User Review : Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Ups

• It's a Star Wars game{Superb voice acting...JAMES EARL JONES{Upgrade your force powers, lightsaber, and even wardrobe

Downs

• Quite linear
• no alternate paths to take throughout the levels{Camera can get in the way, bugs are abundant in later levels{Its only selling point is the Star Wars name

The Force Unleashed sure feels like its on a leash

I am pretty sure when we all saw the original trailers for the SW: Force Unleashed we all died a little inside…from sheer excitement. Seeing the ability to bring down a star destroyer made all of us Star Wars geeks pee our pants with excitement. The Star Wars name in video games never really has led to much disappointment, mostly because we are all a little bias inside for George Lucas’ alternate reality that I am sure most of us at least wanted to be a part of sometime in our life. Sure there are those select games that we truly ask…wtf? We’re looking at you SW: Super Bombad Racing, but all in all in the last decade Star Wars fan have been given justice for their beloved franchise. Everything from your typical action game, to RPGs, and even as far as MMO games.

Here we are with a rather intriguing concept of an idea with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. It’s a game meant to tie in the gap between Episode III and Episode IV, which is the longest gap in the Star Wars era (20 some years). You were to follow the role of an apprentice of Darth Vader, a concept in which was most likely thought of after the fact of the original storyline for Vader as we never heard of such a thing in the actual movies following the event. Now given my Star Wars love, I had high expectations for this game. I expected cinematics that resembled production values a la Metal Gear Solid; I expected key plot twists that would better explain the Star Wars story for Episodes IV - VI. In short, I expected the world out of this game. While the game delivers on some aspects, its certainly not everything and other fans expected. It’s a solid effort, but truly if this game didn’t carry the Star Wars license I don’t know really what to think of it.

You start off in the game as…whoa nelly, Darth friggin' Vader. Who would have thought you played as the giant himself. Your goal is to search for the disruption in the force, later to be named your apprentice. It acts as a basic rundown of all the force powers you may learn in later levels. Darth Vader comes fully equipped, with saber throw, force choke, a variety of combos, and of course the trademark breathing. After a little hack n slash of some poor (but extremely buff) Wookies on Kashyyk you find your future apprentice in the form of a young boy.

Immediately you spring forward to adulthood and begin your training to become a Sith Lord, under the teachings of Darth Vader. You begin with little to no knowledge of the force. Basically your lightsaber is your only tool of destruction for right now, but that soon changes after just a few short missions. The goal of the game is to level up as much as possible, and trust me, being as advanced as you can truly does help in later missions. Scattered throughout each level to help you level up and improve aside from combat are Force spheres, Lightsaber crystals, and Force points. They come in the form of glowing yellowish cubes, that are usually in hard to reach areas and areas that you don’t need to progress through to advance throughout the level. These cubes will help you level up so that you can improve your force powers to become a stronger, more well equipped fighter.

Also scattered throughout each level are temporary “power ups.” They come in the form of red 3-D triangles and they can allow you to regenerate health, restore your force meter, give you unlimited force energy, stealth health from your enemies, and a few others. These help you in combat though are not needed to collect. They are recommended to be hunted and used in later levels, especially the last one.

The one flaw with The Force Unleashed is that, while it’s suppose to be a tie-in with the movie franchise there are a lot of moments where you ask yourself, what the? For instance with the wide array of enemies you face. Now hats off to the developers for giving us a decent selection of enemies to face but where were all these enemies in the movies? The same can be asked about different troops from Episodes II and III. We all know that the clones were eventually turned into the Storm Troopers, but where were the Imperial Flying troopers in the movies? Also the entire plotline itself can be called into question. The story revolving around the plotline is completely friendly to the Star Wars saga (the rebellion against the empire) but when did Darth Vader ever have an apprentice? It is just me nitpicking but that's what I do in times like this. Star Wars is known for many different plotlines but never having much depth to it. It’s not about that.

