Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

"X-Play was wrong, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a great game."

As I said in the tagline, X-Play, and many other reviews gave this game a lower score than it deserved because of some things that were just minor flaws.

Anyway, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the new game made by the people at Lucas Arts that we have been hearing so much about for a long time, which lets you "kick ass with the force". The game was also meant to fill the gaps between episodes III and IV, and it did a very good job at that... so, lets light this candle.

Story: 9

As I said before, The Force Unleashed is meant to fill the holes that were left between episodes III and IV.

As the game starts off, you are Darth Vader, and you have just landed on the Wookie Homeworld of Kashyyyk, and you are searching for one of the last of the Jedi. You fight your way through the Wookies, and you find the Jedi, after he is beaten you discover his son, who was able to pull Vader's lightsaber from his hands. Vader sees how powerful he could become, and kills all of the Imperials around him, then he leaves with takes the boy.

The boy, who was codenamed "Starkiller" was trained by Darth Vader as a "Secret Apprentice" [only Vader knows who he is] in the ways of the Sith, and he is preparing Starkiller to help him kill the Emperor. So, Starkiller is sent out to kill the remaining Jedi.

I'll stop here, mainly because this is the start of the game, and I don't want to ruin too much of the story for everyone that does not have the game [that hasn't read it on the Forums yet]. But I will say that the story was told very well, and The Force Unleashed would of been a better movie than "The Clone Wars" was [which was alright, but it was just a damn disappointment considering what it could of been]. I also think that the story in this game was better than it was in most of the Prequel trilogy. The plot unfolds very well, the game makes you like Starkiller and his pilot Juno Eclipse, as well as the rest of the main characters. I have no real problem with the story, at all. I only had really minor nitpicks with some things that did not make too much sense, but none of those things were too bad.

Gameplay: 8

Luckily, The Force Unleashed did not wind up like many games that had a great story but mediocre gameplay. Even though a lot of the reviewers criticized the game play, I had a great time during the game.

The main thing you are doing is going through levels while using your overpowered force powers, and your lightsabers to kill anything that gets in your way. You can also feel your powers getting stronger as you go through the levels, and you see just how much more damage your powers and Saber combos will do to something, but some of the stronger enemies [like the Purge Troopers] that you will see a lot negate some of these feelings. You will also level up when you kill enough enemies, and you can use the points you get to level up your attributes, force powers, and combos.

There are also some great boss battles, where you will fight some powerful Jedi or something like a Rancor or an AT-ST where you can use a QTE [Quick Time Event] to bring them down after you have whittled their health down enough. Some people did not like this very much, but I thought that they did a good job at showing how powerful you were.

But of course, there are some flaws. I already mentioned that some of the more powerful enemies could negate the feeling of being able to wave your finger and make someone explode that the Developers made it seem like you would have. The main problem is that the game is a little bit glitchy, I have not had too many problems with this, but I have fallen through elevators a few times, and the camera gets stuck in some places. The game is also very short, I beat the game on Sith Warrior mode [the 2nd out of the four difficulties] in six hours. Even though I have beaten a lot of games on the first day I have gotten them, but this is just way too short.

But, the game is still very fun to play.

Challenge: 7

The Force Unleashed is not an incredibly hard game; I already said how quickly I beat it on my first play through. But playing through it on Sith Lord is a good enough challenge [still working on beating it] if you want to try that out first.

But, there is one thing that is just too much of a pain in the ass not to mention. Ripping the Star Destroyer from the sky. All I'll say is that you have to pull a Star Destroyer into the ground while being attacked by Tie Fighters, and you have to keep repositioning it until you get the signal to yank it down. I also have to mention that the cues on the screen don't do anything, when you get there just turn it however you want until the nose is pointed at your head.

Controls: 7

The controls in The Force Unleashed are alright, besides the camera, which can screw up sometimes. Force Powers and Lightsaber attacks are easy to use, and the controls are responsive enough to make the platforming sections of the game easy.

But, there is a problem with the lock on system. It can be tough for the game to auto lock onto the target you want, and switching targets when you are locked on is also tough. It can also be hard to throw something at the enemy because that what you are throwing locked onto something else. But, this is not what happens all the time, usually it works, but it screws up enough to be noticeable.

Luckily, most of the time you won't have any real problems with the controls.

Graphics: 8

The Force Unleashed did a great job at capturing the look and the feel of the Star Wars universe, everything in here looks like it could be in one of the movies. There are also some new physics engines, which allow the AI to have a different reaction to everything that is going on around them, and allow metal, glass, and wood to react like it really would. But I did not really see these very much, I was hoping for a completely interactive environment where you could throw a Storm Trooper into ANY wall and it would leave a dent, but in the walls where I could do that it looked good.

Sound: 10

If there is anything that you need to have in a game as story driven as this, it is good sound, and they did an amazing job with it. You get to hear a lot of the old John Williams scores from the movies, and the person who did the music for KotOR II also did some of the music for this game. He also did a great job at it, every song fits where it is used, and I don't think there was any song that I hated.

The voice over work was also very well done, and I have to single out the praise for Sam Witwer who did the voice for Starkiller. The story would not have been as good as it was without his performance, and he deserves an award for how well he did in this game. The rest of the cast also did a good job.

As for the rest of the sound effects, you can hear the thumps when you throw someone into a wall, and the standard sound effects that you hear in Star Wars are present and very well done [I even heard heard the Wilhelm Scream once, and I wish I heard it more].

Atmosphere: 9

The excellent story, mixed with how well the voice-overs were done, and how likable the main characters were made me get interested in the story. And the powers that you had made you feel like you were a Jedi.

Replayability: 6

Unfortunately, the game is very short so I don't know how long you will want to keep playing. I enjoy the game so I will keep playing it for a while. You can try beating the game on Sith Lord and Sith Master, or you can try collecting all of the Jedi Holocrons, but I don't know what else there is to do.

Pros:
Great story, likable and well developed characters, great music, makes you feel like an incredibly powerful Jedi, shows what happened between episodes III and IV.

Cons:
Underutilized the Euphoria and DMM engines, glitches, the Star Destroyer scene is a pain in the ass, short game, lock-on problems.

Should you get it:
I would recommend this game to anyone who likes Star Wars, and I also have to say that you should ignore some of what the professional reviews said because they overblown all of the negative points.

Overall:

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is what I expected it to be, a fun game with a great story. Just don't let all of the criticism get to you, this is a great game, and most of the people here on GameFAQs liked it from what I have seen.

If you are a Star Wars fan like I am, there is a good chance that you will like the game, or at leas the book that came out a couple days ago.

Also, this is my 50th review... hope you liked it.

8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/08

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