Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

"You were the chosen one!"

The hype for The Force Unleashed was really unbelievable. People were waiting in line to get their hands on a copy of a game, skipping school in order to play it, and the Star Wars geek inside of all of us had an orgasm right after the first details were revealed. Hype like this comes around about once a year; before The Force Unleashed, it was Halo 3, and before Halo 3 it was Gears of War…I could go back a few more years, but I think you get the point. After The Force Unleashed has finally been released and the hype has settled down, it is very clear that the hype failed in a big way here.

Force powers are the main selling point of the game, and the title furthers this. I mean, seriously, who doesn't want to go around destroying everything with the Force? It's a Star Wars fan dream come true, and while some of the Force powers available to you work out fine, others are riddled with unresponsive controls.

Once you've gained control of Starkiller, the game's main protagonist, you don't get all of the abilities you had when you played as Darth Vader in the prologue level. On the contrary, you have to regain these abilities by playing through the game and becoming stronger with the Force. The first ability you'll have access to is the simple Force Push. This move is mostly used to push enemies backwards, usually off ledges, or to simply destroy the environment around you. Is there a door in the way? Blow the hell out of it with the Force. You can even charge up this power in order to unleash a more devastating attack that can kill a ton of enemies in a split-second.

Another neat ability you have access to is Force Lightning. Force Lightning is arguably the most useful attack in the entire game as it momentarily stabilizes any enemy it hits, including the bigger ones you'll have to fight later, plus it can be used in combos to truly devastate your foes.

In order to pull off three other Force Powers you obtain, you have to hold down the left trigger and choose it from a wheel. That's all fine and dandy, except these moves are very rarely responsive and nigh impossible to use effectively in the midst of combat. I don't know how the developers could have dropped the ball so hard on responsiveness, but they managed to do it.

Probably the most well-known ability in the Star Wars saga is Force Grip—the ability to control objects with your mind. Having full control over this ability is pretty awesome, and you won't believe the thrill you'll get when you throw a Storm Trooper hundreds of feet into a wall or when you literally pull a TIE fighter out of the sky to be exploded by slamming it into a group of enemies. Unfortunately, the aim on this ability is way off, meaning that you'll often find yourself trying to pick up one object but accidentally picking up another. Sometimes when you try to use this move, it won't work at all, but then if you try to use it right after your failure, it will suddenly work. A lack of polish like this really cripples the game's overall value.

Despite woes present in the Force, you still have some awesome light saber combat to keep you occupied. At first, using your light saber isn't fun at all because you will have barely any combos to use and it makes the game sluggish, but once you've leveled up your abilities enough, using the light saber becomes ten times more fun than using the Force. Pulling off sweet light saber combos, especially ones used in conjunction with Force moves like Force Lightning, is definitely a highlight of the title.

You obtain these combos and you can power up your basic Force abilities by leveling up which happens after defeating enough enemies. The leveling system is sort of weird in that you get color-coded spheres designated to each different area that you can improve, and there is a number on the far right that tells you how many spheres you need to either purchase the combo or level up the ability. Quite honestly, The Force Unleashed would have greatly benefited if they had simply taken the leveling system right from Mass Effect because its leveling system is much more open and much more entertaining than the one in The Force Unleashed.

So, what is the actual combat like? Well, each level has your basic little dudes that don't really pose a threat and are basically there for you to kill for one (sadistic but fun), the higher up guys that will pose a minimal threat (like Storm Troopers), the slightly more formidable foes, the larger baddies (Racnors would fall into this category), and bosses. While it's fun hacking up all of these different kinds of enemies, the enemies are recycled to the point of pure annoyance and it becomes painfully obvious early on in the game that a lot of the new enemies you come across are simply re-skinned foes you've faced earlier in the game.

The boss fights, however, are one of the combat's really high points. Just like in No More Heroes, you will find plenty of incentive to go through the game simply to fight the bosses. The boss battles boil down to the same type of combat you go through the entire game, but the bosses have a wider variety of abilities to use against you. While spamming does become a pretty big issue (you know the feeling you get when you're playing a fighting game against someone that keeps using the same moves over and over?), the real sweetness of these battles comes at the end.

We can thank Resident Evil 4 for this feature. At the end of the boss battles, you are sent into quick-time events that prompt you to press a button on-screen or do a basic movement with the control stick while the action unfolds, providing for truly cinematic climaxes. The best part is, these sequences don't show up only in boss battles. They will show up against plenty of your foes throughout the game, and you will have plenty of opportunities to take your enemies down in true Jedi style. There are some variations in these quick-time events as well, so they never get boring.

I have nothing against difficulty in video games. In fact, I embrace difficulty and I'd rather have a game kick my ass than be too easy. However, there is a difference between challenging and cheap, and The Force Unleashed definitely falls under the “cheap” category. Due to the wonky checkpoint system and the galore of cheap deaths, you will find yourself becoming very frustrated with the game. The wonky controls, especially during platforming segments, plus the wild combat will often times make you fall right off a cliff, sending you back to a previous checkpoint.

