Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Review

The Exploding Barrel's Mark Fujii got his hands on an early copy of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Check out his full review.

Quote:
"Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has a lot to live up to. The hype generated by the early tech demos and then its impressive trailers has been enormous. But hype is a double edged sword. While it serves the purpose of exciting fans into anticipating its release, it also considerably raises the expectations set for the game. But does Lucas Art's latest Star Wars title justify the hype, or is this another title doomed to disappoint its fans?"

[chaosatom]

They could have borrowed its control from Psi-Ops, and the game would have ranked in 9s or something.

The enemies were not good either ino. They had lots of them but weren't really smart.

[Pebz]

"The enemies were not good either ino. They had lots of them but weren't really smart."

True to Star Wars canon at least.

I reckon the game will somewhat crumble under all the unmet expectations, but I thought the demo was quite fun and it could be worthwhile anyway.

[Nevers]

Soooooo true !

And I had a blast with the demo too. I'll be picking this game up... maybe not at launch but down the road for sure.

Wish it had a multiplayer element cuz all my friends liked the demo and we all want to force push Tie-Fighters at each other.

[Nevers]

(( o)(o ))

[Peekay]

a bit of a shame. The engine totally kick ass. Imagine giving someone like capcom the gameplay elements. This could have been the perfect game...

[tethered]

Capcom? Really?

How would they have made the gameplay elements better?
I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
I can see that other people would like an explanation too, going by the disagrees.

Please explain.

By the way I didn't hit disagree yet.

[Peekay]

rock and are fun to play, be it for the technical hard core or button smashers. This game seriously lacks "fun" fighting mechanics.
Why what are you implying?

[tethered]

Peekay, I guess its just the fact that when I hear the name Capcom the first game that comes to mind is RE. I knew there are other Capcom games but I usually only buy their RE series.

Now I see what you were talking about.

DMC would be good gameplay for this game.

I'll hit agree.

[ReBurn]

I'm still getting it.

[Cajun Chicken]

Not the only one. After playing the demo I could certainly do with more of thr Psi-Ops like gameplay, I was just a bit annoyed they didn't appear to put something like 'object surfing' in.
Looks great fun, I loved the way you can form a chain of stormtroopers as they hold hands and dangle in the air, lol.

[OGharryjoysticks]

But I liked the demo for Conan better than TFU

[kingme71]

I enjoyed Conan, except for some of the flawed boss battles.

"You scrap like a woman"

[ape007]

liked it so much,it's so good,I don't know why some didn't like it

the graphics are good and has a star wars feel to them

the soundtracks are amazing

the control is easy

the gameplay is well done,nice combat,a force grip system that never gets old

amazing physics

you got so many ways to beat enemies

I really loved it and gonna buy it DAY 1

don't forget the the final game will have more varied levels,more combos,more force moves,leveling system

I mean this game pwns

[Cajun Chicken]

Yep, same here. I just think people expect too much from games these days. Exactly what I expected it to look and play like.

[CViper]

I loved the demo. Already pre-ordered.

Cajun you are 100% right.. Everyone has retarded expectations hwen it comes to certaingames...

but for bs "AAA" games, its like the review book goes out the window. And they just praise them to high heaven with mediocre gameplay.

this game has a learning curve. After that, its great.

[cyclindk]

Pretty much agree with this review...still getting it though, I enjoyed the demo.

[Droid]

poor tech demo

[Equinoxe_7]

Hmm, what?

[Mutley416]

I can`t deal with a button masher right now...Socom Beta/ And alittle BF is all i need til RFOM2 & COD5 come...I`ll rent it for the kids, that way I can watch the story unfold without mashing all the buttons...lol

But the kids are still enjoying MGS4....hmmmm

[DeadlyFire]

No Decapitation? :( Lucasarts has it really been that long since you made a good Jedi game. It saddens me that you don't allow the player to take a few limbs off the enemy. Have you forgotten what a lightsaber actually can do to someone? The rating has nothing to do with decapitation though. Jedi Academy has Decapitation and its rated T for Teen.

