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Darth Maul Video Game? Red Fly Studio CEO ‘Working On Resurrecting It’

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 14:33 PST, Oct 26, 2015

A Darth Maul video game might be making its way to your next-gen gaming console after all!

Dan Borth, CEO and owner of Red Fly Studios, opened up about the previously cancelled video game project during a Reddit AMA on Saturday.

Darth Maul video game
(Photo Credit: Dan Borth/Reddit)

Darth Maul, the double lightsaber-wielding Sith Lord featured in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, will apparently star in the leading role of this particular video game project.

Borth opened up in the Reddit AMA about the progress that has been made on the Darth Maul video game as of now – including claims of a demo that will likely leave Star Wars fans sitting on the edge of their seats.

“We are currently working on a full next gen demo of all things Maul to show to the powers that be. It’s been a lot of work on our off time… We have been burning a candle for this game since it was killed in hopes we can get it turned back on again. IF that is to happen we need to approach EA with a demo that will impress them. I think we have that or are close to it. Still it is completely not up to us.”

According to Borth, the underlying story of the Darth Maul video game would essentially have nothing to do with the first episode of the iconic Star Wars movie franchise.

On the contrary, the story will focus on the journey that Darth Maul endured in order to become a Sith Lord in the first place.

The Red Fly Studios owner stated that the story would start in Darth Maul’s childhood at age 9 or 11 and would actually end shortly before the starting point of The Phantom Menace – putting players directly in the shoes of this villain before he embraced the Dark Side.

“We wanted to show what he went through to become a Sith. Showcase the torture the Emperor put him through. Show how you as the player would have made the same mistakes and ended up a Sith.”

When it comes to the combat element of the game, Star Wars fans might be eager to control Darth Maul while he is showing off the double lightsaber tricks, twists and flips that dropped their jaws at first sight. However, when asked to elaborate on the combat style used in the game, Borth made it clear that the primary focus of Maul’s fighting style in the game would stray away from using a lightsaber at all.

“Combat was a challenge, but we settled on a reverse fear mechanic and combat that was similar to Arkham. In our story, he rarely fought characters with lightsabers – those had to be Jedi and we had to explain who they were and Maul had to keep his existence a secret.”

The mere concept of being able to control Darth Maul in combat the same way that you control Batman in any of the Arkham video games is more than enough to cause pre-order sales to skyrocket.

However, according to Dan Borth, an explanation of the “reverse fear mechanic” shines a new light on combat that the Batman games did not even explore fully.

“The reverse fear mechanic had Maul using fear to control opponents – you chose to drop down out of nowhere and behead a guard because you saw the rest of the guards were susceptible to fear so when you did that they would scatter and the AI would kick in. Some of them would run into walls and even wound or kill themselves.”

Borth further explained that when the player would try to plot against Darth Maul’s opponents, they would actually stand their ground and engage against him directly. Therefore, they decided to focus on picking each of the opponents off one at a time – adding a “great layer to everything” that “fit his character completely.”

[Image Credit: Clemens Bilan/Getty Images]

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