Recent years have seen a new renaissance of Star Wars content. Not only did fans receive a handful of new movies, new shows thanks to Disney+, and a new Star Wars section at Disneyland, but fans also got a handful of Star Wars video games from EA. Luckily for fans, Star Wars content seems far from slowing down, as more movies are just over the horizon and more companies have announced that they have Star Wars games in the works.
One such company is Ubisoft Massive, the developers known for The Division as well as the recently revealed Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Interestingly, it was revealed that it was because of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora that Disney trusted the studio to make its own Star Wars game. While it remains to be seen what Ubisoft Massive's Star Wars game will look like, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and the Star Wars project do share some common features. Namely, Ubisoft Massive has detailed both as open-world games that will be built using the Snowdrop engine.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's Big New Feature
Both games sharing the Snowdrop Engine could give fans some hints on what to expect from Ubisoft's Star Wars game. One big feature of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora that Ubisoft Massive has revealed is its reactive world, which it says is only possible because of the Snowdrop Engine. According to the developers, the feature affects nearly everything in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and sees the world and NPCs reacting to the player with a new level of detail and complexity. This means that animals will react realistically to their environments, with some plants reacting as well. This could lead to things like large animals stampeding through trees if they feel threatened, whereas calm creatures would carefully walk around the plants to not damage.
For NPCs the system aims to help them feel as realistic and immersive as Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's game world. One part of this is having the NPCs react to the player's actions around them. This could lead to characters joining the player in hunting if they see them sneaking up on a nearby animal, or even playing with smaller creatures that happen to be nearby. The NPCs will also react to what the players have done throughout the game's story missions as well. This could see them commenting on actions they disapprove of, or having different voice lines for a variety of different actions that the player could potentially take.
Ubisoft's Star Wars Game Could Adapt Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora's Reactive World
These reactive features would feel right at home in Ubisoft Massive's Star Wars game. With the game being confirmed to be an open-world title, having a reactive world around the player would go very far in making it feel more alive and personal. This would work especially well with the Star Wars universe's iconic Force. Of course, fans don't know whether or not they will play a Jedi or Sith in the game, but the game should give players choices that impact their alignment with the light or dark side of the Force. Those choices could then have sprawling effects on the world around the player. Ubisoft's open-world formula will likely impact its Star Wars game, so it would make sense for the company's newest technology to impact it as well.
Adapting it into the company's new Star Wars title would also be made easier by the fact that both games are being built on the Snowdrop engine. The inclusion of the Force in the Star Wars game will also allow the developers to take the system even further. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora can only have the system impact the world in ways that make sense, as the world of Pandora is built on science. As such, it doesn't have any mystical forces akin to the Force that could be used to explain more far-reaching or fantastical impacts of the player's decisions. Of course, Star Wars games have had similar features before, but Ubisoft's new technology could take it to the next level, and the company's Star Wars game will likely have to take cues from the series' history to be as successful as possible.
How The Reactive World Could Work in Ubisoft's Star Wars Game
If Ubisoft's Star Wars game does adopt the reactive world from Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, the mechanic will likely be featured quite heavily in the game. Some of the most iconic Star Wars video games have taken advantage of the light and dark side dynamic of the Force, and Ubisoft's Star Wars title should use the new technology to do the same. It is easy to imagine players who approach the dark side walking down a crowded city street as fearful citizens part to make room for them. At the same time, it is not hard to picture a light-side character being more readily approached by the wildlife of whatever regions players visit throughout the game.
The reactive world could also extend to features like companion characters, a player's ship, or bases, with changes reflect the player's alignment. Having a ship that started looking more and more imposing as one grew closer to the dark side could be interesting, while having companions that comment on your actions has been a beloved feature in Star Wars games before. The most intriguing aspect of Ubisoft's new system, however, is how it could help add nuance to the morality system of its Star Wars title. Having the world and characters react to individual decisions could allow players to not fully align themselves with either side of the Force, but instead approach the game as a morally grey character that has done both good and bad deeds over the course of the narrative.
Either way, the Star Wars universe has a lot of untapped potential for Ubisoft Massive's new game to take advantage of. It will be very interesting to see the studio's take on the universe and the experience that they decide to make for fans. It is definitely a good time to be a Star Wars fan, so hopefully, players will get some more news on the game sometime soon.
Ubisoft Massive's Star Wars game is currently in development.