Footage from Star Wars Battlefront III, the cancelled third game in the series from developer Free Radical Design, has found its way online numerous times over the past few years. That being said, newly-released and previously-unseen footage from the game shows off what players have long been curious about: the game's single-player campaign mode.
A pair of videos uploaded by user FuZah on YouTube shows what looked to be the start of Star Wars Battlefront III's campaign. Footage shows the player controlling a clone trooper during the Clone Wars, following a Jedi master by the name of Ferroda into battle. The training mission begins in space aboard a Republic ship before players jump into a fighter to take out enemy vessels. From there, players board a Republic Gunship and fly down to the surface of a planet that looks to be Tatooine in order to battle it out with Separatist forces on the ground. After engaging in a firefight with some Tusken Raiders, players then become Jedi master Ferroda and fight against a Rancor with a lightsaber.
It's obviously a very early version of the game (FuZah describes it as an early alpha), and it shows. Error messages flash across the screen, and the framerate drops to what looks to be single-digit numbers during a few segments. However, with all that in mind, what is here is actually quite impressive. Even in this early stage, there is voice acting for many of the characters and many of the classic Star Wars sound effects fans know and love. The game's space and ground battles are present, as is the ability to go from space to the ground without the need for a loading screen. With a few years of polish, Star Wars Battlefront III could have truly been something special.
Alas, it was never to be. EA now has the video game rights to the Star Wars franchise, with last year's Star Wars Battlefront from developer DICE being the first from EA and Disney's new partnership. EA's Star Wars Battlefront sold well and looked pretty, but it lacked the depth (and single-player options) that had fans fall in love with the original Star Wars Battlefront franchise all those years ago.
It's for that reason fans are event attempting to make their own Star Wars Battlefront III, albeit without actual Star Wars characters, locations or ships. You can read more about that here. Meanwhile, EA's Star Wars Battlefront just received space battles in the form of the game's newly-released Death Star DLC.
