Folks have been modding lightsabers and Star Wars characters into Bethesda’s various open-world games for as long as modders have been poking around in the code of the developer’s Creation Engine. But it wasn’t until Starfield came along that we had a Bethesda game whose setting was naturally conducive to an ultimate Star Wars fantasy. Starfield’s 1000-plus star systems, its gorgeously rendered planets and customizable ships, have begged for modders to transform this vast digital space into a simulation of that beloved galaxy, far, far away. Since its launch in 2023, Starfield has received numerous mods, many of which are Star Wars-themed. But one project, Star Wars Genesis, aims to assemble the best that modders have put together.
I recently went through the laborious install process (made even harder if you don’t own a Nexusmods Premium account) and had a chance to chat with the project lead, DeityVengy, about what inspired the project, what it’s been like putting it all together, and what the future holds for Genesis.
First, let’s back up a bit. Star Wars Genesis isn’t a mod itself, but rather a collection of mods all assembled with a handy installer known as wabbajack. The process of installing will require a Jedi Master’s level of meditative patience. It’s extensive. Needing to click through so many mods, dealing with a few that failed on install the first time (wrestling with my damn storage drives that are always virtually at capacity didn’t help), and then finally running the game with this gargantuan list took me some time. So be prepared for a lengthy and fairly involved process–and know you still may run into some issues while installing or even when you try to run it.
By some miracle of the Force, I, a woman who notoriously screws up mod installs, had Star Wars Genesis up and running on first boot and…Wow. Despite some framerate issues (I’m only running a 3070ti for a mod that recommends a darn 4090), it is impressive how readily Starfield can be transformed into a Star Wars sim. Some existing planets and cities are lightly transformed from their original state. Mars, for example, and its mining city from the base game serve as Geonosis now. Tatooine, which looks like it uses one of Starfield’s many desert worlds, is now home to a recreation of Mos Eisley–and walking around this dreaded hive of scum and villainy feels uncanny. But it’s not only textures, buildings, and new NPC models that fill the space. There’s a dedicated questline that does an impressive job of repurposing and tweaking the base game’s main quest, Constellation, with modified voicelines that swaps the UC Vanguard for the Empire and the Freestar Rangers for the Rebel Alliance.
Genesis takes place in an alternate take on what happens roughly 10 years following the events of Revenge of the Sith. It’s a fitting spot in the timeline for DeityVengy as Episode III is their favorite Star Wars film. “I kinda grew up in the prequel era,” they told me, “and naturally I ended up liking Revenge of the Sith.” They credit “shows like Clone Wars, Kenobi, and Ashoka” with having helped rehabilitate the once-maligned prequel era. Bear in mind, though, that Genesis isn’t set on delivering the most lore-accurate Star Wars experience.
It’s still working within the bounds of what Starfield has to offer, plus, as explained in the project’s lore page, setting this mod project in an alternate universe means the player doesn’t just need to “fight the Empire, Crime Faction 1, and Crime Faction 2” as players do in so many Star Wars games that try to stick more closely to the lore. “Just look at Force Unleashed,” DeityVengy says. “Is it canon? No. Is it better than Star Wars Outlaws or the Jedi Survivor series story-wise? Hell yes.”
Some may take issue with that last assessment of the recent Star Wars games, but it speaks to DeityVengy’s vision of this mod project firmly being “fanon, including what [they] consider the best aspects of every era.”
Given the name of the project, I was curious about how this all started. Where does one get the impulse and the fortitude to assemble such an ambitious collection of mods, each from different modders, into one, fully working Star Wars sim? The project, DeityVengy told me, “started as a simple one-off video for my YouTube channel about one-and-a-half years ago. After the initial video blew up and more people got interested in it, I just had more motivation to keep it going and started working on my mods. It really [kicked off] after I made my main quest which completely rewrote Starfield’s main quest, and then there was another spike recently when I replaced New Atlantis with Coruscant.”
But even with a love of Star Wars and a host of fans eager to jump into a total conversion project, DeityVengy still had some big hurdles to overcome. “For the longest time,” they told me, “the biggest challenge was a modding limitation that Starfield had for about a year where you could only have around 100 or so mods installed until your game became unplayable.” That limitation proved to be an opportunity for DeityVengy, one “that ended up being the foundation for a few of my big overhaul mods such as Armor Compendium, which makes Genesis possible today. It really just forced me to be concise and organized when I was learning how to mod. Without that initial challenge, the project would be a lot less organized and a lot buggier.”
For those of us eager to wield a laser sword (yes, I called it that), there’s a bit of disappointment awaiting you at the end of the install process. “There are a few lightsaber mods out there,” they told me, “but I really refuse to add them unless their implementation is perfect, and that’s just unfortunately not possible without Bethesda releasing their animation framework tools.” Dodging and better third-person melee animations are really what DeityVegny seems to need to make the experience of wielding a lightsaber feel as good as it presently does to touch down in Mos Eisley and chill with some Jawas.
Up next on their plate are some faction quest rewrites. The current mod list features a full rebranding of the game’s factions. House Va’ruun, for example, are now a roaming band of Sith zealots. “I’m taking a lot of inspiration from the success of Andor and am keeping it as a grounded story,” they said about the upcoming faction overhauls. “The Rebellion questline that I’m working on is going to be a much more Andor-esque story where you’re just a regular person solving a problem for the Rebel Alliance.”
Star Wars Genesis is currently on version 8.2.0, with the project having started in June of 2024 and receiving regular updates since then. The next version, 8.3, is just around the corner, promising over 1,000 new voicelines for the main quest. The install page recommends waiting for this new update if you’re new to the project. At the very least, it’s a good opportunity to do a fresh install of Starfield in anticipation as the process of getting everything up and running is made easier when you completely clear your computer of any trace of the old install.
I’ve only spent a couple of hours poking around in DeityVegny’s take on the Star Wars universe, but from the opening moments on, with the iconic sights and sounds of Star Wars filling my eyes and ears, it’s clear I’ll be venturing to this version of one of the most beloved fictional galaxies of all time a hell of a lot more.
