Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

"The Force is Mediocre with this One"

There are a lot of major problems that stood out to me that didn't necessarily ruin the game but made it very lacking. I will be going over a few negatives to get that bad after-taste out of my mouth before I get to the things that this game did very well. I will also cover the general aspects of the game. Forgive me if I am jumping around a lot through out this review. I will try to keep similar things group together.

Issues
The first and foremost is the fact that the game has incredibly slow load times. I mean very slow when you load up the game, when the game transitions from level to level, and even within the game itself. I am not sure if this is just due to the limitation of the PSP itself, but this lag can hardly be over looked and deemed unnoticeable. This lag goes so far to even occasionally interfere with the game play and not register button pressing.

Another issue is the fact that because the player is introduced to powerful Force powers right at the start of the game. Which literally make the NPCs into rag dolls. This may be fine early on, but as the game progresses and the player is allowed to unlock more "powerful" force powers. Really it just seems like the same two force powers, but with a slightly different variation.

There are also many bugs and pathing issues scattered throughout the game that can either kill you, kill your opponent, get your opponent stuck (which in some situations forces you to restart the game), or even freezes the game (which causes you to also restart the game). This is a major issue that should have been addressed before the game was even deemed ready for release.

At first the enemies seem like the perfect guinea pigs to unleash your force powers upon until you actually face a boss. But this is also a problem as some enemies become more of a nuisance than an actual threat. The only time I found them to be a challenge was during one of the non story challenges (Order 66- I'll get to this in a moment). The AI could use an IQ upgrade as some times they will fall off of higher levels to get at you or to constantly charge into a wall for no apparent reason.

The boss fights consist of hit-and-run tactics being the best way to take down a boss with minimal damage. So those "more powerful" force powers that require certain move combos don't do as much damage and may only end up getting interrupted by the boss. And when the boss or mini-boss's health bar reaches a certain amount, a button sequence is triggered where a successful string of button pressing rewards you with an over the top required finishing move. The finishing move is very neat at first, but becomes very dull as it is used over and over again with no variation what soever. An unsuccessful string rewards you with the boss or mini-boss somehow gaining back lost health and having to fight you again till you trigger that sequence again. There is also a change when combating a boss or boss-like NPC that you will engage in a rapid random button mashing event where it seems that there is a certain trick to winning. I am guessing that you must mash that random button (or buttons in some cases) the most, but there times were actually putting my PSP down and rapidly hitting that button got me no where. So maybe there is a certain trick that I am not getting.

Extras
The Jedi Holocron "easter egg" hunt is somewhat interesting as the more you find, the more concept art is unlocked for you to view. Which is nice. But I was expecting something else, I picked up a book at the book store and saw the same exact pictures in there with less than a quarter the effort it took to find all 200 holocrons. True they do give you a some points to level up or to purchase new force powers, but it is probably more satisfying to kill a few NPCs to get the same amount of points.

But finding lightsaber hilts and color crystals is a lot better as it unlocks actual physical changes to your character. Though I was disappointed to find that the hilts did not unlock duel wielding or double bladed lightsabers. And the combat crystals only boosted either force powers or lightsaber damage slightly. There is no option to change fighting styles.

There are also unlockable costumes for the apprentice to wear during his missions which is a nice change. From the same old look.

The non Story options are fun little diversions, there are three single player games in all: Force Duel, Historic Missions, and Order 66. Force Duel has you pitted against other Jedi or Sith, sometimes two at a time. Historic Missions has you taking a role of a major character from the movies and act out an altered variation of the scene (movie voice snippets are included). And Order 66 has you pitted against waves of cone troopers and the like. Completing these side games rewards you with unlocked games for multiplayer use and the use of some characters for use within these games. Though it seems that the real difference between these differing characters is when you take them online, but offline, they are all the same, with the exception of slightly different appearances and genders.

I haven't played the multiplayer games yet because to tell you the truth, I don't know anyone else who has purchased this game for the PSP to test and try out.

Goods
The story is actually slightly above standard. It has more twists than Yoda's staff. If you are a faithful fanboy of the Star Wars movies, it really retcons minor things that you may or may not over look. But all in all, I think that the story ties episodes III and IV together very nicely. But it does leave you with a few questions though that the story doesn't really address or maybe is leaving for another game. If there is anything good to look forward to in this game, it is probably the story.

Graphics
As far as the whole graphics issue goes. I personally don't have a huge problem with it. But yes the graphics could have been way better. And yes it makes the characters faces look really weird and emotionless(if you can, take a look at Mace Windu's face and you'll see what I mean). And yes they could have put in CG cut scenes instead of in game ones, that would have looked a lot better.

Conclusion
This game looks, feels, and plays rushed. There are a lot of issues that I felt should have been dealt with before this game was even considered close to finished. But I think what hurt this game the most is all the hype that built up this game (and the other counsel games) and it only made them fall even harder. It is a decent game for the PSP but there are other better games out there.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/08

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