New reports are emerging about the Star Wars FPS in development at Titanfall and Apex Legends studio Respawn, and if even a single word of these rumors is true it sounds like an absolute dream game for me.
Respawn announced a pile of upcoming Star Wars games back in 2022, including a strategy game, the sequel to Fallen Order, and an FPS title. That sequel, of course, ended up being the excellent Star Wars Jedi Survivor, but the other two projects have remained shrouded in mystery. The one thing we knew about the FPS game is that it was being led by LucasArts veteran Peter Hirschmann.
A new report from Insider Gaming suggests that Respawn's FPS will see you take the role of a Mandalorian bounty hunter during the time of the Galactic Empire. The game is said to have a heavy focus on mobility with a jetpack that will let you "perform horizontal dashing, vertical jumping, boost sliding (somewhat similar to sliding down hills in Apex Legends), and more."
The report emphasizes the fast pace of the game, noting a system where your health regenerates based on successively killing enemies. The report further suggests that the game will have linear levels - not an open world - set on various Star Wars planets, and is expected to be "still a year or two away" from release.
Some of those details have been corroborated by Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb, who notes that "while it does have Mandalorians in it. It's not 'The Mandalorian: The Show: The Game.'" I've reached out to EA for comment and will update if I learn more.
An FPS with linear levels across a varied selection of environments, all tied together with a robust movement system that pushes you to approach combat in style? That sounds a whole lot like Titanfall 2, which in 2016 brought us one of the greatest FPS campaigns ever brought to life. Add that spirit to a story that explores the coolest part of the Star Wars galaxy - its bounty hunters - and you've got a mighty delicious-sounding recipe.
We basically saw this concept explored way back in 2002 with Star Wars: Bounty Hunter on PS2 and GameCube, which followed Jango Fett through a story-driven adventure with loads of optional bounties to hunt along the way. It was a solid concept but, well, there's a reason most people don't count it among the best Star Wars games.
If you're coming at this as a Respawn fan, of course, you might be disappointed to hear about a game that sounds so much like Titanfall 3 not marking a return for the beloved mech-focused shooter series. The studio's apparent teases for a series comeback seemed to culminate in little more than a new Apex Legends character, and reports on the cancelation of a full Titanfall game earlier last year were a bitter pill to swallow.
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