To this end, IGN was recently invited to visit George Lucas' game studio, LucasArts, to view its progress on the latest Star Wars game - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Announced back at E3 2006 and further elaborated on during Activison's 'Activate' event in Sydney shortly thereafter, The Force Unleashed is part of LucasArts' brave new foray into several new technologies, and we've had our fingers crossed since our first glimpses of the game that it will represent a bold new vision for the Star Wars license.
Now it's time to blow the lid off this puppy, as we dive straight into the details, courtesy of Hayden Blackman, Project Lead on Unleashed. His enthusiasm for the Star Wars series has placed him at the top of a tower of LucasArts talent that actively sought out George Lucas' blessing to create the next fully-fledged chapter in the series.
Speaking with Hayden, he emphasised that the release of The Force Unleashed would be hailed as "the next big thing" by Star Wars fans worldwide. "This is the next chapter in the Star Wars saga," Blackman enthused. "The next story. The next event."
This kind of responsibility meant that LucasArts wouldn't be tackling this endeavour alone. "In order to realise that vision, of creating that next chapter, we've had to work very closely with George Lucas. All the characters and some of the key story moments - even some of the core technology behind the gameplay concepts, were all developed in collaboration with George."
The story, too, was chiselled out with heavy involvement from Lucas. Blackman explained that the story revolves around "redemption" - though, specifically what kind of redemption is yet to be unveiled.
The lead character, an as-yet unnamed, young go-getter, has been sought out and trained by Darth Vader himself in the years following the end of Episode III. The young man has a knack for the Force and a dark slant to his attitude - making for a less-than-typical lead character for a Star Wars title.
The plot thread follows Vader's hopes to bump off anyone standing between him and his rightful place on the cushy throne as supreme ruler of the universe. As his apprentice, the player is a tool to be used to exert Vader's commands. You'll act as an agent for the dark side, bumping off the remaining Jedi and unleashing hell with the Force. In the process, you'll take advantage of four core powers - Force grip, lightning, push and repulse. Our understanding is that the more you combine and experiment with these powers, the more experience you'll receive and the stronger they become.
Several characters were revealed to us during our visit, and their casting has been partially confirmed. Juno Eclipse, the obligatory leggy blond love interest, is an imperial pilot in charge of ferrying you from place to place on your private cruiser. There's the requisite hominoid droid whose name has yet to be announced; Shaak-Ti, a Togruta warrior; and Maris Brood, a positively sexy Zabrak female packing dual lightsabers with tonfa-shaped handles.
General Kota, on the other hand, is a more traditional Jedi. By rank, he is a General; he wields a blue lightsaber and his combat style has been likened to that of a samurai. A talented stage actor will play this role, but as of now, LucasArts hasn't confirmed his identity.
Gamers looking for a straight-up, good-versus-evil experience can expect a darker, more violent and aggressive slant during the game. The missions themselves seem to revolve around complete annihilation of anybody who stands in your way, as well as any Imperial stormtroopers (who are technically your allies) who might stand as witnesses to your covert schemes.
Part of establishing that vision meant developing and sticking to a core mantra - something that would sum up the experience for players and enthusiasts of the series. As Blackman explained, "The experience is all about 'The Force unleashed'. What does this mean? It's not just about using Force push to knock over a stormtrooper or a couple of droids. It's about hitting that stormtrooper like he's been hit by a cannonball - sending him backwards and thrashing through columns and breaking glass and denting metal."
For Australians, it is encouraging to note that Queensland-based developer, Krome Studios, is handling the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable versions of the game. Says Blackman, "We're so proud of what Krome has done with the PS2 version. They've managed to squeeze every last drop of power out of that system. Even next to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version, it looks great."
That said, it's going to be the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game that lead the charge. These are being developed using the same base tools that George Lucas' special effects house, Industrial Light & Magic, use for films. Their collaboration with ILM also stretches to the knowledge-base that both teams are now able to freely share - further blurring the lines between game and film creation.