I suggest Lucasarts stop trying to make games and go back to publishing and let an expert like Raven Software(They made Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy) make the game. Not perfect, but best lightsaber/force combat games to date though.

[Proxy]

I know what it can do. It can cut somebody right through the torso and take a good 20% off their health.

Serious though, I think were mistaking it for a lightsabber when it's really just a powerful flashlight. It dosn't cut, but when you flash it across someone it gives them a really bad sunburn and after 4 or 5 flashes it becomes to much and they die.

[Karum]

I'll still be getting this game, I enjoyed the demo and am too big a Star Wars fan not to get it lol.

Makes me wanna fire up Jedi Academy again too, used to love the multiplayer in that game too. TFU with multiplayer would have been pretty sick I think.

[lordgodalming]

Another reviewer complaining that he can't take someone's head off with a lightsaber. And we Americans wonder why the rest of the world thinks we're sadistic violence addicts. If I recall, there wasn't a single lightsaber decapitation in the original (good) trilogy, with the exception of Ben Kenobi, who simply vanished when he died. No gouts of blood, no comical head-rolling-down-a-staircase scene afterward. The first true lightsaber decapitation came in Ep. II (Jango Fett), and that movie sucked b4lls.

Note to reviewer: using the word "myriad" twice in your review doesn't make you sound any smarter.

[Proxy]

Your just envious of the myriad of words in my gargantumongus vocabularies.

[Eiffel]

Um, I believe a certain person named luke had his arm sabered off by his father, and Darth Maul was decapitated at the torso, so your logic is flawed.

but + for effort and proving a point.

[tehk1w1]

If I remember correctly, Jedi Outcast II sported lightsaber dismemberment (via a cheat code admittedly) that if memory serves made the game about a hundred times cooler than it already was. Oh, and for the record, the first scene of dismemberment AND blood takes place in Episode IV (or the FIRST movie) when Obi-Wan slashes off that dude's arm in the cantina so asking for limb amputation via lightsabers in a video game isn't that unrealistic of a request.

And how anal retentive do you have to be to count how many times someone uses a word? Nit picking about choice of vocab doesn't make you sound witty nor intellectual. Quite the contrary it just makes you sound like a giant douchebag.

[lordgodalming]

I even gave you an agree. I was referring to decapitations specifically because that's what the reviewer complained about, but you're absolutely right about the cantina scene in Ep. IV. However, I must disagree that the dismemberment code in Jedi Outcast made the game cooler. It just turned stormtroopers into a big pile of arms that had no collision detection.

And as far as being linguistically anal retentive, I'm guilty as charged! In fact, if you want me be to be an even BIGGER butthole, I could point out that proper use of the term "myriad" doesn't require the use of "of" afterward. But I'll restrain myself.

PS: Excellent use of the word "douchebag." And thanks for spelling it correctly.

PPS: It's obvious that you're a good writer and that you're VERY angry about my first comment. Also you have a throwaway account name that you created only minutes before you posted.

You wrote the review at the top of this article, didn't you?

[Radiodread]

I don't know bout you guys but I found the demo the most entertaining piece of gameplay I've had in awhile. Aside from SoCal4 and Castle Crashers. You gata take what you can get and it looks like Lucasarts isn't gonna do much better than this.

[wharbler]

Is this like ZAGATS online...where MOST of the negative reviews are fake...
its like you know EA hires people undercover to crap all over games,
that aren't made by the same company..it goes on all the time online,
no matter if its retaurants, games, music or movie reviews....
all this word of mouth...how do we know who's opionions are real?
and who's being paid to shape popular opinion?
I mean come on guys go to zagats online...some of those reviews are copy/paste
the same band review with differnt names plugged in...its crazy...
i think you can only judge it yourself!

[tehk1w1]

@lordgodalming

I edited my message and PM'ed you instead.

I now have a woody from all this tension!