When I heard that Quantic Dream is making a Star Wars game, I felt like I did when I learned my hometown Swindon was twinned with Disney World: you can expect Disney to Google some content first.
However, last night at Game Award we all get our first look at Star Wars Eclipse in the form of a cinematic trailer. And let’s be honest: that trailer is cracking. It’s really good. And it’s so good that I think we all need to remember that there’s absolutely no way QD didn’t kick this off spectacularly.
Like, credit is due. That trailer was epic. The pounding drums, the bustling alien market, the asteroid fields, the ship, the fighting jedi… it’s all about shouting “Star Wars!” but “great too!”. I enjoyed it and watched it several times in a row. But all must remember that after the scream died there was a faint whisper, “David Cage has something to do with this somewhere.” Imagine his joy when he is allowed to work with an IP that has a choice between evil and good embedded in it.
Because creating eye-catching games has never been a problem for Quantic Dream! Watch Bryan Decart lick robot blood in Detroit, and be amazed! Then remember the rest of the content Detroit, and increasingly interested. And let me be clear: I absolutely love the game Quantic Dream. They are very adept at making games that play well and look good as they play.
And this Eclipse is going to be a story-heavy game, right? QD doesn’t make fighting games, so you won’t really present a jedi like in KOTOR (although, on the Star Wars Eclipse Bingo Card itself writes, a square will definitely have “QTE lightsaber battle” on it). Follow official website, Eclipse is set in the era of the High Republic, and I’m told it will “build on Quantic Dream’s expertise in delivering deeply branching stories”, with a focus on player choice influence the story. So that sounds like the most recent QD games, right.
But those are the worst QD games, right? The problem with Quantic Dream’s games, especially recent ones, is that they – and I say this with all the love my heart can muster – are horrible, no good with Some of the worst, easiest articles you’ll ever experience in the medium of video games. Detroit is a game where a cyborg character being tortured by a human goes back to the camera and says “who’s the real monster?!” out loud. I will never stop talking about how bad the writing on Detroit is. Remember how you can give your group of politically active robots the tagline “I have a dream,” but Cage insists the game is only about android? Or, as my friend Chris texted me this morning: “I want R2D2 to do a heartfelt speech about race”.
So don’t be fooled. It doesn’t matter that this is a Star Wars game. It doesn’t matter that the trailer is cut really well. This game is going to be absurd and horrible, unless someone gains creative control from David Cage the same way you gently took a mouse out of Lennie Small. If Eclipse comes out and doesn’t have a Twi’lek woman taking a shower then I believe it’s just because someone at Quantic Dream saw this post and said, “Oh my, we have to shoot the shower scene if no she’ll post about how she’s totally right about the shower scene.”
Look, I’m not trying to be Scrooge. This game will look amazing. I really would like it turns out to be good in other ways. If so, I’ll come back here and eat all the crows you want. But it would be less emotionally damaging for all of us if we accepted, right now, that the Star Wars Eclipse would go awry.
