Why does there not exist a game where...

[UrinalDook]

... You play as Darth Vader?

I cannot believe how something with so much potential for unfathomable awesome remains untapped. Star Wars is a natural fit for games, it has proved this so many times over by producing games that not only span a dozen genres, but are legitimately quality iterations of those genres. KotOR is a fantastic RPG; X-Wing/TIE Fighter are still recognised as pretty much the don of flight sims; Dark Forces was an innovative FPS; Republic Commando is a quality squad based shooter.

The list goes on.

And yet, aside from the opening level of The Force Unleashed, we as gamers are still denied the opportunity to play the universe's biggest badass. Speaking of TFU, that game makes it even harder to find an answer to this question. Is there anyone else who thanks that level spent owning Wookiees and utterly dominating a Jedi was the best part of the game?

Is it because those responsible for licensing the Star Wars name fear people turning the films so far on their heads? Are they scared of turning one of cinema's greatest villains into an agent of twisted power fantasy? Perhaps there is something to be said for keeping the morality of Star Wars black and white, for avoiding the possibility of glorifying an evil figure.

But damnit, I want my Darth Vader destruction fest!

How about you? Would a Darth Vader based game by the sheer awesome I think it would?

What other games are you amazed no one has decided to make yet? For the sake of an additional talking point, I'm a little amazed no one has made a flight sim/RPG/hack 'n' slash hybrid where you play as a full grown, serious, gritty and mature dragon.

 

[hazabaza1]

Battlefront 2 lets you play as Vader. So do the Lego Star Wars games, and the Revenge of The Sith game has him as an unlockable character.

Also that flight sim dragon thing sounds a lot like the Drakengard series.

More OT: Honestly I can't think of much. So many different games have been made, it's hard to think of something that you can't do.

 

[Guy from the 80's]

There is a game where you control him for a brief moment. Not sure if it is any of the games hazabaza1 mentioned. You play as Darth while he butcher wookies and hes overpowered.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

There is a game where you control him for a brief moment. Not sure if it is any of the games hazabaza1 mentioned. You play as Darth while he butcher wookies and hes overpowered.

That's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed let you play as him for the first stage, it was an awesome stage too.

 

[Guy from the 80's]

So thats what it was. Yes it was pretty cool, force choking and lightning people left and right.

 

[Requia]

In additon to the other things mentioned, he's the console exclusive in a fighting game (which was the most monumentally bizzare decision ever, you're going to add Yoda and Darth Vader to your game but not allow them on the same console?)

 

[UrinalDook]

Battlefront 2 lets you play as Vader. So do the Lego Star Wars games, and the Revenge of The Sith game has him as an unlockable character.

Also that flight sim dragon thing sounds a lot like the Drakengard series.

More OT: Honestly I can't think of much. So many different games have been made, it's hard to think of something that you can't do.

Ah, I'd forgotten about BF2. Mostly because, aside from the surprisingly well put together 'campaign', I was never a huge fan of the sequel. And funnily enough, it was the inclusion of playable heroes that made it the lesser game in my eyes (as well as the utterly broken rewards system). BF2 just didn't have the mechanics to make playing as Vader cool. Don't get me wrong, it was fun. It just wasn't very deep.

I guess I'm looking for something with a bit of story. Something that will set up some underling as a total ass over the course of a couple of hours, making the moment you get to Force choke him that much more awesome. Something that doesn't make Vader's plodding pace feel frustrating, and something that maybe assigns more than one button to the lightsaber - make it a duelling sword again, rather than the big ineffectual glowstick it's been in every game since Jedi Academy.

Maybe I'll have to check this Drakengard out, I don't know it.

Oh, I'm not going for convention defying, world changing pieces of innovation here. But there's got to be some combination of things that you feel has yet to be done. For example, why has no one done a Game of Thrones strategy game (a good one, anyway)? Something like the map view/strategic side of the Total War games, only with a load more options for diplomacy and backstabbing. Or a GTA game set in a nice European city? Or a Firefly flight sim?

There is a game where you control him for a brief moment. Not sure if it is any of the games hazabaza1 mentioned. You play as Darth while he butcher wookies and hes overpowered.

And yet, aside from the opening level of The Force Unleashed, we as gamers are still denied the opportunity to play the universe's biggest badass. Speaking of TFU, that game makes it even harder to find an answer to this question. Is there anyone else who thanks that level spent owning Wookiees and utterly dominating a Jedi was the best part of the game?

In additon to the other things mentioned, he's the console exclusive in a fighting game (which was the most monumentally bizzare decision ever, you're going to add Yoda and Darth Vader to your game but not allow them on the same console?)

I've actually got Soul Calibur 4. On Xbox though, so I got Yoda. Whoopdee frickin' doo. And yeah, given how utterly awful and broken both he and the Apprentice were, there was no way I was shelling out actual money for the one guy who might have had a fighting style that could have fit SC4's mechanics.

