Star Citizen single-player will have ‘top-level movie cast’

Star Citizen’s single-player campaign Squadron 42 will have a top-level movie cast bigger than any other game, Cloud Imperium CEO Chris Roberts has claimed.

Speaking to Develop, Roberts said he cast Squadron 42 like he would have done during his time working in film, an industry where he spent a number of years working as a director and producer. Earlier this year, the team spent four months shooting performance capture for the game at Ealing Studios in the UK.

“We have a top-level movie cast more than any game that’s been out there, period, by a long way,” he said.

“So I cast it like I did my movies. It’s acted like the movies. We have the full performance capture, we’re pushing the tech as much as possible.”

Cloud Imperium is working with firms such as 3Lateral and Cubic Motion to help bring the single-player campaign to life. Roberts said all performances in-game will occur in real-time, rather than a pre-rendered cutscene.

“It should be different the way Wing Commander 3 and 4 felt, where you saw the scenes play out, which was kind of cool,” he said.

“But this is all fluid, first-person, in the game itself, and you’re under full control. It’s not pre-canned or anything. You’re hanging out with these people that you would know, and they’re your wingmen, your commanding officer or whatever. I think it’s going to be great.”

Roberts said the studio has yet to share too much information on the single-player element of Star Citizen as he does not want to ruin the narrative for players. He claimed however that it will "compete with the biggest triple-A games".

He added that further details on Squadron 42 will be announced at CitizenCon in Manchester on October 10th.

We’ll be publishing our full interview with Chris Roberts on the state of Star Citizen and where the crowdfunding money for one of the most expensive games of all time has been invested in the October issue of Develop magazine, which is out next week.