New Star Wars Game about a Mandalorian in Development
Respawn Entertainment can bring you in hot, or it can bring you in cold. According to an Insider Gaming exclusive, the video game developer behind Apex Legends, Titanfall, and the Star Wars Jedi games is working on a new Star Wars game focusing on a Mandalorian. The game takes place during the Empire’s conquest of the galaxy, so it’s not based on the Disney+ series (and, soon, movie) The Mandalorian. This appears to be the backdrop, however, with the goal being for the player to collect bounties on wanted criminals rather than participate in the war – unless the game takes a turn at some point. The gameplay will make use of the Mandalorian’s jetpack in focusing on “mobility” and “style,” with the game’s fast pace encouraging players to move quickly and kill their targets efficiently. The player’s health regenerates “based on successive kills,” and there will be plenty of weapons and gadgets with which to hunt down your prey. The currently untitled game is still in the very early stages of development and is at least “a year or two away.”
Making a Mandalorian Star Wars game makes sense, although I’m a bit surprised they didn’t make one based on The Mandalorian. Particularly considering how season 3 ended, you could have Mando traveling through space in the New Republic era with Baby Yoda, teaching him Mandalorian lore and how to be a bounty hunter. Power-ups or whatever could enable you to have Baby Yoda use his Force abilities to help you. Considering how big a marketing push was behind Baby Yoda, I’d figure that was a given. But maybe they realized the show’s popularity was starting to wane when they began work on this. Or maybe it’s Star Wars, and they love them some prequels. Whatever the case, this doesn’t sound like a half-bad idea, conceptually. Making it some random Mandalorian creates a blank slate, so you’re not saddled with any of the baggage that comes with Din Djarin. Depending on how far into the Empire’s consolidation of its power the game takes place, Boba Fett would have been a logical choice for the main character, but Disney ruined him, too. It’s probably best to start from scratch with a new Mandalorian. However, the period allows for some interesting tasks; maybe this guy is a true mercenary, pulling jobs for the Empire and the burgeoning Rebel Alliance, so one mission could be hunting down a suspected traitor to the Empire while another could be taking out an Imperial officer, or someone who supplies the Empire with weapons tech. I hope the game turns out well and this isn’t yet another disappointment with the Star Wars name attached to it.
