Free Radical's Star Wars: Battlefront 3 was reportedly close to completion when the plug was pulled in 2008: Close enough that quite a bit of gameplay footage has surfaced over the years, and also for design work on Battlefront 4 to have begun. And as a big pile of concept art that recently found its way to Imgur reveals, the studio was looking at a reversed-roles "alt-Star Wars" take on the galaxy far, far away, in which the bad guys are good and the good guys are bad.
(Except for Vader. He just gets a promotion.)
Obi-Wan goes Dark Side, in both young and old personas. (And Obi-Old seems to handle the transition a lot better than his younger self.)
Not to be outdone by his mentor (who I guess would be his master in this reality), here's Dark Side Luke.
But wait! Count Dooku is a Jedi, although sadly he still has the galaxy's silliest name.
And so is Maul, sans facial tattoos and with a "mellowed facial expression" that reveals his warm inner glow.
Redeemed Vader—I'm not sure how you "redeem" (much less re-hire) a guy who literally and personally murdered hundreds of children, but I guess Free Radical was at least ready to try.
Princess Leia becomes a Jedi!
But then she joins the Dark Side too, and ends up in a ridiculous space bikini anyway.
Evil Chewbacca. Sadly, there is no Evil Lumpy.
There's quite a bit more to see than just these, including other variants of familiar characters, a couple I don't recognize at all, and various design and blocking shots: Anakin kills Yoda to complete his training, TIE bombers blow up Naboo, that sort of thing. There's nothing about it that suggests a coherent plot (although I suppose that's not really a deal-killer for Battlefront games, or Star Wars in general) but "What If?" stories are always fun because you can do whatever you want with them. If nothing else, it could have opened the door to a potentially interesting take on a well-worn story, and it's a little bit sad that it never saw the light of day.
Thanks, Eurogamer.
