Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

"It’s good, but it ain’t TIE Fighter..."

Once upon a time, Lucasarts was one of the most revered games producers in the industry. Games like X-wing, The Secret of Monkey Island and Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight redefined their respective genres and set the bar for what could be accomplished with the technology of the time. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to Mr. Lucas and his company. A management shuffle of the mid-90s ushered in a new era wherein the creativity that had made Lucasarts so popular was eschewed in favour of whoring out the Star Wars licence shamelessly. Predictably, this lead to a string of low-quality games pushed out simply to make money (and there's a convincing argument to be made that this carried over to the film department as well, if the prequel trilogy is any indication). The company decided to change their tune and pull up game quality but Lucasarts, as of late, has still been plagued by a stinging bout of mediocrity that has left many fans disheartened and jaded to the franchise. The Force Unleashed (TFU) was supposed to be the game that showed the Star Wars licence isn't dead yet and has been accompanied by one of the largest advertising campaigns in Lucasarts history.

The initial prospect seemed promising: play as a rampaging Sith Apprentice and blow up, rip apart and Force Lightning anything that gets in your way. Impressive new physics engines were proudly touted and a revolutionary game was promised. But does TFU deliver? Unfortunately no.

Call me jaded to the whole Star Wars song and dance but, as a die-hard fan of the franchise who has spent many a long night softly weeping into a pillow as he watched the series tumble from gaming grace, I could only manage cautious optimism at best when thinking of TFU. I really expected little more than God of War with a Star Wars skin and the game didn't even manage to provide that.

Let's start with the graphics: they're terrible. I know the Wii is far graphically outclassed by the competition this generation, but even so, TFU just doesn't seem to have it together in the graphics department at all. The characters look downright cardboard and their monotone voices do little to alter this impression. The environments are a little better, but still feel like something out of the 64-bit gen at times.

The controls are another area that needed a bit more polish. When the Wiimote was first released, lightsaber dueling was the first thing on many a nerd's mind and this was the game that was going to bring it to life. But, unfortunately, it failed to deliver in that regard. The saber fighting (controlled by waving the Wiimote in specific directions corresponding to specific strikes) is actually rather sloppy and the game moves at such a fast pace that little time is left for finesse, which just causes you to wave the Wiimote around frantically and hope that Starkiller (your character) does something badass. Fortunately, not all of the controls are this shaky. The Force powers (handled mostly by the nunchuk) are remarkably intuitive and, after an hour or so of play, you'll be confidently tearing panels off of walls and hurling them at enemies before hosing down the survivors in a shower of Force Lightning. However, there are exceptions here too; several times I've hefted an enemy in the air and tried to send them slamming to the ground (done by flicking the nunchuk downwards) and have been left impotently waving the nunchuk at the screen as my victim quietly smiles at my inability to do anything other than lightly put him back down again. Overall the controls feel very sloppy and, while I do think the motion-sensing aspects enhance the game, they definitely needed more time and attention.

The game borrows heavily from God of War, right down to the quick-time events where you have to match the action-sequence pictured on screen with your Wiimote/nunchuk. As well, each boss fight finishes with a really cool fatality-style end sequence where Starkiller goes berserk on his foe and dispatches them in a totally sweet way, provided you hit the action cues on time. These were actually really well done and the words, “Holy crap, that's totally freakin' awesome!!” will probably come out of your lips at least once during these sequences (possibly with a few slightly less family-friendly words). If you don't see the greatness behind clambering up the side of an AT-ST, filling the interior with Force Lightning, stabbing through the vision slits with a lightsaber than hefting the whole thing in the air and crushing it into a ball of scrap metal with the Force, then you need serious help.

Unfortunately, Starkiller's huge arsenal of moves leaves no room on the controller for camera controls. The camera is incredibly aggravating with this game, happily pointing the opposite direction of the enemies you're trying to get to grips with. This is a mere annoyance when facing the usual grunt-troopers, but if you're up against a Jedi that can whip around the room at lightning speed, the unresponsive camera can make you want to pitch your Wii out the nearest window.

While we're on the subject of the interface, one thing that really bugs me about TFU is that there's no indication of when you've been hit by an attack. Your health bar goes down and sometimes your character grunts in pain, but in the heat of battle, as explosions roar around you and you're focussed on deflecting the blaster bolts from a dozen rebel troopers, these subtle cues are often hard to detect. A simple red-flash on the screen, or a rumble of the controller or something similar would have been greatly appreciated, as several times now I've had Starkiller fall to the ground dead before I even realised anyone was hitting me.

I should give a mention to the story at this point. Starkiller is every bit the withdrawn, antisocial psychopath he appears to be, and the flatness of his character is more than a little irksome, but the story itself overall seems to play out nicely. The voice acting is quite well done and, though James Earl Jones does not reprise his infamous role, his replacement is a very convincing Darth Vader sound-a-like. However, the thing that does bother me is that the game goes way over the top, even by Star Wars standards. I was expecting a fairly extravagant game and was prepared to suspend my belief a little farther than I usually do, but even I wasn't expecting what I found. Seeing your character tear a turret out of the ground and make it float above him, firing bolts into anything that draws near, just tweaks my scepticism and the hopeless nerd in me can't help but cry out “But Force Users can't do that!” It's not a major flaw, but a lot of the abilities and cutscenes feel closer to Dragonball Z than they do to Star Wars.

Now that I've painted a picture of doom and gloom for you, I will qualify my statements by saying that TFU is not a bad game and not all of its features are as terrible as what I've described. The soundtrack is excellent, with many of John Williams' signature pieces in attendance, and the gameplay is reasonably fluid, even if the controls are somewhat cumbersome at times. The much-lauded physics engine is everything its creators claimed it was and the sheer amount of STUFF each level contains that can be thrown, slammed, crushed or blown up is exceptionally impressive. That said, its glaring flaws greatly drag down the quality of what could have been an excellent game.

If I had to summarize TFU in one word, it would be “rushed.” The entire game just doesn't feel complete. Some parts of it, like the physics engine, like the Force Powers, are fantastic, but the graphics, the controls and even the level design at points seems unfinished and lacking in polish. I think a few more months in the studio is what TFU really needed, but, regrettably, never received. This vexes me, because Lucasarts is a studio notorious for doing this and I was actually gullible enough to allow myself to believe they wouldn't pull the same stunt with TFU. If the end product is anything to go off of, I was dead wrong in that assumption. Maybe one day Lucasarts will learn the truth behind that infamous phrase of legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto: “A delayed game will eventually be good; a rushed game is bad forever.”

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/08, Updated 09/25/08

Game Release: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (US, 09/16/08)