Ryan Taylor
The long-rumored Black Panther game from EA has finally been officially announced. Not to be confused with the as-yet-untitled Marvel game from Skydance Studios which will also feature Black Panther as a playable character alongside Captain America and led by Amy Hennig of Uncharted fame, this solo adventure is being developed by Cliffhanger Games, a new studio comprised of God of War, Shadow of Mordor, and Halo Infinite Veterans.
This marks the second collaboration between EA and Marvel, following the announcement of an open-world, Unreal Engine 5 Iron Man project by Motive, the developers behind the well-received Dead Space remake.
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The Black Panther Game and what we know so far
The Black Panther project is a third-person, open-world game set in a Wakanda that is described as “expansive and reactive” in the official EA blog post.
As far as official information, that’s all we have to go on. However, there have been some rumors surrounding this project as far back as July last year. Reliable industry insider Jeff Grubb confirmed a Black Panther game was in development by a new studio, published by EA and led by former Monolith VP Kevin Stephens. He described it as an open-world, single-player game. All of this has been proven to be accurate.
“We’re thrilled to announce Cliffhanger Games, a new triple-A development studio based in Seattle, is working on an original, third-person, single-player Black Panther game in collaboration with Marvel Games. Our mission is to build an expansive and reactive world that empowers players to experience what it is like to take on the mantle of Wakanda’s protector, the Black Panther.”
One piece of information that has yet to be confirmed, however, is that the player will not assume the role of T’challa, the original and most famous iteration of Black Panther. Instead, the player will create their own character that takes on the mantle of protector of Wakanda. This quote from the announcment blog does seem to suggest it could be accurate:
“We want our game to enable players to feel what it’s like to be worthy of the Black Panther mantle in unique, story-driven ways, and we want Cliffhanger Games to empower everyone on our team as we collaborate to bring this amazing world to life.”
If true, this is certainly a bold decision by Cliffhanger, with fans giving mixed opinions when the leaks came out. Many voiced concerns that a Black Panther game without T’challa is not doing the character justice. Interestingly, the other triple-A project featuring Black Panther from Skydance Studios will also not feature T’challa, instead shining a spotlight on his grandfather, Azzuri.
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Players have been much more open to this, however, as the Skydance game is set during World War II. It makes sense within the context of the game’s story and setting.
For a full-blown Black Panther solo game set in presumably the modern day? It wouldn’t feel right to have a Batman game where rather than being Bruce Wayne, you create your own character that becomes Batman, and it doesn’t feel right for T’challa either.
Hopefully, this information is outdated and Cliffhanger has since abandoned this direction.
T’challa deserves respect.
What do you make of the news? Will you be following the development closely? Let us know in the comments!
Source: EA
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