Falling off of cliffs definitely isn't the only way you can die. A meter in the top left corner of your screen indicates how much health and Force power you have. If you lose health, you gain regain health by killing enemies (you will earn more health if you kill them in cool ways). You recharge your Force abilities not by collecting items or using potions. Instead you simply use these abilities until the bar, that's usually blue, turns yellow, making you have to wait for your abilities to recharge.

Customization has become a very important part of gaming this generation and it should come as no surprise that The Force Unleashed has a small level of customization behind it. Besides the obvious of leveling up Starkiller in the manner that you see fit, you can also change the color of his light saber and the costume he is wearing. The light saber colors do actually matter as the different color you are using will have various positive effects on Starkiller's overall stats. The costumes also provide a small bonus, but switching into a different costume in the middle of the level sends you back to your last checkpoint for some ungodly reason. Not only is this a stupid design choice, it is simply inconvenient and makes absolutely no sense.

These new costumes and light sabers obviously aren't going to be handed to you. Holocrons are hidden throughout the levels and by finding them you are rewarded with a new costume, a new light saber, or some Force points that go towards leveling you up. There are plenty of holocrons to find and while some of them are pretty easy to spot and others pretty hard, you never feel overwhelmed with collecting them unlike trying to find all of those damn pigeons in Grand Theft Auto IV or finding all of the flags in Assassin's Creed.

Making a Star Wars game that takes place between Episode III and IV is an absolutely brilliant concept, but the developers also had some problems with developing the plot to its full potential I think. Some of the characters are very interesting while others are so lame that it's not even funny. Plot points emerge that end up meaning absolutely nothing, but then again, there are some amazing plot twists and tons of action to keep anyone interested enough in the story to keep playing. Darth Vader has taken on a Sith Apprentice, Starkiller, whose goal is to help Vader eradicate the rest of the Jedi. However, Starkiller finds himself second-guessing his life and faces plenty of challenges and tough decisions on his journey. Like I said, there are some pretty sweet plot twists and the plot is engaging enough, but there are points sprinkled throughout the game that the developers just did a horrible job with, which really takes away from the game's overall appeal.

While the story is a little more than decent, the graphics are nothing but a giant mixed bag. Some of the textures are freaking awesome and the physics are pretty damn good in places, but the game is so sloppily thrown together that it's impossible not to notice its obvious flaws. There are definite texture problems throughout the entire game and the character's faces look way off. Everything moves with a strange fluidity that makes the game feel a little too much like a cartoon and long action sequences can induce nausea and headaches due to the camera's tendency to move really fast everywhere. Glitches are as abundant as the Storm Troopers and I encountered a staggering amount during my time with the game. I fell through the floor multiple times, walked through walls, and floated through air. The lag and slowdown is very noticeable and always happens right before something really cool does, taking away from some of the game's brighter moments. The load times are ridiculously long and it takes forever just to navigate through the pause menu! There is no excuse for a game this small to have longer load times than a behemoth game like Mass Effect.

The Force Unleashed has some pretty weak voice acting in places, but the overall presentation is pretty impressive. With a company like Lucas Arts backing them, it's hard to imagine the voice acting not to be more than impressive, and it's safe to say that the game doesn't disappoint. To continue the praise, the soundtrack is absolutely amazing as it borrows tunes from a bunch of the different Star Wars films, including the older flicks and Episode I. With such an amazing soundtrack, it's arguable to say that The Force Unleashed has the best audio quality in any 360 game to date.

Despite all of that, The Force Unleashed fails in a very important area and that is longevity. The game can be beaten easily in six hours, and while there are multiple difficulty modes and achievements, you could probably clear it out in much less than twenty hours. The unlockable content and the second ending does give you some incentive to keep playing the game, but even Star Wars enthusiasts will grow tired with this pretty quickly. You can look at some concept art, watch all of the cinematics in the game whenever you wish, plus there are a couple of trailers thrown in that show some of the development behind Soulcalibur IV and Fracture just incase anyone is interested by that kind of thing.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed had the potential to be one of the best games this generation, but it ended up disappointing in too many places. The Force Powers weren't nearly as awesome as they should have been and the controls are often unresponsive. Glitches are everywhere plus the cheap deaths will get on your nerves pretty damn fast. Longevity and replayability are also issues, but do you know what all of these mistakes have in common? If the game had been polished more, none of these problems would exist. If the developers had worked on The Force Unleashed a little more, we'd truly have a really great Star Wars game for the seventh generation, but the developers screwed up, so hopefully they learn better with their next game and don't release it without it being truly finished, especially if it is a hype monster like this one was.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/05/08

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