Pick 5: Remembering the best of LucasArts
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With the recent announcement of LucasArts closing down thanks to Disney being the new owners, I think it was only right to pay tribute to great games that came out of that studio. This pick 5 is mostly Star Wars of course, but these games will never be the same in my book. It's the end of a great era.
Jedi Outcast
Jedi Outcast had the weirdest controls and gameplay with a lightsaber, but I can't deny how much fun I had when this game came out. This game had a mix of FPS and third person perspective, which was quite unusual during its time. It was set after the events of the original Star Wars trilogy and to be honest, the StarWars fan in me enjoyed the story that took after the films. Jedi Outcast was also the first game to give me a dose of lightsaber multiplayer action, which was quite chaotic looking back. We had players literally flailing their lightsabers everywhere, it was amazing. This game wasn't developed by LucasArts Studios directly, but they were one of the publishers and they still gave the greenlight on this project since this is a licensed title.
Star Wars: KOTOR 1 and 2
Star Wars: KOTOR 1 and 2 are games I'll never seem to forget. It was the perfect game to make an RPG out of the Star Wars universe. if you're familiar with Bioware's previous and recent works, then you'll be familiar with the game's mechanics. The turn-based D&D style combat is never a bad thing. I can still recall the shocking ending in the first game when you find out the truth about the protagonist, such a classic.
Star Wars battlefront 1 and 2
To sum up Battlefront for the people that have never heard of this game, it's pretty much Battlefield in a nut shell, but in the Star Wars world. There are classes, vehicles, big maps, and iconic characters from the Star Wars universe, it's a multiplayer game everybody loved. It was great and it's sad that a sequel to Star Wars Battlefront 2 never came to light.Thanks to the online leaks, it was confirmed a third game was in development, but was cancelled. Who knows why it never pushed through. With LucasArts now closed, any hope of getting a game like this again is gone. Just imagine Star Wars Battlefront in the graphics today? Mind blown.
Monkey island series
A LucasArts game that isn't a Star Wars game!? Believe it, and it even turned out to be one of the best point and click adventures out there today. Monkey Island was entertaining to play and even fun to watch for people spectating the game. Curse of Monkey Island was personal favorite and was actually my official introduction to point and click adventures. I've been exposed to games such as Phantasmagoria and the Gabriel Knight series, but this one I really played and finished. These types of games are quite rare and the you'll hardly see anything like this again. Hopefully a publisher or a studio picks this series up because it would be such a waste. Actually, I wish Telltale games does some magic and gets the go signal to work on another Monkey Island. They were actually the developers of one Monkey Island game, and I'd like them to do another. That my friends, is a match made in heaven.
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
This is probably a personal favorite. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is set after the Battle of Hoth, and it tells a backstory placed during episodes V and VI. It's a third person shooter at heart and it was one of my first games on my N64. It was a console launch game and I still remember playing this game over and over, especially the Battle of Hoth stage, that lets you participate in the battle itself. Looking back, it did look like crap, but I clearly remember me getting all those floating logo symbols and playing for hours even when I was done with the game. Good times.
It's sad to see LucasArts go. I was really anticipating Star Wars 1313 since it was bringing Uncharted-like style into the Star Wars universe, which looked amazing to me. But of course Disney still needs to think as a company, so hopefully it won't be years until we see studios or publishers make use of the Star Wars franchise.
What about you? Was there any game you loved that came out of LucasArts?
