It’s time that Star Wars gave us the Clone Wars game we’ve always wanted. A game where we are not playing as a Jedi, a bounty hunter, or a chosen hero. You’re just another Clone soldier coming from the labs on Kamino. The core idea is to imagine creating your own Clone Trooper, choosing a legion, and fighting through the Clone Wars from the ground.
The campaign could take you across Geonosis, Ryloth, Umbara, Kashyyyk, Felucia, Coruscant, Kamino, Utapau, Mygeeto, and dozens of smaller conflicts that games have barely touched. You start as a standard shiny. No fancy armour. No reputation. Just a designation and a blaster. Then you earn it.
As the war progresses, you could rise through the ranks, customise your armour, specialise your class, build relationships with your squad, and eventually become an ARC Trooper, commando, sergeant, lieutenant, or captain; looming over the entire game is something the player knows is coming: Order 66.
That gives the game an emotional ticking clock from the moment you load into the game. The Clone Wars is practically designed for a video game. The Republic fought across thousands of worlds, meaning the developers wouldn’t need to constantly invent reasons for the player to visit somewhere new. One mission could have you storming a Separatist position with AT-TEs while another has your squad infiltrating a droid facility behind enemy lines.
The Clone Wars lets the developers throw almost every type of Star Wars gameplay into one game without it feeling forced. The Clone you make should actually be your clone. This is what would set your game apart from other people who would be playing it. From choosing the different legion and armour markings, helmet designs, battle damage and scratches, blaster loadout, specialist class, personality/dialogue choices, squad members and roles, and rank progression.
Instead of unlocking random cosmetics because you reached Level 37, completing certain battles could physically change your armour. Survive Geonosis? You unlock markings commemorating it. Lose a squadmate? Maybe your clone paints something onto his helmet. By the end, your pristine Phase I trooper could look completely battered and unique.
Another aspect of the game’s campaign could be spending hours fighting alongside a Jedi General and Padawan, forging a bond with them and then boom… Order 66. The game suddenly asks what being a clone actually means. I’d love choices here, although canon obviously complicates things. Perhaps different endings could exist outside strict canon, or the story could follow clones whose inhibitor chips malfunction.
Imagine trying to play through the Order 66 situation while the HUD is switching from identifying your Jedi General as a friend or foe. That would be horrifying. And then the final portion could transition into the earliest days of the Empire, with your clone slowly realising that the Republic he spent the entire game defending doesn’t exist anymore. That’s one hell of an ending.
