Over the years, we've seen many different kinds of Star Wars games released on a variety of platforms. Most fans of a galaxy far, far away have seen just about every type of video game and nearly every genre covered by the franchise, for better or worse. Regardless of how good or bad they turned out, Star Wars fans love to play video games based on their favorite franchise. But even with so many types of games available to play, there are some parts of gaming that we've yet to see tackled by the Star Wars franchise.

One thing I've never truly seen done is a Star Wars horror game. In mediums like books and comics, there have been Star Wars stories that have a horror theme to them. Some fans have gone above and beyond to create fan projects that address this, but Lucasfilm and Disney have not done anything official to date. And it may be an avenue that could be an interesting path to success. Here's why I need Disney and Lucasfilm to release a Star Wars horror game at some point.

Horror in a galaxy far, far away

The examples that have worked

One of the most attractive aspects of Star Wars as a franchise has been its ability to include nearly every type of genre of storytelling in some way. Despite the franchise itself being an established take on sci-fi adventure and action, the types of stories we've gotten outside the main movies have branched out in many ways. Even some of the newer Disney+ series have pushed further the aspects of Star Wars that involved the western genre and other types of films. With horror, there are some examples that have worked out well with fans in places like official novels, comics, and some video games.

Star Wars fans are familiar with stories like Death Troopers, a novel written by Joe Schreiber in 2009 that is considered part of Star wars Legends. The premise of the story takes place about a year before the events of the first Star Wars movie, and tells the tale of an Imperial unit sent to scavenge for parts, only to encounter a deadly virus called Blackwing that creates zombies. The novel was popular enough to have elements of its story included in updates for the Star Wars Galaxies MMO game, where players could get details about what happened. It was an interesting take on part of the Star Wars universe that was different and worked out well with fans, but was never expanded upon when the Disney buyout of Lucasfilm happened.

But other small glimmers of horror were able to show up in other Star Wars games, like Star Wars Battlefront 2 from Electronic Arts. The Ewok Hunt mode has players taking on the roles of Stormtroopers who survived on Endor following the destruction of the second Death Star, and others who play as Ewoks that hunt them down. While still managing to be competitive and have the action that Battlefront 2 is known for, the mode itself is still horror-like in a way that makes the Ewoks scary, given the context. The Stormtroopers are hunted down at night as they try to escape the aftermath of the battle, but the Ewoks use stealth tactics and the cover of night to eliminate them. It's a good basis for something that could be taken even further into scarier territory, especially with the element of survival being a main focus.

Fan horror Star Wars games

When the fans are up for the task

Despite nothing official being released by Lucasfilm or any game developer, some fans have taken it upon themselves to create projects that push Star Wars into the horror genre. One of the most popular fan games on the internet was Deathtroopers, created by Stefano Cagnani V3. The game is heavily inspired by the Death Troopers novel and puts players into the role of a nameless Stormtrooper that fights to survive an onslaught of zombie Imperials hunting them down. The easiest comparison of its gameplay would be to something like the newer Resident Evil remake games.

What makes this work so well is that the fan game still feels right as a Star Wars experience, despite being a graphic zombie game at heart. The visuals of undead Stormtroopers gathering and lunging at you is very creepy and will freak out some people, but it doesn't get too far into absurdity to feel out of place within the Star Wars galaxy. As a Star Wars fan, I could appreciate the level of detail that went into making it seem like the game can fit nicely into the ongoing continuity of the franchise. It may not be something officially made by Lucasfilm, but it shows that the concept is definitely worth them exploring at some point.

Another fan project that puts together a Star Wars horror experience is Project Blackwing, which is also inspired by the Death Troopers novel. The main difference with this fan game is that it's a first-person shooter, designed similarly to FPS classics like Quake and Doom. But instead of non-stop action, the focus is on setting a creepy atmosphere that scares players. It's a very different approach that can still work within the setting of the universe. And once again, it shows that the horror genre and Star Wars can mesh very well together.

How deep to go into horror?

Where the line can be drawn for Star Wars?

While those fan projects are interesting and fun to explore, the sad reality is that Star Wars is a franchise that needs to have mass appeal. And the image of bloody and zombified Stormtroopers, or disassembled bodies of characters, may not be the direction that Disney and Lucasfilm would take. There have been examples of boundaries being pushed in Star Wars media before, but even then it wasn't to the extreme that the horror genre could normally go to show a great story.

So where can the line be drawn? Great horror games or stories don't always need to be super gory and graphic to be interesting. The Resident Evil series with its survival horror experience didn't always need to show a bloody zombie or something gruesome to be scary. That same kind of approach can be done for something like Star Wars in a game, focusing more on making a player feel the tension and letting their imagination run wild with it.

That doesn't mean we can't have zombie Stormtroopers in some way. Tackling the concept with the same type of vibe that Star Wars Battlefront 2 had with the Ewok Hunt mode may be the type of approach needed. It might be the best compromise to make an official Star Wars horror game work in this day and age under Disney and Lucasfilm. There's clearly a demand for it with the success of the fan games online, and with Lucasfilm looking for more ways to make Star Wars even more popular among the masses, there's nothing to really stop them from trying it out.

A galaxy of endless stories

Because of how versatile the franchise is, Star Wars games could go in many directions and still be successful with fans. Most of the genres in video games have already been done for the franchise in some way over the nearly 50-year history of Star Wars, and there's not many other new places to go. But horror games seem like an interesting genre to explore that could provide a fresh experience for Star Wars fans that have continued to support it for a long time. Maybe exploring the dark side of horror games could be something for Disney and Lucasfilm to push Star Wars even further towards larger appeal in the coming years.