Why Star Wars’ Rumored Total War Adaptation is Exactly What the Series Needs
After a few barren years under EA, the Star Wars license is now seemingly open for other developers to experiment with, and a few exciting projects are already in the works. The long-delayed Star Wars: Hunters mobile and Switch exclusive is finally set to release in June, Ubisoft’s open-world adventure Star Wars Outlaws will launch in August, and a handful of other Star Wars video game projects are being quietly worked on in the background. If recent reports are to be believed, then Star Wars has even more irons in the fire than it’s let on.
Very recently, a report from DualShockers’ Kyle Knight claimed that developer Creative Assembly currently has three Total War video games in production, with one of those being a licensed Star Wars entry. While this report didn’t go into much detail, the concept of a Total War Star Wars game is exciting on its own and could end up being exactly the video game that Star Wars needs right now.
The Star Wars Franchise Needs a Total War Game
Star Wars Very Rarely Emphasizes The ‘War’ Half of Its Title
While almost every piece of Star Wars media is set amid some kind of galactic war, very few Star Wars projects have actually made their large-scale conflict the biggest focal point of the story or action. Instead, it’s often the case that these galactic wars are seen through the eyes of individuals or groups who perform smaller tasks in an attempt to assist the overall war effort.
But when Star Wars does fully lean into the grand scale of its galactic wars, it’s often resulted in some of the most memorable, and most beloved moments in franchise history. Though the original Star Wars trilogy mainly focuses on Luke, Han, Leia, and the rest of the Rebel crew trying to avoid the Empire, there are a few brief moments of all-out war, with A New Hope’s Death Star Trench Run, Empire Strikes Back’s Battle of Hoth, and Return of the Jedi’s Battle of Endor being the best examples. These sequences do their best to show the mighty force of the Empire, and the guerrilla tactics the Rebels are forced to employ to win.
Rogue One’s entire third act is probably the most the franchise has ever leaned into its titular concept, and it’s become the movie’s lasting legacy. The battle above and on Scarif’s surface essentially plays out like a classic war movie, with plenty of dogfights, heroic last stands, and big explosions.
Both animated Clone Wars shows have also done a good job of highlighting the scale of the franchise’s never-ending conflicts, often portraying them through the lens of loyal, seemingly expendable soldiers.
A Star Wars Total War Game Can Show The Scale of The Series’ Galactic Wars
Plenty of video games over the last few decades have tried to capture the epic scale of Star Wars’ galactic conflicts, but few have managed to really convey the sheer size and spectacle of war across the stars. 2006’s Empire at War and the Battlefront series are probably the closest Star Wars games have gotten to capturing the scale of its in-universe wars, with players being able to control large armies of on-foot infantry and vehicles as well as vast fleets of starships, conquering an entire galaxy of planets along the way.
It’s been a long time since Star Wars: Empire at War was released, and though it’s still a great game even by today’s standards, it’s time for a new Star Wars strategy game to use modern technology to show these galactic conflicts on a scale fans have never seen before. This rumored Total War Star Wars game could be exactly that. The Total War series is renowned for delivering expansive strategy experiences that often span entire continents, and sometimes even worlds. If any series can successfully depict Star Wars’ vast scale, it’s Total War.