Part of bridging the gap between games and film meant adopting two revolutionary technologies - 'Digital Molecular Matter' or DMM, and 'euphoria'.
DMM, created by Pixelux, simulates the physical properties of real-world materials, such as wood, metal, jelly, flesh and glass down to a molecular level. In real terms, the effect is that planks of wood strain and splinter with impressively natural response, and metal can be dented, warped and bent realistically. "No two impacts will ever produce the same result," Blackman claimed; the literally-groundbreaking technology is exclusive to LucasArts until 2008.
The second technology, 'euphoria', by NaturalMotion, allows characters in the game to automatically take their surroundings into strategic, reactive consideration. If the room shakes and tilts, the character will shift his or her footing and centre-of-gravity. Likewise, if the player hurtles a DMM-fused object at the character, they will do their best to deflect or dodge the assault. If they fail to do so, they react to the impact as naturally as any human being would - falling over, clinging to ledges and exercising amazing self-preservation skills.
To demonstrate the capabilities of these two new tech innovations, two levels were demonstrated, as well as several test areas. Though early, the levels gave a good proof-of-concept demonstration of how the final game should come together.
DMM has the potential to reshape how game levels are designed, how players progress through them, and how AI takes advantage of the world around it. Consider this: You've been locked inside a trash compactor, the walls slowly creeping in; debris is everywhere, as is some sort of tentacled beast that is dwelling in the half a foot of water pooled around your knees. Time is running out, and all you have is your lightsaber. It's time to go nuts. Imagine cutting your way out of this situation. Heck, scrap that. Perhaps you should use the Force to pull and push objects around to wedge the walls open. Except, of course, that every piece of debris - boxes, steel bars, planks of wood, stormtrooper helmets - has a virtual density, and some will make stronger braces than others. Compelling? You bet.
Then, expand that idea. Put yourself on a Star Destroyer, where every wall can be sliced through, suspension bridges severed, doors blown out and enemies sucked through holes in the hull into the vacuum of space. Now that is Star Wars gameplay.
We've seen two levels of the game so far - both filled with placeholder enemies lacking anything approaching sophisticated AI, and still very early in layout. The first, seen prior to our meeting with Blackman, took place on Felucia - the fungal bloom planet. From what we could gather from the early build, only a handful of the world objects had true DMM properties applied.
Felucia featured enormous toadstools and towering alien foliage sprouting out of the yellow, mossy ground cover. Most of the enemies and buildings were placeholders, merely incorporated to test out the level design. However, with the inclusion of DMM-enabled objects and euphoria-enabled 'troopers positioned throughout the world, we were given a taste of the simulated physics. All of this, as Blackman explained, is about giving players "really, really dramatic payoffs for using the Force creatively." Unleashing the Force should be impressive and above all, fun.
The apprentice was able to lift and hurl stormtroopers around with ease. Flinging the hapless grunts into large, rubbery mushrooms and fronds resulted in wobbly, jelly-like reactions to the impact , just as one might imagine from a giant fungal growth. Alien planet realism, baby! That said, the action seemed a little stock-standard at this early stage. Putting aside the fact that the interface hasn't been implemented yet, and that the enemy AI is merely placeholder, we couldn't shake the feeling that the environment didn't seem to provide the depth and potential for damage and manipulation that early pre-visualisations hinted at.
Thankfully, the second level was a vastly superior showcase for DMM. Taking place on a space-based TIE fighter construction plant, possibly as a training level, the improvements were striking and immediate. The apprentice, under instruction from Vader to wipe out the rebel infestation aboard the ship (while leaving no Empire witnesses), is planted on a metal bridge suspended around the perimeter of the room. Across the other side, part of the metalwork was already severely tweaked, arcing down towards the ground. Under a rain of blaster fire, the apprentice began his path of destruction.
Automatically deflecting fire with his lightsaber, held in reverse behind his arm, he was able to Force Lift the rebel scum, sending them hurtling over edges and into walls and steel handrail, all of which dented and warped in a very lifelike manner. Launching his lightsaber across the room, he was able to knock one of the suspended platforms down, causing the euphoria-active AI troops to scramble and cling for their lives, before eventually losing grip and taking the plunge.
