Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Sunday 21 September 2008

Review time is finally here. After three days I've seen everything there is to see.

What did I see? Well, not much really. I completed the game on normal after about 5, 6 hours. And I hardly flew through it either. Various points were challenging and would keep me in the same place for 10 minutes. It was short! Really short! And with no real replay value, or online play that's no good for a game. I never sell my games, but if I did, this would no longer be in my collection.

Not because it's a particularly abysmal game. But because I've no further use for it.

So, to move away fro the time aspect, let's talk abot the good parts.

The game was fun! Essentially this is true. The ability to grab stormtroopers by the throat, fill them full of electricity and then throw them at other troopers to watch them explode is a great idea. The whole force system worked incredibly well, and, for once, there was a Star Wars game that wasn't obssessed with items. There is no way to complete this game without using the Force, using lightning, grab and push techniques in different ways. Having said this, it left a rather sore vacuum where the Lightsaber used to be. The Lightsaber is a favourite weapon and it seems to have been added at the end. The idea seems to be that a nightstick could do as much damage as this Lightsaber. Needless to say, the lightsaber was missed.

The system of levelling up was very effective in some ways. The idea that you get points for performing complicated combos was a good one, as was the idea of getting points by collecting holocrons in tricky to reach places (reminiscent of the Golden Feathers in Banjo Kazooie). Once levelled up you receive points to spend in three areas: Combos, Attributes and Force powers. The Attributes makes you regain health faster etc. and is an overall essential part to such a system. The Force Powers get stronger with every level up (out of three possible points each). The Combos, however, are absolutely bloody pointless. I didn't use half of the ones I bought. To be honest, didn't know how. And didn't need to either. As far as I can work out, combos just look cool, they don't do anymore damage. I'm sure some of them are good, but there are several thousand, and they're just a waste of time.

The storyline was... eh. It was poor. Despite some really good voice acting (surprisingly), as a Star Wars fan, I was disappointed with it, and disappointed that George Lucas had been partly responsible for it. I can't spoil the ending, but it's unbelievable beyond belief, and at least the very last resolution doesn't make the Apprentice some sort of Star Wars God. The Vader aspect of the story was nice though, and links in with his desire to kill the Emperor with Luke. Really happy to hear you'd play a bad guy for once, I was, again disappointed with the fact you very soon turn good. The romance aspect was rushed and surprising. It was just generally poor. And the idea that this Apprentice could drag a Star Destroyer out of the sky when Yoda struggled with an X-Wing is just laughable.

Then the graphics... An improvement on the demo for sure. But still... a lot of movable objects seemed pasted onto a basic background. The graphics on the whole were nice. Some of teh art design was really nice, but a lot of them, such as the force graphics were a little under done, and don't look as impressive as they should. A lot of the background graphics are good, and only occasionally succumb to overcomplicating. But the levels often have glitches in them, and end up with you falling to your death.

So as I mentioned, the Force powers have been slightly overplayed. Well, a lot. I can see why too, for dramatic effect. But if you're a Star Wars fanatic, you'll probably hate the idea that you are effectively walking around godmodding everything in sight. On a site I'm on, the Admin said the Force Unleashed would lead to huge amounts of godmodding noobs. They're probably right.

So.. yeah, a short review. But, my God, this game was short. Way tooooo short. Fun, but short. The Force based idea was a good one, and full of innovation. The gameplay was sometimes painfully glitchy, all too often. But despite all its flaws it was fun! I see this a stepping stone to a new type of Star Wars games, Force-centred, and not so clunky and RPG-ey. Were they to merge this system with a smooth Fable-type combat, and then add a decent and long storyline, this game would be a 9 or 10. As it is, we shall leave it at a 7.5. Which is still more hours than the game lasted.

Labels: 7.5/10, game review, The Force unleashed

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Article Posted: Sunday 21 September 2008 at 07:36.
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