Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is.... there.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a game that has had my expectations rising and falling since I first heard of it. Yet, instead of it being a horrible rip off of the Star Wars universe, or on the other end a completely new, amazing gameplay experience, it sort of ended up in between, not really doing either one.
To start off, this is an action game. Its as simple as that. You can certainly look at it, watch it being played, or even play it for a bit yourself, and state with some real level of fairness that it is God of War or Devil May Cry, set in the Star Wars universe. As I played through TFU, however, it definitely took on a life of its own for me. I began to figure out the intricacies of the different force powers you have available, and how the core mechanics of the game all come together to create the right feel. This game focuses around you being an overpowered Sith Apprentice, of course. Your powers and abilities serve to give you that sense of power, and that aspect certainly works. The problem with that sense of power is how awkward it seems when you get blasted down by a couple of lightning-resistant stormtroopers with laser shotgun type weapons. That was a problem I had with the game for a while, until I realized something. The game wants you to be an offensive brute, and all you should be thinking about at any time is how can you take down as many dudes as possible in the next 2 seconds. That realization further cemented the feeling for me that I was a powerhouse Sith, going for the kill instantly, always choosing destruction over deliberation. This way of thinking also made the game easier, since killing enemies is how you regain health, less frustrating, and less often weirded out by Darth Vader's apprentice being gunned down.
So that, aside from the cool physics and how awesomely fun Force Grip is (we all know those things by now), are what I was pleasantly surprised to find. There were of course some things that were not so pleasant. Anyone who is a fan of Star Wars should be of the mindset that the movies are the real deal, and that the plot, characters, etc. from those shouldn't really be touched. I'm going to resist the urge to include spoilers here, but suffice to say, if you choose the "Dark Side" ending then your Star Wars universe as you know it will be instantly invalidated. Anyway, I'm going to just ignore the problems I have with this game that are only problems because of how they affect the overall Star Wars universe (lightsabers should kill in 1 hit, force-resistant stormtroopers), and talk about the game as a single, stand-alone entity.
This game is entertaining, and its one of those games that is fun because you feel bad ass (see God of War). But when a game thrives on you being the freaking man, it should make a serious effort for its boss fights. That is definitely an area of this game that I found to be lacking. Fighting an AT-ST, which were not *technically* boss fights, but close enough, should be a hard, yet awesome fight, and should have an even more awesome kill. The actual boss fights, when you are fighting Jedi, should be even more epic. Basically you use whatever tactic you find works best until you beat them down to near death, and that part isn't terrible, except that Jedi resist every force power you have, making you resort to lightsaber swings almost exclusively. But then, you kill these powerful enemies via an action command sequence. Don't get me wrong, I loved everything about wrangling the minotaur boss in God of War with action commands, but they've been done to their full potential in my eyes, and are getting kind of boring. And to make things worse, not only are the action commands boring, but the actual action happening is equally boring! The whole point of action commands is so that the character can do something so complex and so awesome that it has to be done in semi-cinematic form.
Overall, TFU is a good game, and I have enjoyed it, but there are just enough things that could have been so much better that I can't say that it advances either the action game genre or the Star Wars universe in any relevant way. If you are a Star Wars fan and need something to do for 7 hours or so, it is probably a good move, otherwise, you may be better served to stick to a more refined action game.