The SSSW video game thread

Based on the derailment of another thread, I felt it was worth having a dedicated thread for certain video games that we've had over the years on the "small screen".

The ones I really want to focus on are the ones with video plot, which is an aspect of SW that's often over-looked.

Specifically we can discuss the Rebel Assault series of video games which made the best use of FMV to develop plot, and also make you believe you were part of the developing storyline.

We can obviously discuss the plot of any other SW video game, but I'd prefer the thread to stick to games with obvious plot that could almost form a story in it's own right, in the absence of game play.

 

So would the Jedi Knight series count? Seeing as DF2/JK1 had some fantastic fmv cutscenes.

And, as they're video, I count them as canon (for what that's worth)

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that's the sort of thing I'm aiming at - but I wouldn't want to give the thread too much direction to allow some good discussion.


I like the plot to Rebel Assault II which sees the Empire developing cloaked tie-fighters - a concept not dealt with in any of the movies. Is there any precedent for cloaking devices in the EU?

 

I seem to recall the Zahn's Thrawn trilogy using cloaking techology to mask the hold of a freighter. Security scanners picked up an empty freighter, they allowed it into a Rebel-Allied shipyard then BOOM; the freighter's destroyed from within and a squadron of TIEs is loose to wreak havoc in the shipyard - punishing the manufacturers and crippling the future Rebel fleet at the same time. Nice thinking

I can't remember if the cloaking devices are used on a smaller scale though.
Can you remember whereabouts RAII occurs in the timeline?

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Claoking technology is not widespread but is present in the EU. As mentioned, they're in all five Thrawn books. He uses cloaked asteroids to blockade Coruscant, an Pellaeon installs a cloaking device on the Chimaera. One thing I remember about the Zahn cloaks is that you can't see out from within them, don't remember if that's true in RAII.

Darth Maul's ship from Episode I also has a cloaking device, though I don't know if that was actually from Lucas or added in later. Cloaking crystals are also in the Starfighter comics, don't know about the games.

I don't remember when RAII is set, but its cloaking project is referenced in both the New Essential Chronology and the Insider article on the Grand Admirals. IIRC, one of Thrawn's fellow Grand Admirals designed the Phantom TIEs using cloaking crystals lost by a Jedi fleet in the Clone Wars.

As much as I hate to say it, I watched the Dark Forces II FMV cutscenes on Youtube a few weeks back and did not think they aged well at all. Jerec's constant hissing and licking his lips, Boc's every single move, and Jan's wooden lines made the Red Alert 2 FMVs look like a Peter Jackson production.

 

excellent info I forgot about those FMV sequences

I think RAII is set prior to, but around the time of ROTJ - while the Empire is at it's "peak". I think the limitation with the cloacking technology was that they couldn't fire weapons while cloaked (similar to StarTrek), but thatwas really to make the game playable, with tie-fighters coming out of cloak then shooting you at close range.

Potentially it's something that could have been expanded on in the movies. I'd have imagined that the Falcon (a smugglers ship) would greatly benefit from cloaking technology. (of course it would have ended the excellent action sequences if the falcon could have remained cloaked)