More than ten years after cancellation, fans revive the Star Wars: First Assault prototype and enable online matches.
After ending softly more than ten years ago, Star Wars: First Assault has come back in a strange way. Fans have brought the multiplayer shooter prototype back to life by making it playable online. It was put on hold when big changes happened in the world of Star Wars games.
There were big changes in the gaming world in 2012 and 2013. That’s when The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm and began changing how it made games. Because of that change, LucasArts had to put some games in development on hold.
Two of them were Star Wars 1313, a story-heavy project, and Star Wars: First Assault, a multiplayer first-person shooter.
Fans never forgot about either game, even if it was taken down before its release. Now, thanks to some strange events, the community has brought First Assault back. Players have figured out how to use the Xenia emulator to run the build that hasn’t been released yet, meaning a PC can play the game.
Even cooler is the fact that some fans have linked the game to online sites. This lets them play multiplayer games that weren’t even available to everyone else. Community hubs like Discord are where dedicated players share guides and instructions on setting up the emulator and joining matches, even though the process isn’t exactly simple.
A long-lost prototype that can now be played.
When First Assault is brought back to life, it will be a Star Wars-themed, small-scale online shooter, as it was meant to be. Bots managed by AI fill the area to keep things interesting in new video footage of the game. Players fight in small matches, usually two-on-two.
It already has ideas for Star Wars Battlefront built into it, both inside and out. First Assault might have been one of the first steps toward the famous franchise’s current makeover. Battles happen quickly, Imperial and Rebel characters appear as they do in other games, and there are tight multiplayer areas.
Fans have made progress, but the new build isn’t perfect yet. Performance isn’t always stable, and players often have to adjust emulator settings to achieve stable gameplay. Still, it’s amazing that the game works at all since it was never meant to be played by everyone.
The Shadow of Star Wars 1313.
While fans are pleased about the reintroduction of First Assault, it reminds many gamers of Star Wars 1313, which was also canceled around the same time. Many individuals were interested in that cinematic action game set in Coruscant’s criminal underworld before it was canceled during the same corporate shift.
Unlike First Assault, Star Wars 1313 has not been made available again. Fans of the franchise who have been following it for a long time remain hopeful that one day the game’s assets or test builds may appear in the same way.
But for now, the fact that Star Wars: First Assault is back is an interesting piece of gaming history. It shows us a project that was supposed to be canceled but wasn’t, and how it almost became part of the modern Star Wars game era. And because of how much fans care, a title once thought lost to time is now being brought back to life.
