Has Lucasarts lost the plot?

By TO-DEAN/HA Astatine/CS-6/SSSD Sovereign

In recent years, LucasArts, once considered one of the most highly regarded game companies for the PC platform. LucasArts brought film licensing to its zenith with the early Star Wars-based games, such as X-Wing, TIE Fighter and Dark Forces. LucasArts also established an industry-wide legacy in the adventure and flight simulator sectors of the market with games such as Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island series. Yet with all this pedigree, the games LucasArts has turned out lately have been, well, crap. To really understand this, we need to look at the entire history of LucasArts.

The beginning
In 1982, LucasArts Entertainment Company was created, as a subsidiary of LucasFilm. At the time, it was called LucasFilm Games, but changed to LucasArts Entertainment Company in 1991. George Lucas saw the potential for cross licensing from movie to computer game, as well as the adoption of technology from ILM to computer games. Early successes under the LucasArts banner included Battle for Britain (written by some guys who went on to make X-Wing). Following this came Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, by the Lawrence Holland and Edward Kilham team, as well as the first Secret of Monkey Island game.

Technology kicks in
LucasArts has always had a strange relationship with technology. In the early 90s, LucasArts released Rebel Assault, a game which was low on game-play but which exploited the massive capacity of the CD-ROM with video and voice. At the same time, LucasArts had created iMUSE, the Interactive Music and Sound Effects engine which was used in Monkey Island 2, X-Wing and TIE Fighter to dynamically change the sound and music according to the events on screen. This resulted in the Rebel fanfares when a Rebel ship entered the arena or the Imperial March playing when a Star Destroyer entered the battle. This was still before the appearance of Windows, DirectX and 3D cards.

Look at the size of that thing!
In 1993, LucasArts answered the dreams of gamers and Star Wars fans with the release of X-Wing. The game combined iMUSE to stunning effect along with fast (although primitive) graphics. The game was an instant classic, crafted under the hands of Larry Holland and Ed Kilham, having honed their skills on Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. At the same time, things were not all peachy in PC land. 1993 also saw Intel release the Pentium processor, foreshadowing the power in PCs that was to come. Origin, well known for pushing the PC, also released Wing Commander 3 that year, setting up a showdown between the Wing Commander series and the Star Wars franchise. WC3 did have superior graphics but many preferred the fluid frame rates of X-Wing, along with its Star Wars experience. In 1995, the technology stakes increased. Windows 95, TIE Fighter, Wing Commander 4 and the 3DFX Voodoo 1 3D card were all released. TIE Fighter featured only minimal visual upgrading, relying instead upon the storytelling, a consistent methodology in LucasArts games in the past.

The cracks appear
Whether from laziness from the success of TIE, an inability to grasp new technology or other factors, LucasArts began to lose its way. Rebel Assault 2 (1995), The Dig (1995) and Afterlife (1996) were disappointments. Rebel Assault 2 attempted to cash in on the original success of Rebel Assault 1. The Dig was hyped up after being based upon an idea by Steven Spielberg. Afterlife was a trip outside LucasArts’ traditional territory (flight sims and adventure games) into the management genre. The game was not very good. 1996 wasn’t a total loss with Dark Forces making an early and well-received entry into the "Doom clone" market. Their second attempt, Outlaws (1997), didn’t do so well, using a rather dated engine. By this time, the Voodoo 2 3D card was on the market and Quake had given the world a taste of 3D graphics.

