By Andrew Dodson on October 28, 2015 at 12:24am
It was 1999 when "The Phantom Menace" first hit theaters, and while people have a lot of varying....opinions on the prequel, no one can really make the argument that Darth Maul was not an awesome villain. Sure, he only had a couple of lines, but when he appeared at the end of movie and ignited his double-bladed lightsaber to fight two Jedi...that almost made the price of the movie ticket worth it.
As a fan favorite villain, it seems very odd that we haven't seen Darth Maul as a character in a video game yet. Well, as it turns out, Red Fly Studio was working on just that project and it was well on it's way. They had even created a little gameplay demo:
So, what happened? After Disney purchased the rights to Star Wars, a lot of projects that were in production were suddenly and inexplicable canned - and the Darth Maul game was one of them And just like that, the game slipped away from us.
On an AMA on Reddit this week, however, Dan Borth of Red Fly Studio let us know that they had not given up on their vision for a Darth Maul game.
We have been burning a candle for this game since it was killed in hopes we can get it turned back on again. If that is to happen we need to approach EA with a demo that will impress them. I think we have that or are close to it. Still, it is completely not up to us.
Dan Borth, Red Fly Studio
Borth was very open about plans for the game, and what was necessary for it to come back into existence. The story itself would be an origin story of sorts for the horned Sith lord. The player would start as a young Maul just starting his training under the Emperor. A lot of people probably rolled their eyes at that thought - getting the origin story for Darth Vader and Boba Fett really didn't do a lot to make their characters more interesting. Red Fly Studio had their reasons to start from here, however.
We wanted to show what he went through to become a Sith. Showcase the torture the Emperor put him through. Show how you as the player would have made the same mistakes and ended up a Sith.
[...]
We felt that Maul could be a character that you cheered for because he was so ferocious. Like a wild animal. We didn't want to humanize Maul like "Dexter" but we wanted to explain what happened to him and you could see why he turned out the way he did.
Dan Borth, Red Fly Studio
They wanted to make Darth Maul more than a villain, but an actual character that the player can learn to understand. After the 'origin' sequence, the game would become an action-stealth type of game, with Darth Maul rarely coming and attacking outright with his sabers, but rather striking from the shadows and using his environment to advance. The combat system would seem similar to that of the free-flow combat of the "Arkham" games with an added "reverse fear" mechanic that would enhance the game's stealth-play.
The reverse fear mechanic had Maul using fear to control opponents - you chose to drop down out of no where and behead a guard because you saw the rest of the guards were susceptible to fear so when you did that they would scatter and the AI would kick in. Some of them would run into walls and even wound or kill themselves. When you were trying to plot against opponents that was pretty tough you would not do that. They would stand their ground and engage so it would be better to pick them off one at a time. It really was a great layer to everything and fit his character completely.
Dan Borth, Red Fly Studio
Based on the AMA, it feels like Red Fly has all the right pieces to make an interesting Darth Maul game - especially with the next-gen technology that is available today. So, what is the next step they need to take?
We would need to complete our vertical slice of the game -- a fully functioning complete portion of the game or as close to it as possible and put it in front of EA, and also talk with Disney. EA has the rights to Star Wars on console and PC so it would be up to them to greenlight it. For them, they would need to be convinced we could do the game and that it fit into their new vision.
Dan Borth, Red Fly Studio
As of right now, everything is up in the air but the AMA got a whole of people excited about the possibility for this game. If you're interested in playing as Darth Maul, you're Red Fly's best weapon to get the game the backing it needs to go forward. Dan Borth is asking everyone to follow the studio on Twitter (where they will be posting some new images of the game soon), tweet out using the hashtag #WeWantMaul and tell EA and Disney how much you want to see this game made.
Red Fly Twitter