It’s all about the combat and computer graphics glory. You see, Star Wars tried the whole story thing in Episode I…while it is one of the highest grossing films of all time, it’s also the least favorite film amongst fans. I personally didn’t mind it much, sure the little kid got on my nerves too but I can see where Lucas was going with it. But lets be honest, we aren’t fans of Star Wars for politicial debates and corrupt leaders…we are in it for lightsaber battles and the force. That is where this game shines. If you have ever wanted to be able to just go out there with a lightsaber in your hand and the force backing you up, this is the game for you. Sure, it can get repetitive repeating the same combos and force powers over again but what action game doesn’t get repetitive in nature. Think of it this way, when you played SW: Battlefront II (and if you haven’t, well, go buy it now) and were playing Heroes mode in Mos Eisley, this game is everything you wanted from that. You could play as a number of different Jedi and Sith lords in that mode on that one map - The Force Unleashed expands that to an entire game.

Your goal in the game is simple - find any leads to talks of a rebellion and destroy them. Since you are supposedly a secret apprentice Vader wants you to eliminate everyone that crosses your path, including Imperial troops. Unfortunately the game in itself is quite linear. There are multiple endings but the last mission is the only time you have an alternate path to take. Other than that, there is a set path you must take throughout each level. There are no work arounds or different ways of proceeding. Sure if an enemy is too tough for you you can skip them sometimes but for the most part anything that movies must be eliminated. I did expect this game to be more open in nature. Not necessarily free roaming or an open world but rather more variety of exploration.

Throughout the the entire game you will run into recurring characters from the movies, most notably Princess Leia (whom I never expected to see in the game), and “father” Senator Organa (played by Jimmy Smits). If you recall from Episode IV when Leia sends the transmission to Obi Wan Kenobi via R2-D2 she mentions how her father needed Obi Wan’s help, well you get to see why he needs his help through this game. It’s not as cinematic as we all hoped but it does explain a few loose ends. I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of recurring characters as we did but won’t spoil who else we get to see (though let me say that half of them are deceiving lead ons by a sidekick of yours).

Like many games before it, Force Unleashed utilizes quicktime events. It was brought to the mainstream via God of War and has since been used in a multiple of third person action games like Heavenly Sword and The Bourne Conspiracy. The quicktime events are rather simple and are pretty forgiving. If you fail to successfully pull off a quicktime event you simply get struck by your enemy and can start over from the beginning of the sequence. It’s an element I don’t mind seeing as the finishing moves are brought to you in action cam style, but I do notice that there is not a wide variety of finishing moves.

Where the game shines is the amount of combos and upgrades that are available to you, after you earn them of course. Stated earlier I mentioned you started off barebones with just a lightsaber and generic powers. As you complete each sequence of each level you can upgrade your powers. On your HUD you will notice three bars on the top left. The red one being health, the blue one being force energy and the in-between one that blends in is your upgrade progression bar. The more enemies you face and defeat, the more the bar increases. Of course you can speed up that bar by collecting those force point cubes I mentioned earlier. The combos are rather easy to memorize, as if you simply just button mash your controller your bound to pull off multiple combos without even realizing it. I recommend upgrading your Force Lightning the earliest, as it becomes an ideal force power in the game and probably the force power I used most.

Star Wars: Force Unleashed can be defeated in roughly 7-8 hours. It is a surprisingly challenging game at times, sometimes due to camera issues or bugs but mostly because the enemies do put a good fight on occasion. There are side activities to each mission but requires no exploration aside from finding the holocrons (force cubes) that are usually in hard to reach areas. Most side activities require you to defeat a certain enemy (depending on the level) so many times, or to cause a certain event to take place. The player is deprived of any interesting side activities for the most part, which is a shame. Given the world that the game takes place in there was a lot of possibility to make this a content heavy game, rather than a linear (though entertaining) single player experience. There is some replay value to go back and collect all holocrons and unlock all the locked content but all in all the motivation isn’t there. And there are multiple endings but you can pretty much predict the alt. ending from the one you chose to take.

Overall, any Star Wars fan would themselves justice to last rent this game, if not buy if you see it for a good price. Though it has its flaws, it certainly was an enjoyable experience that I would recommend to any fan of the franchise. Keep in mind, the Star Wars license is it’s only selling point - without it I wouldn’t see myself recommending it much. For those not a fan of the franchise or simply short on cash, it’s a weekend rental for you as it won’t take extraordinarily long to beat. Given the current condition at LucasArts I highly doubt us seeing a sequel or a similar game to come out of this, which is a shame as this could be a building block for better things to come. Till we see otherwise, may the force be with you.

Score

7.5

Graphics

8.5

Sound

8.6

Gameplay

7.8

Fun Factor

Overall

7.9