All the while, in the centre of the warehouse, a vertical conveyor belt lifted TIE fighters through the room. These were plucked off the line and tossed around like baseballs; the wings denting and hull crumpling with impressive effect.
Later, after blowing out the doors with a tremendous Force push, making his way through corridors and out to a massive open-plan bridge, the apprentice demonstrated several other impressive abilities, including gravity defiance and Force Lightning. Impressively, TIE fighters swooped and spun through the void and could be plucked from the air to be used for the apprentice's devices, or objects and enemies could be hurtled into them with spectacular result.
One area of concern is the lack of lightsaber interactivity. Blackman assured us that his team is working on this, and he'd seen some gameplay of cables being sliced through just that morning. However, it was worrying that The Force Unleashed seems to leash you in many ways that fans won't like to hear.
Walls, doors and boundaries of that nature cannot be sliced into or through with your lightsaber. At this stage, we were told that the idea of creating fully-destructible levels created too many headaches for level designers, and the idea of people throwing stuff around with the Force was much more appealing anyhow. Fair enough, but we've got to tell you, as fans ourselves, there's nothing we'd like to do more than jam our lightsabers into a steel barrier too thick to be Force pushed and cut a red-hot, molten passage through it. Remember the opening scenes of the much maligned Episode One? That's what we're talking about. And that's what DMM should be providing.
In all likelihood, the LucasArts team is all over these issues. They're gamers as much as game developers, after all. Levels like the dense forest world of Kashyyyk and the scrapyard planet Raxus Prime will undoubtedly provide innumerable opportunities for the DMM technology to flex its muscles. After all, there aren't many wooden doors and brick walls on Super Star Destroyers.
While DMM has a few teething problems, euphoria, on the other hand, is impressive from the outset. Like DMM, the proof-of-concept areas were a little more impressive and exaggerated than in-game, but we imagine that, as developers become comfortable with the idea of independent, reactive AI, increasingly clever level design will take better advantage of the features.
We were led through an open test area where an AI character could be made to run at the camera. While pursuing us to no avail, boxes were hurled at him, which he deflected, ducked, dodged and occasionally got clocked by. What was impressive about this demonstration was the fact that all of the character's reactions, outside of his constant running, were entirely unscripted, natural reactions to his situation. If a box was hurled at head-height, he might choose to knock it up and over himself. If it was at waist height, he might weave around it, or slap it to the side. Placed in an actual game level, it makes for characters that don't have to be animated to react to return-fire, know when to jump over obstacles, can cling to ledges, and impressively, can keep their footing and balance naturally if the ground becomes unsettled.
In some ways, we're even more excited by the potential in euphoria than by DMM - particularly if LucasArts choose to pursue a very controlled, sparingly-implemented application of the technology.
When it comes down to it, DMM won't drastically change the way we play games unless the developer chooses to allow it to. If molecular matter is only inherent in some objects and not others, then there's a danger that it will be seen as a fancy effect in a world that still has arbitrary rules. In other words, the player is still leashed. The euphoria tech, on the other hand, can be implemented smoothly across all NPCs, bringing a new level of realism and physicality to motion that will be both subtle and impressive.
Coupling DMM and euphoria with LucasArts' two major licences, Star Wars and Indiana Jones, is a wise partnership. Both will allow for different aspects of the technology to be demonstrated. Our guess is that material properties, such as wooden beams splintering and brick walls crumbling might find better implementation in Indiana Jones, whereas metal denting, warping and bending, rubbery plants and wires might be more suited to colliding spaceships and duelling Force Users. Either way, there's a stack of potential in utilising both of these new technologies in The Force Unleashed - for both gameplay and cinematic effect. We'd be very surprised if the game isn't extremely impressive by the time release rolls around. Let's just hope that George Lucas, Hayden Blackman and their team stick to their mantra and truly let gamers unleash the Force.
Check out our interview with Project Lead, Hayden Blackman, here!