Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo Impressions!
By SaitenMar 1 Comments
THE FORCE GETS UNLEASHED AS DEMO HITS OUR CONSOLES!
Well we finally got our sweaty Star Wars eager hands on one of the most interesting Star Wars games for a long time when Star Wars: The Force Unleashed hit our Playstation 3's and XBOX 360's this morning. After playing through the demo a numbe of times I wanted to tell folk of the impression I got of the game through what the demo offered. It was in honesty a small demo but there was more then enough in there to enjoy and to keep eager fans happy as we get closer and closer to its release date. LucasArt's newest Star Wars games puts you in control of Darth Vader's secret apprentice, also codenamed 'Starkiller' and as Starkiller you do the evil Sith Lords bidding. You probably already know the story so I won't go into any deep detail, but it does honestly sound like one of the most interesting Star Wars related stories since the Knights of the Old Republic games a few years ago. Of course being Darth Vader's 'Secret Apprentice' means that the character isn't seen as such an openly out there character and works in the shadow if you will. Not like a Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader himself, so in interest the story works in that form and there is a lot of possibilities that LucasArts will work around when it comes to working with the original Star Wars Trilogy. Of course what I truly want to talk about here is the demo, as I said the demo is pretty short but its nice to finally get our hands on the much anticipated game which was first truly shown as Tech Demo mainly concentrating on the material physics and of course the now famous Eurphoria engine that was seen in Grand Theft Auto 4.
The Demo level takes place on a Tie-Fighter Manufacturing facility under attack by a Jedi, that Jedi is the target for Starkiller after Darth Vader gave him instructions to kill everyone on board and leave no evidence. The level sees you fighting both Stormtroopers and soldiers of the Republic who are themselves fighting between themselves. You can use many of the powers avaliable to Starkiller such as his forcegrip and Force Electricity. The demo also features a quick force grip control tutorial which I reconmend if you are about to play the demo for the first time and even shows off some of that material physics in actions with th breaking of glass that looks very realisitic. Anyway, the demo for the most part is perfectly fine, its a little unspectacular in places but being a demo thats to be expected and I'm still looking forward to its release in September with a little more eagerness which as to be a good sign of a good demo. The force powers are fun and you do feel like a very powerful member of the Sith Order, of course its to be expected that some powers will be unlocked as you play the full game but the ones on offer in the demo are fun to play with and will do the job to please the fans who have been waiting patiently to play the game. The game in many respects does feel very much like the original trilogy of films as the whole atmosphere is darker and industry based. This is the first game to really offer such a thing for a good long while, the Tie Fighter Facility looks fantastic and really suits the Star Wars universe. Speaking of force powers, the force grip controls are first feel a little unconfortable and untidy, but after a few playthroughs you'll soon learn to master it. At least master the force grip powers avaliable in the demo. You control objects or enemies under your force grip using your two analog sticks on your XBOX 360 Controller, Though I have yet to play it I would be guessing the controls system is the same for the PS3 with it also using the two analog sticks. Lightsaber fighting is solid and yes, enemies take multiple hits. To be fair it was asking a lot to have one hit kills and probably would have affected the enjoying of the game a great deal. As I said, graphically The Force Unleashed is looking great. There is a real original styled feel to everything, even Starkiller himself as an almost Altiere (Assassins Creed) look to him that suits the character well. The physics system runs very well in the demo and though the new material physics that the tech demo showed are seen on only one or two occasions it does look like it will play a part in the full game once released. The level was mainly metal based so its to be expected. Anyway, the Europhia engine continues to look great. You can see enemies grab onto pieces of the environment in an attempt to survive and it defiantly adds some extra A.I to the enemies you face. Sound wise the game as a very Star Wars feel with some Star Wars orientated music in the background and the enemies sound perfect to the original source. Voice acting is sounding superb, Starkiller comes off as a soft spoken almost kind individual in the main cutscene yet you can't help but feel that is darkness, anger and pain in his words. Though he shows great loyalty to Dath Vader. Vader is also superbly voiced by Matt Sloan in the cutscene, for those wondering Matt Sloan does the voice of Vader's brother Chad in the brilliant Chad Vader videos and his voice sounds fantastic in the short cutscene. Lightsabers sound like lightsabers and blaster fire sounds like blaster fire. Everything as you' expect. I won't go into any real deep impressions just yet until I have of course played the full game through and experience the potentially fantastic story. But the demo was very enjoyable and though I'll admit it takes about three times playthrough to truly get the game, its worth it because its that The Force Unleashed shows great promise. I have today preordered my copy, though to be honest I was going to preorder it anyway. But the demo did a fine job at edging up my excitment for the game once it hits release next month. Theres potentially a lot to lookforward to and in my own opinion Starkiller is already looking like a great Star Wars character. But the demo is enjoyable and I reconmend you check it out if you haven't already. Of course there are one or two moans I had at first but after playing through three times they were almost forgotten as I finally got into the flow on offer with The Force Unleashed. I look forward to it and will have a review up once completed. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is released the 19th of September (European Release Date) so check it out.
From the Impessions of a True English Gent!
SaitenMar.
