Star Wars 1313 has delivered one of the most visually impressive demos of E3 2012 so far. Like Watch Dogs, it was running from a PC. Not only that, but CVG report that it was running on a tooled-up version of the Unreal Engine 3. The demo showed impressive facial animation, lighting and a considerable density of detail and debris.
It looks like the first sign that some of the visual spice we saw in last year's Unreal Engine 3 Samaritan Demo is starting to make it into new games. It means we'll have to wait longer to see what Unreal Engine 4 can really do, though. For now, we'll have to make do with the UE4 teaser screenshots Epic released recently
Lucasart's darker, moodier take on Star Wars is set in the depth of Coruscant's urban hives, on level 1313. As Henry mentioned in our Star Wars 1313 screenshots post earlier, it seems at least in part to be set in a giant pipe, which suggests it'll be a fairly linear experience. Creative Director Dominic Robilliard confirmed to GameFront that this is indeed the case.
"This version of the game is definitely going to be more along that linear path," he said. "It's more of a crafted roller coaster ride. You're not going to have much freedom where you go location-wise, but again within those levels you will have more freedom than you might expect."
Don't expect many Jedi to turn up, either. Robillard told Kotaku that the Force clashes with the ethos of Star Wars 1313. "The criminal underworld of 1313 is a little more grounded and that has to live in the mechanics of the game," he said. "Having mechanics that are limited by human ability makes things more relatable, then we can put all the cool stuff you can do into the gadgets and weapons.
"You still get to do all of these amazing things because of the environment the game takes place in and because of the gear you have. But at the core you still have these vulnerabilities that are a bit more relatable, so you won't have the demigod complex of a Jedi."
LucasFilm's Industrial Light and Magic, LucasFilm Animation and Skywalker Sound are all collaborating on 1313 to try and inject some cinematic bombast into its set pieces, but can it beat Dark Forces?
