As in Titanfall, objective-driven matches would conclude with one side beating a headlong retreat to the dropship - an exercise in salvaging a measure of satisfaction from the ashes of defeat, or sticking the boot in when you’ve got somebody on the ropes - though unlike in Titanfall, dropships were proof against ground-based fire. This was more than a glorified lobby screen: you could lean from the craft to size up the battle and even snipe at people below, perhaps scraping a cheeky kill or at least rattling foes enough to create opportunities for allies. Respawns would occur in waves, players materialising aboard a dropship as it sped to one of the map’s capture points. Timesplitters creator Free Radical ruined itself trying to bring a threequel to life, thanks to a last-minute withdrawal of publisher support, though dismal sales of the studio’s stinky PS3 exclusive Haze may have had a role to play there. Hence, among other disappointments, the Battlefront franchise’s woeful evolution after original developer Pandemic said goodbye to it in 2005. It had access to the most venerated licenses in both video games and cinema, but was racked by frequent management changes, power struggles and an ever-widening gap between executives and creatives.
The publisher had, after all, cultivated an unenviable reputation for project misfires.
The idea behind this potted epic of a rebooting strategy was to shore up trust in LucasArts, before going loud with a sequel announcement. Then, in winter 2015, the trump card: a fully armed and operational Star Wars: Battlefront 3, rolling together all the features of First Assault and Wingman plus a single player campaign and outer space engagements with X-Wings and TIE Fighters. A follow-up, codenamed “Wingman”, was to arrive in summer 2014, equipped with larger theatres of war and vehicles such as speederbikes, AT-ST walkers and droid hovertanks from The Phantom Menace. Slated to appear on Xbox Live and PSN in summer 2013, First Assault would have road-tested a familiar yet subtly differentiated collection of infantry combat mechanics on eight maps drawn from the planets Tatooine and Bespin. The subtitle isn’t just there for dramatic effect, for one thing - this was the opening gambit in the stealthy revival of a much-missed series. The more I spoke to people about First Assault, however, the more it fascinated me.
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