Report: LucasArts canceled Darth Maul origins game
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to canceled Star Wars video games. Okay, so maybe it wasn't hate or the Dark Side that spelled the death of a Darth Maul-centric Star Wars video game, but rather a chaotic triangle relationship between developer Red Fly Studios, publisher LucasArts and George Lucas. Game Informer reports in its May issue that the game explored the early days of Maul's life, giving an up-close and personal look at Sith training. Or rather, it would have, had two major changes to the game not thrown Death Star-sized wrenches into the proverbial gears.
Ex-Red Fly employees speaking under condition of anonymity told Game Informer that it felt like LucasArts wanted to tie the game to the Clone Wars animated TV show. However, LucasArts only gave sparse details and vague hints to prevent any kind of leaks, which left Red Fly without a clear direction or vision for the game. The studio developed new prototypes for Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U, including a "forward stealth" design inspired by Batman: Arkham Asylum.
The biggest vision shift, however, came from George Lucas himself. According to one source, Lucas took statues of Darth Maul and Darth Talon - a character from the Star Wars comics from Dark Horse - faced them toward one another, and declared, "They're friends!" When it was brought to Lucas' attention that Maul and Talon lived more than a century and a half apart from one another, Lucas reportedly suggested it could be a clone or descendant that players controlled instead of the original Maul.
Game Informer obtained images and concept art of key characters and locales the game could have featured, and some are just as outlandish as the concept of Talon and Maul teaming up, including a redesigned Darth Krayt and an ocean city pulled along by colossal eels. The whole story is, as the kids say, pretty cray.
[Image: Disney]