But even then, it's not exactly what I had in mind. No game has yet given us the opportunity to get a view of the Star Wars galaxy from the bridge of a Star Destroyer. And then jump in a shuttle, land on some planet that (hey, here's a novel idea) wasn't in any of the films and ruin some dissident's day with a bit of badass posturing and some telekinetic asphyxiation.

I'm thinking maybe also throw in a Mass Effect style dialogue wheel where the top option would be false disappointment ("you have failed me", "apology accepted"), middle would be veiled threat ("the Emperor is not as forgiving as I am", "perhaps you think you are being treated unfairly?") and bottom would be open threat ("don't make me destroy you").

The death of Lucasarts has really got me lamenting the days of good Star Wars games...

 

[Karma168]

Is there a difference between Vader and any other badass sith bar the skin? Give me a game where I can do all the badass stuff we expect of Vader, that sounds awesome, but I'm not actually that fussed if it is Vader. He's a badass alright but what would make a game with him as the main character better than a story with another sith?

OT: WH40K games; when you read the lore it has as much room for variety as the star wars universe, with space combat sims, RPGs and F/TPS games easy to make. My preffered game would be a shooter, in the same style as Battlefront, where you can play as Imperial Guardsmen, Chaos cultists, Tau Fire Warriors and Eldar Guardians. Each race has a campaign you can play through where you face unique challenges (e.g. Guardsmen must defend against waves of slavering Daemons).

You get access to all the unit types from the miniatures, maybe even get some custom unit loadouts to add variety to multiplayer. Heroes (like the jedi/sith in BF2) would be elites related to that species (e.g. Imperial Guard heroes include space marines and eldar include the Avatar of Khaine)

The game would also have space battles where you can go out in fighters, bombers and troop ships (same as BF2) but if you did well (same as for heroes during ground combat) you could gain control of a large frigate which could move and bring powerful weapons exactly where you need them.

The bridge of the capital ship would be huge and allow players to take gunners seats and use either defensive guns to take out bombers, etc. or big anti ship guns that can take on the cruisers. As a reward for using these if you, say, destroy 20 bombers or destroy a subsystem on the capital ship you can gain control of the ships helm; unlike BF2 where the ships just sit there and let you destroy them, here they will circle each other inside a small area in the centre of the map (kept small to stop players trying to hide their ship at the edge of the map). Once you gain control you can accelerate/decelerate, turn, etc. (all very slowly, these ships are huge so take a while to turn and don't go very fast), making it easier to line up your big guns/stay away from the enemies. This makes teamwork important as you need to work with the gunners to make the most of the big guns, which would have a large cooldown. It could also be a setting that the big guns only fire if someone is controlling them to encourage their use.

Interiors could also be made larger to bring more of a challenge to sabotaging the ship, rather than having the engine, shields, bridge and hanger all next to each other (horrible design flaw there) you have to fight through corridors to get to the target, similar to the death star map on BF2. To balance this out the systems would be easy to destroy so you don't keep have to go back for more ammo.

For multiplayer it'd be the same as a quick-match game in BF2, 2 sides a few hundred lives/points per team and the first to zero loses. These wouldn't be little teams of 5-10, we're looking at as many players as possible to fill out the ranks of NPC's.

this game would be amazing, it wouldn't even have to be WH40K, if battlefront 3 ever gets released and it was like this it would be awesome.

 

[shrekfan246]

For me there's two things, and I was actually considering making a thread like this one because of them.

1) A game that combines the core mechanics of Freelancer, Mass Effect, and FTL. With more story focus than Star Trek Online. By which I mean, a single-player game in which you assemble your crew, work your way up from small frigates to large capital ships, and can engage in both ship-to-ship space combat where you have to pay attention to specific systems and power levels to make sure you don't overload or underpower or leave vital system unrepaired, or go on ground missions with an away team, and a significant focus on dialogue and character-building.

2) A single-player game with a playable kitsune-lady. The closest we've got at all right now is Ahri in League of Legends.

 

[LadyTiamat]

For me there's two things, and I was actually considering making a thread like this one because of them.

1) A game that combines the core mechanics of Freelancer, Mass Effect, and FTL. With more story focus than Star Trek Online. By which I mean, a single-player game in which you assemble your crew, work your way up from small frigates to large capital ships, and can engage in both ship-to-ship space combat where you have to pay attention to specific systems and power levels to make sure you don't overload or underpower or leave vital system unrepaired, or go on ground missions with an away team, and a significant focus on dialogue and character-building.

This. But add in-depth planet colonisation (like in spore but more detailed and less boring) freedom to conquer the galaxy how you wish. A true space exploration sim where you can get involved in space battles , involved space opera story , and a huge galaxy to explore. :3

 

[Schadrach]

Maybe I'll have to check this Drakengard out, I don't know it.

It's a PS2 title. Another interesting thing related to it is that it has two sequels, but they are both sequels to the first game. Drakengard 2 is a sequel to the "good"/canon ending (Ending A), and Nier for PS3 is actually a sequel to Drakengard Ending E (the Tokyo ending).