Star Wars 1313 running on Unreal Engine 3 on PC at E3, will be linear and light on Jedi

Star Wars 1313

Star Wars 1313 has delivered one of the most visually impressive demos of E3 2012 so far. Like Watch Dogs, it was running from a PC. Not only that, but CVG report that it was running on a tooled-up version of the Unreal Engine 3. The demo showed impressive facial animation, lighting and a considerable density of detail and debris.

It looks like the first sign that some of the visual spice we saw in last year's Unreal Engine 3 Samaritan Demo is starting to make it into new games. It means we'll have to wait longer to see what Unreal Engine 4 can really do, though. For now, we'll have to make do with the UE4 teaser screenshots Epic released recently

Lucasart's darker, moodier take on Star Wars is set in the depth of Coruscant's urban hives, on level 1313. As Henry mentioned in our Star Wars 1313 screenshots post earlier, it seems at least in part to be set in a giant pipe, which suggests it'll be a fairly linear experience. Creative Director Dominic Robilliard confirmed to GameFront that this is indeed the case.

"This version of the game is definitely going to be more along that linear path," he said. "It's more of a crafted roller coaster ride. You're not going to have much freedom where you go location-wise, but again within those levels you will have more freedom than you might expect."

Don't expect many Jedi to turn up, either. Robillard told Kotaku that the Force clashes with the ethos of Star Wars 1313. "The criminal underworld of 1313 is a little more grounded and that has to live in the mechanics of the game," he said. "Having mechanics that are limited by human ability makes things more relatable, then we can put all the cool stuff you can do into the gadgets and weapons.

"You still get to do all of these amazing things because of the environment the game takes place in and because of the gear you have. But at the core you still have these vulnerabilities that are a bit more relatable, so you won't have the demigod complex of a Jedi."

LucasFilm's Industrial Light and Magic, LucasFilm Animation and Skywalker Sound are all collaborating on 1313 to try and inject some cinematic bombast into its set pieces, but can it beat Dark Forces?

TOPICS
Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.

Latest in Action
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The First Berserker: Khazan review - Blade Phantom
How to claim The First Berserker: Khazan pre-order bonus and deluxe edition DLC
gta 6 trailer
Publishers 'don't want to be anywhere near' Grand Theft Auto 6 when it launches: 'It's proving to be very stressful'
An image of a Helldiver from Helldivers 2 shooting at a red dragon from Dungeons & Dragons.
'Ok, so dragon builds are a thing now': galaxy-brained Helldivers 2 player incinerates a bile titan with a hover pack and a flamethrower
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Assassin's Creed Shadows immersive mode - Naoe holding a tanto in her hand as two guards fall to the ground behind her.
Assassin's Creed Shadows' first hotfix addresses stability issues and a photo mode crash
Latest in News
Two brightly colored stormtroopers dressed like Run-DMC stand in front of PAX Australia's WELCOME HOME banner.
Tickets for PAX Australia 2025 are on sale now
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again