops The line' only came out a couple of months beforehand, so he was just behind the immediate times when he made those comments.) He's a guy with a high opinion of himself.

Which led to him making 'Detroit: Become Human', a paradigm to race relations in America where black people are replaced with slave robots- wait what? Yeah, Cage has tried to back pedal and claim that he wasn't trying to say anything whatsoever with his premise, despite railing other games for years because they didn't have enough to say, but his work speaks for itself. The analogies are deliberate and obvious, and they are as ham fisted and cheesy as you might expect. It was brave, in a way. I wouldn't even dream of writing that story and I've actually grown up in and around at least one black community all my life, so kudos to this French musician for at least making the attempt, but maybe he should take proper account for his glass house the next time he's planning to go brick juggling. Oh, and that's beside the fact that Detroit's premise was as trite as this setup could have possibly been, at key times narratively incompetent and is held up by the performances of it's actors. Who all did fantastic, by the way, I have nothing against them. Just David. And any game he touches from now on. Like Star Wars Eclipse. Yikes.

Still, I took solace in the fact that David isn't going to swing above his weight with a story anytime soon (or at least, not so soon) and kind of grew attached to the idea of a narrative based Star Wars game with AAA quality graphics and presentation. The story doesn't need to be great, we're talking about a Star Wars story, it just needs to feel fun and immersive. But that new hope lasted all of 15 seconds before Geoff Keighley took the top belt in order to successfully power bomb all dreams I might of had about this project into the dirt. It's setting has been announced to be during the High Republic. Eww. Disney's personal little vanity project for Star Wars. Guess that explains why the visuals seem like an unsteady tightrope between Old Republic and Clone Wars stuff, no one really came out to create a solid vision for this era, huh. I'm very much yet-to-be-sold on this era, and it's been putting out content for nearly a year now so that's not a good sign.

So Star Wars Eclipse is certainly not landing on my 'most anticipated' list anytime soon, although I am glad that more stuff is being done with the Star Wars licence and that studios outside of EA's backyard stable are jumping aboard the ride. Whilst personally I yearn for the more action oriented Star Wars titles with their great combat, exploration and replayability, I'm sure that this game might be good for watching a playthrough off at the very least. As far as 'bringing new sorts of games to the Star Wars universe' goes, I guess this scores some vague points for trail blazing, although a solid RTS would have been just as appreciated. Oh, or a Turn based strategy game! OH, or a Persona-like! (Okay, I've got a problem.)