A Reddit user shares details of a newly uncovered build of Star Wars Battlefront 3, offering further insight into the doomed project helmed by Free Radical Design.
Last November, EA released the new Star Wars Battlefront to a largely positive response — but many players expecting a true follow-up to previous Battlefront games were disappointed. Now, we've been given a look at what could have been had the Free Radical Design version of Star Wars Battlefront III seen release.
A thread posted to Reddit earlier today offered up the biggest playable chunk of the game that's been made available thus far. Given that this content was being distributed without authorization, links to the code have now been removed — but those files are certainly obtainable.
However, actually playing the portion of the game that's been released might be a little bit more difficult. The game build is only playable on Xbox 360 development kits, test kits, XNA kits, or systems modded with RGLoader — it's being reported that popular Xbox 360 emulator Xenia is also unable to run the code.
It should also be noted that this is far from a full game. It's been alleged repeatedly that Battlefront III was nearing completion when the project was cancelled, but it seems very clear that if that was the case, the build that's being shared today wasn't from the final stages of development.
That's not to say that there's nothing of note on show, as it's a fascinating glimpse into what could have been — and many fans of the series would likely have been satisfied with several elements of the project. At least on a superficial level, it certainly looks to have a lot more in common with Battlefront II than EA's take on the franchise.
Perhaps not unexpectedly, there's a large amount of prequel-era content present in terms of outfits, vehicles, and character types players can select from. This is directly opposed to EA and DICE's strategy of focussing solely on the original trilogy, even in favour of the hugely successful The Force Awakens.
DICE certainly did everything possible to create a faithful Star Wars experience, but the studio was never going to please the most rabid fans of previous Battlefront games. Battlefront III has always been something of a curiosity for fans, so seeing some more of what it might have turned out like will hopefully lend some closure.
It remains to be seen whether future Battlefront titles might change their tact and more closely resemble previous instalments. While early predictions spelled doom for the financial performance of last year's release, more recent data seems to suggest that it met EA's expectations.
Star Wars Battlefront is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
Source: VG247