Not a bad game, but this is Star Wars so it's subject to a higher standard

by Ruffu

In Group: Fun

Worth to: Rent

Talk about hype, hype, hype, and in the end it's a simple action button masher - disappointing.

Star Wars the Force Unleashed was hyped as the best thing since sliced bread. Lucas Arts made it look it was going to be the most awesomest game ever. In the end, it's just another game having players run through narrowly scripted levels.

The Force Unleashed isn't a bad game. The problem is carries the Star Wars name, and because of that it is subject to higher standards. So let me enumerate the good. The bad I will explain in detail.

The Good

- Great graphics
- Levels look awesome
- Many force powers to chose from
- RPG element to Force upgrades
- Great story
- Good voice acting
- Great graphics
- Follows the book (or so I hear)
- True to the Star Wars timeline
- Multiple endings
- Loads of art to find
- Various outfits to find, and saber hilts too

The Bad

Levels, though pretty, are very straight forward. Gameplay in levels is always the same: move forward and kill. You can't take different paths because levels aren't designed that way. Everything from cities to jungles is designed to have one road. And this sucks. This game had so much potential to be like Knights of the Old Republic, but it wasted it on a very scripted game.

The story is great, and I understand that a certain amount of linearity has to be used to make the plot unfold, but please, give us some movement... When you are on Felucia, you're in a jungle. Why in the world do we only have one path? It's a freaking jungle. Or Kashyyk for that matter? The freedom to move around in levels is done by Lucas Art more room to move left and right in some levels... while we move forward.

Lightsaber fights are also weak. Fighting other Jedi bosses is rarely done with Lightsabers. You instead end up throwing stuff at your opponents or using other powers. Powers are also hit and miss. Starkiller (your character) is supposed to be this bad ass Sith that can take down a STAR DESTROYER using the force, and he actually does that in the game. But there are these dark guys you can't grab in the game. You also have to be pretty close to your enemies in order to grab them, opening yourself up to attacks, which gets insanely difficult in later parts of the game.

At the end, you end up strictly relying on Force Lightning. So you shoot your lightning, run, recharge, repeat until enemies are dead. Gameplay gets pretty repetitive. If it wasn't for the cutscenes there wouldn't be anything keeping us going. Once you got your core powers upgraded (Lightning, Choke, Push, Saber Throw) gameplay becomes mindlessly action oriented. The plot is the only thing moving us forward.

The cool thing would have been to have us enter a city, explore a bit, talk to people, ala KOTOR, have your occasional action fights, but basically make the world around you bigger. It's so confined to the definition of the level designers it's sad.

In all, a fun game, but I wouldn't buy it. Rent it first. After 15 hours or so you'll finish it, and though there are alternative endings, I doubt people will want to go back through the same run-and-kill gameplay just to see a different ending. If Lucas Art would have spent as much time making levels more intricate as it did designing concept art, this game would have been much better.