The most anticipated game this fall, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed starts you off as Lord Vader himself. Vader lands in the wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk. He’s on a mission to find the last remaining jedi and destroy them.
Vader’s so badass in the game that when you move him around, he moves as if there’s not a worry in sight, walking all slow and macho. Later on, he finds his target and kills him, leaving behind him, his child. Vader sees that the child is strong with the force, so he decides to take him under his wing. The boy grows up to become Vader’s apprentice, Starkiller, and his sole duty as Darth Vader’s apprentice is to locate and hunt the last surviving jedi.
The biggest draw for this game for me would be the force. You get to do a lot of badass tricks like throwing sabers and impaling enemies, force gripping foes and tossing them like a rag doll, stunning baddies with lightning and ending their lives short, and my personal favorite, force gripping objects and smashing them into a group of enemies.
The only downside to this is the continuity in the Star Wars universe. Your character feels way overpowered. It seems that the more recent the Star Wars movies or games are made, the crazier their powers are. Remember the original trilogy? The craziest force powers used was when Yoda lifted the X-wing. And that was only like 20 ft, and it moved really slow. Now you got the Apprentice tossing guys like half a mile away, blowing up ships with lightning, taking down an AT-ST and Rancor with just a light saber head on.
The actual combat can get really tiring. And sometimes enemies would have shields or red auras around them, making certain force powers useless and fighting tedious. The controls feels a little bit loose, and the camera feels slightly sluggish. The thing saved the controls for me was the double jump and dash movements.
The cinematic scenes are good, but the actual gameplay graphics leaves a lot to be desired. There are certain moments where the character models are good, but other times, it feels really dead and dry, especially the pilot character. The environments seem very bland too.
The music is your typical Star Wars music fare. All the themes are there. You got the main Star Wars theme, Imperial March, Duel of the Fates, Battle of Hoth, and many more.
As for the story, I enjoyed the Apprentice’s journey from the Dark Side to Light, but felt that there wasn’t enough time to flesh out his character, making the game feel rather rushed. The ending was really a big letdown for me. I refuse to accept the ending. Play it and find out for yourself. Maybe you’ll agree with me, or maybe you won’t.
The game excels in making you feel like the ultimate jedi, but fails in terms of overall polish. Even with the game’s faults, it is worth checking out if you’re a Star Wars fan. Plus, it’s cool to find out what happened between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
Grade: C+
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Reboot
Sep 19, 2008 -
First Impression:”This is god of war with a star wars theme”
This game definitely didnt live up to the hype, ive been playing this game for about a week now(dont ask how) and its been kind of a let down. The combat is fun for the first two levels, then i realize every level is the first two levels, over, over, and over again, just different characters and bosses.
The boss fights are lame, you wittle down the bosses health but instead of just killing them, you go into a dance dance revolution mode of hitting buttons in sequence to finish off the boss….eww…i hate that!
I found the levels to be harder then the bosses, especially the Shaak Ti level, the Rancor were much harder then Shaak Ti. That said the Rancor wasnt hard either, there was really no challange in the game. I found myself only using 2 or 3 of the force moves, because the force moves was so much of an overkill that i wanted some kind of challange.
The only real saving graces are the Order 66 and Original battles modes.
The Graphics where a 7 at best, but the Audio was great! 9 i would say.
Overall i would say give it a shot, but keep your expectations low. Its a good game, just didnt seem planned out very well, and it my be due to the over hype on the game.
I would give it a 6/10
Cricket
Sep 19, 2008 -
Great reviews guys. You guys pretty much agreed on why the game was a letdown. I played the demo and thought that was pretty cool but maybe that’s all I need….
Apprentice
Sep 19, 2008 -
What I’m getting from this article is what Donald Trump would say, “You’re fired, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. lol
Reboot
Sep 19, 2008 -
lol i like that apprentice! Thats a very accurate description of the reviews, lol.
Mike
Sep 21, 2008 -
Played it. I like when you force grab a character and move him towards another one, they grab onto each other. Wasn’t much different than Jedi Outcast, just vastly updated graphics which is always a plus but the controls were the same