Andor has made me want a low-key, guerrilla warfare Star Wars Rebellion strategy game

If you’re even tangentially in Star Warsyou know the score: Andor it’s hot shit. I mean that in a good way, not the bantha poodoo way. After Rise of Skywalker did everything it could to cure me of the disease that is my longtime Star Wars fandom, Andor is finally giving me something exciting enough to reinvigorate my interest in this universe, and thus, Naturally, now I think about how what Andor presents could be applied in the world of video games.

The best Star Wars gaming content we’ve had lately – make that what you want.

Andor is about fighting fascism, really. Star Wars has always had this weird problem of being a fun, whimsical space opera for kids, while also having one of its key factions clearly Nazi-inspired, so the villains have to be space opera goofballs at the same time. At the same time, the guys who can be beaten up by teddy bears, but also terrifying and willing to put a torture robot on innocents.

That means Andor sometimes doesn’t exactly fit in with all the rest of Star Wars. In fact, I think this is usually true with the best of the franchise; when one part decides to stick with what it is and not worry too much about how it reflects on the rest of the series.

Andor’s world of paranoid rebels and an empire that casually throws in bizarre genocide here and there aligns with the kids’ movies and shows, but at the same time not just by virtue of its stark brutality. It says a lot that this series was happy to set multiple episodes within the relentless and sterile routine of a labor camp where people are worked to death, in a universe where free robotic labor also exists. Andor spends many of these episodes in silence, without speaking: there is nothing to say, and he, like the audience, witnesses the brutality.

But there are also the exciting things, of course. There’s explosive action here and there, and it’s in this that you can start to see the contours of where a video game might take place. Everyone wants to play as a Jedi and wield a lightsaber, but I think this is a much more interesting side of the Rebellion to explore: narrow streets beset with tension, where nervous soldiers holding all the power eye every citizen. with suspicion. , because each could be an enemy. And when things do break out, you can’t predict the scale of what might happen: it could be a guerrilla attack or a city-wide riot. There is a wide variety of possible combat scenarios that many game developers would find fertile ground.

But the more interesting side of all of this is probably the status of the Star Wars Irregular Rebellion at this point in the series’ timeline. At this point, in particular, it is the rebellion, not the Rebel Alliance. This is key, because it means there’s an interesting additional factor at play: there are different kinds of rebels, and they don’t all sing from the same score.

In Andor, these are represented by three figures that curiously come from different eras of Star Wars. Mon Mothma is a rebel leader seen in the original trilogy, here still a senator within the faux democracy of the Empire’s machine, working against it from the inside while terrified of discovery. Then there’s Saw Gerrera, a deranged Clone Wars veteran with roots in cartoons, brought to live-action with a deliciously reality-defying accent from Forest Whitaker. Saw is the rebel without much of a tactic, honestly. Consumed by anger and hatred, he wants only to burn down the Empire, no matter the cost. In just a few scenes of Andor, he is shown to be quietly dangerous, able to go from friend to foe in an instant.

Then, new to Andor, there’s Luthen Rael. A mysterious man leading a double life as luxury store owner and rebellious kingmaker, he has a ship packed with gadgets that would make James Bond blush and a brooding fury that means he’ll do just about anything for the greater good. He’s hands down the most interesting character on the show, and not because idiot fans with the intelligence of tweens think he could be a fallen Jedi. He is interesting because of who he is, not because of who he might have once been.

Anyway, what interests me the most is the interplay between these three different forms of rebellion and the characters beneath them. It’s the deals and the haggling: factions working to achieve the same goals, but not together. Share resources, keep secrets. Working together against the Empire, but also sometimes, quietly, against each other. Some of these people hate each other, but they also need each other. Such is the power of the Empire.

Star Wars lore obviously dictates that eventually these factions come together, forming the Rebel Alliance. This is one of those occasions where those two words, likely penned by Lucas on the spur of the moment after several whiskeys in a late-night writing session, are giving storytellers decades later interesting foundations. But this particular base feels… perfect for gaming.

I keep thinking of a strategy game; maybe something like XCOM, which keeps popping up in my head because of course XCOM 2 is as much a game about guerrilla resistance as it is one of the best strategy games of all time. This is one of those port ideas where the source material is so mature that I can pretty much already see the game fully formed in my mind: largely melee, tactical, turn-based, or real-time combat; either could work, but with a layer of strategy that focuses heavily on not only avoiding the empire, but also navigating factional fights among the rebels.

Players would have to face the choices that characters like Saw, Luthen, and Mon have to make. When to make sacrifices, when to attack, when to alert allies, and when to let them collapse. As an idea, I find it fascinating.

But my highly specific gameplay idea aside, it has to be said: well done Andor. I’ve enjoyed some recent Star Wars games (especially Jedi Fallen Order), but this show is the first time in decades that my mind is positively buzzing with the idea of ​​games in this universe. I hope the style and tone that Andor describes is drawn out further, hopefully in our interactive medium.

In any case. If you haven’t, check out Andor, okay? And he plays XCOM 2. Then he envisions a crossover between the two. Health.