New avenues
1997 saw LucasArts try, and in some cases, fail to capture new areas. The multiplayer arena had beckoned since Doom first was released and in 1997, LucasArts released X-Wing vs TIE Fighter. This was the first game from Totally Games, the Holland/Kilham development house that had left LucasArts. The game featured a 3D engine running under Windows 95. Direct3D was still slow, so the game used the 3DFX Glide library. The game’s graphics were on par with Wing Commander 4 and the game featured Internet and LAN multiplayer features. Unfortunately, the game lacked the hallmark of all LucasArts games – a plot-driven single-player experience. This oversight was partially fixed with the Balance of Power add-on in late 1997. Late 1997 also saw LucasArts release Jedi Knight and Curse of Monkey Island. Jedi Knight featured a 3D engine, in an attempt to compete with the new 3D shooter craze created by Quake 1 (and later Quake 2). The game used Direct3D for its acceleration and featured a pretty good single-player experience and a multiplayer experience as well. Curse of Monkey Island was the first "talkie" Monkey Island and could be seen as removing the magic of the adventure series. Origin once again upstaged LucasArts in the space sim department with the release of Wing Commander Prophecy in late 1997, a game with a 3D engine vastly superior to X-Wing vs TIE Fighter, which supported Glide and Direct3D. This could be considered the turning point for LucasArts, as the following years would result in desperation subsequent releases. Perhaps startled by their dated Jedi Knight engine, LucasArts released the Mysteries of the Sith add-on, which added coloured lighting. Early 1998 saw LucasArts once again stray into the management genre and get burned with Rebellion. In late 1998, Grim Fandango attempted to revive the near-dead adventure genre.

In the land of 3D, eye candy is king
By the time X-Wing Alliance arrived, Direct3D was an established API and 3D accelerators had matured into heat-sink carrying monsters with more RAM that PCs had 5 years before. X-Wing Alliance finally saw a marriage between the traditional story-telling of X-Wing and TIE Fighter, the graphical experience of other recent space sims, while also providing a good single and multiplayer experience. However, XWA also continued a dark trend in the X-Wing series. In the first two games, it was very easy to edit pilot files, add custom missions and edit craft. It is the second point that the entire TIE Corps is built upon. Yet, with X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and then XWA, LucasArts made it gradually harder and harder to do this. While games like Quake encouraged editing, add-ons and mods, LucasArts closed the editing door, put on a big padlock and attached a motion sensor and alarm system. Games like Quake 2, Half-life and Starcraft have enjoyed longevity because of the ability to edit and extend the games. Starcraft has numerous maps and Half-life has spawned highly popular mods like Counter-Strike. 1999 was also the year that LucasArts obviously decided to do an all-out sell-out for The Phantom Menace. Episode 1: The Phantom Menace and Racer were merely console fluff. Force Commander was another attempt in unfamiliar waters for LucasArts and failed horribly, while Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine was merely Tomb Raider without Lara Crofts shapely ass bouncing on screen.

The future
At the moment, LucasArts is producing more and more console games. Without having to worry about various machine specifications like the PC, LucasArts can turn out games quicker and get more money. This was proven with the dumping of the PC as a platform for Obi-Wan. Talk of RPGs based in the Star Wars universe ignited interest, especially when Bioware, fresh from saving the RPG genre with a string of hit games, including Baldur’s Gate 2, is developing one of the games. However, restrictions (you can’t play an Imperial) have resulted in a cooling in interest, especially from a lot of Emperor’s Hammer members. LucasArts is also trying the strategy genre again, after failing with Afterlife, Rebellion and Force Commander.

How to fix this?
I think there’s a few key points LucasArts could do to fix these problems. Here’s a few:

• Plot – have a good, plot-driven experience. Not all gamers are 10-year old sugar junkies.
• Extending – make it easier to extend, modify and add to the games. This is how games like Quake 1/2/3, Unreal/Unreal Tournament and Half-life have developed massive communities and resulting in innovative and exciting new developments like Capture the Flag, Counter-strike and Day of Defeat.
• Use External Engines – LucasArts have proven that they’re, well, crap at 3D engines for 3D shooters. They’d be better off licensing an engine, like Quake 3 or the upcoming Unreal 2 engine. This cuts down their development time and leaves more time for plot, storyline and game-play to be crammed in the game.
• 3D doesn’t always work – It seems that the whole 3D thing has gone crazy and we see games have 3D support merely to look cool and look up-to-date. The simple fact is 3D isn’t needed for strategy games or RPGs. Sure, they add nice eye-candy, but 3D in a 2D game result in performance hits too.
• Make TIE Fighter using the XWA Engine – Because it’d be cool. :P

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