Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

"Could Have Been Great, Still Pretty Good"

Could Have Been Great, Still Pretty Good

Gameplay – 7/10
The gameplay of The Force Unleashed is almost perfect. The feeling of using Force Lightning to wipe out a whole platoon of Stormtroopers, well there just is not anything else quite like it. Or how about flinging a Jawa so high into the air they should probably now be considered satellites. The Force Unleashed puts such an emphasis on developing insanely powerful Force abilities that after Starkiller has leveled up a bit, your lightsaber will feel like little more than a tool for deflecting blaster fire or something to throw at unsuspecting Imperials.

The main problems with the gameplay are the sometimes problematic camera angles, the always annoying spotty auto-targeting for your force powers, and its relative short campaign and lack of any multiplayer. It's fairly frustrating when you all of a sudden can't see anything except an extreme close up of a wall and it takes you a few seconds to rectify the problem while some enemy is shooting you in the back. This doesn't happen very often at all, but it is very annoying when it does. And I can't count the number of times I have been hit by a fatal shot from some enemy because instead of being locked onto them when I sent a blast of potentially fatal Force Lightning I instead electrified some random crate. These two are not necessarily HUGE, one because the camera angle problem doesn't crop up often and two the auto targeting problem can be overcome with a little practice.

The short campaign and lack of multiplayer however are glaring weaknesses in the gameplay. I would have loved a little more development of Starkiller. Very early in the game an undefined amount of time, at least fifteen years, passes in the span of several seconds. How about a little bit of having to train with Vader in that time gap, or maybe some of the missions Starkiller was sent on before he started off with the first mission of the actual game. Any of these could have easily fleshed the game out a bit and added some much needed playtime. Also with the wide variety of force wielding enemies Starkiller faces through the course of the game it seems like at the least a VS. mode would have been very achievable for some multiplayer.

Graphics – 8/10
The graphics of the game are almost excellent. While they don't take full advantage of the next generation's ability to render extremely lifelike character models and environments, there are not any glaring weaknesses either. Everything in the game appears as it should. At no point in the game do you ever see anything and think “wow that just looks bad”, or “what is that supposed to be”. The best praise I can give to the graphics for the game are that I never really noticed them throughout the game. I never while playing the game though about how good or bad the graphics looked. In my opinion those are above average to very good graphics.

A few of the levels are exceptions to this rule and go above and beyond the standard set by the rest of the game. Raxus Prime, with its mountains of junk and dilapidated starships is something fairly impressive. Also the overgrown plant life of Felucia and the detail given in this level is, while not exceptional, very impressive.

While it probably goes without saying, in the spirit of being thorough, the cinematic movie sequences are great. They do a fantastic job of tying together the story between missions. In fact most of the story is told in these movies. They are not what many would consider amazing in terms of realism (all of the character models seem a tad on the cartoon side), but they are impressive nonetheless.

Story – 7/10
Oh the story. While I love the Star Wars saga, even the sub-par episodes I and II, this story at times just rubbed me the wrong way. To me the beauty of the original trilogy was their focus on a relative short amount of time. Those three movies covered the span of just a few years at the most, which allowed a great story that might try to be told in one movie in modern film, to be stretched out over three. This to me was also the main shortcoming of the new trilogy (except for Jar Jar, sorry I couldn't resist a shot at Jar Jar); too much information was thrown at the audience without enough explanation. I mean one of the biggest questions in the Star Wars universe about how and why Obi-Wan and Yoda disappear when they die is answered in under a minute. The Force Unleashed falls into this same problem. The main redeeming quality I took from the story was the new insight given about Vader and what he was up to between episodes III and IV and an added insight into the Vader Emperor dynamic. Honestly this game probably received a point or two boost in the story category because it was set in the Star Wars Universe.

Sound – 10/10
The sound in this game is superb. The lighstaber sound effects, blaster fire, the explosions, all of them are top notch. The sound of bending metal when you are ripping open a door with the force, well it sounds like what you would imagine a metal door being ripped open would sound like. The voice acting is also done very well, with one or two exceptions of Starkillers responses sounding just a touch on the corny side. Matt Sloan who provides the voice of Darth Vader (and his younger brother Chad Vader) does an excellent job of recreating the intimidating voice of the Dark Lord. Samuel Witwer pulls double duty voicing both Starkiller and Emperor Palpatine, doing an excellent job in both roles.

Replay Value – 6/10
You will probably play through this game once or twice after initially beating it to collect all of the Holocrons. Also the Jedi Temple downloadable content available at the time this review was written is worth a play. Beyond this the game's charm is in sitting down for maybe an hour to destroy all who doubt the power of the force.

Again, here the lack of any kind of multiplayer severely hurts the replay value. Even with the relative short story, a decent multiplayer feature would have definitely increased the game's lifespan in most gamer's libraries.

Overall – 8/10
The Force Unleashed is an extremely fun game with a few glaring weakness in the gameplay and story that keep it from being a truly great game. While the game would probably be enjoyable by the vast majority of audiences, it's not unthinkable that a decent amount of people would find the game lackluster and not worth their time. If you are a fan of Star Wars and even mildly interested in some of the events that transpire between episodes III and IV, then the game is a must play.

On recommending whether to buy or rent, I'd have to say if you are not sure you want to buy it, rent it first. I know, sounds like common sense right? This is not a game I, nor anybody for that matter, could say you definitely would not regret buying, but I would venture a guess that most people would enjoy it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/29/09

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