Imperial Assault’s long-awaited companion app resurfaces with co-op campaign

After more than a year in development and months of radio silence, it looks like the companion app to Imperial Assault is finally nearing completion, as Fantasy Flight teases more details about the digital tie-in for the beloved Star Wars game.

Now titled Legends of the Alliance, the Imperial Assault app will look familiar to fans of Fantasy Flight’s other app-assisted games such as Mansions of Madness.

In a similar vein to the horror adventure game’s second edition, the idea is for the app to take over complete control of the enemy forces and scenario events normally used by the opposing Empire player, leaving a group of up to four Alliance players able to play the game in full co-op.

This fully co-op mode will include a new campaign separate to the existing campaign and skirmish game called Flight of the Freedom Fighter, comprising five missions set after the Death Star is destroyed at the end of A New Hope.

The app also offers a tutorial to outline the differences between normal Imperial Assault gameplay and the modes using the app.

Legends of the Alliance will outline each mission with an introduction and setup instructions, but expands the way that missions play out with a new way of revealing the map tile by tile as players explore each environment and open certain doors – again, similar to Mansions of Madness’ slow reveals and surprises.

The virtual opponent will trigger events and activate units during each game, with the Stormtroopers, Imperial officers and Darth Vader all apparently programmed with unique AI styles and differing strategies.

When players finish a mission, they’ll be able to spend credits to acquire new skills and equipment, which are tracked in the app and can be saved between sessions.

While the app will only support the Imperial Assault core set to begin with, Fantasy Flight has said that future updates will introduce the ability to mix in the game’s various ally and villain packs, plus additional campaigns.

The app’s release date remains unclear, with only a promise of a download date ‘soon’, but the new glut of details hopefully means it should make the 2017 launch period Fantasy Flight reiterated at the beginning of the year.