Boba Fett’s First Dive Into the Underworld Revealed
The Star Wars franchise is famous not only for its many finished productions but also for its countless canceled projects. Yet among those, few are quite as painful as the loss of 1313, an open-world action-adventure starring the Mandalorian Boba Fett.
Set on the titular 1313th level of the city-planet Coruscant, the game would’ve seen Fett star in the first M-rated Star Wars game. It would’ve touched on similar story beats and locales as the similarly ill-fated TV show Star Wars: Underworld.
In a twist of irony, the Book of Boba Fett has since merged these ideas with a much gentler edge. For fans who desire a more interactive experience, 1313 remains far more in line with what they dreamed of. Thanks to The Vault, we have a proper understanding of that dream made reality, if for a fleeting few minutes.
While fans did get to see a demo (embedded below) for Star Wars 1313, it was never one with Fett at the helm. Originally set to star a new protagonist, George Lucas would later mandate that young Boba Fett be made the lead.
Until now, the only commonly known footage of the version starring Fett was a handful of screenshots. Here, we not only see a fully implemented graybox level with working gameplay but a brief bit of exploration through a city street. 1313 was planned as a return to form for LucasArts developing projects internally after years of indecisive leadership.
Though it’s relatively early in development, the build of 1313 shows considerable promise, evoking LucasArts’ classic Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, starring Boba’s papa Jango. There’s a fair bit of inspiration clearly drawn from Uncharted and Grand Theft Auto as well, particularly in the setting and presentation.
Other Glimpses of the Lost Game
Those with a keen eye will spot three different abilities in the HUD. One of the abilities appears to be flamethrower, while the other is either a rocket or saber dart. What’s hardest to discern is the center ability, which appears to be on a recharge timer rather than an ammo count, with a swirling sphere containing an icon. Let us know what you think this ability could be in the comments below!
As of now, this is potentially the third of three known playable demos. Besides the public reveal demo at E3, an unfinished 15-minute demo was shown to IGN featuring Boba Fett chasing down a Trandoshan bounty through a marketplace.
It’s hard to discern if the target in this demo is a Trandoshan, so this may either be a slice of the IGN demo or a separate demo entirely. It appears that some of the animation reel shown at the end may be depicting the start of this encounter. A towering target charges through a wall while Fett dives in after him, as described in subsequent write-ups.
None of this new footage would’ve come to light without the tireless efforts of the Free Radical Archive. This community of fans has preserved a mountain of information on the development and downfall of Free Radical’s Battlefront 3 and 4.
They’ve also dug up interesting tidbits on The Force Unleashed, Haze, and Indiana Jones & The Staff of Kings. They even recovered Pandemic’s original pitch for Battlefront as “Star Wars: The Front Line”. This latest find of 1313 footage was released in celebration of The Vault’s 6th anniversary.
As Star Wars fans, we salute their efforts. Maybe when they’re done making Jedi: Fallen Order games, Respawn can see about exploring these ideas in a new game. In the meantime, members of the Archive are also hard at work recreating Battlefront 3 in the original Battlefront 2 with the mod Battlefront 3: Legacy, which you can try for free now on PC!
