I Find Your Lack of Polish Disturbing
Taking place during the time between Episode III and Episode IV (that's the end of the prequel series and the start of the first Star Wars trilogy), it seems that Darth Vader has had second thoughts on being the Emperor's best friend. While tracking down a rogue Jedi and keeping in check his padawan killing tendencies, he discovers a young boy strong in the Force whom he takes on as a secret apprentice. Codenamed 'Starkiller', he grows up under Vader's secret tutelage in the following years and is finally sent out to hunt down the last of the Jedi in preparation for his ultimate objective: the Emperor himself.
George Lucas offered some of his own insight and suggestions during the title's development, something that not every Star Wars fan out there might find very encouraging, but Lucas apparently considers this chapter part of the Star Wars canon. There are a lot of interesting revelations, cameos, and plenty of behind-the-scenes action that will undoubtedly Force throw plenty of material into the hands of Star Wars fans to debate over. By the time the ending is reached, their view on the history following the prequels and leading up to Luke's own story will dramatically change for better or worse.
Helping make the story stand out is a combination of sharp voice acting and art direction as Sam Witwer leads the charge with a great performance as Starkiller. All of the characters sound as you would expect, although the Emperor sounds a little too much like the cranky neighbor yelling at younglings wandering too close to his lawn. The cut scenes occasionally mix together painted backdrops and CG touched up to match their style with a few clever effects which can make the title feel like a side story but one with epic undertones to its narrative.
Two things that had been made a big deal of over at Lucasarts and with the Force Unleashed is the technology behind the production. Euphoria is one piece of the puzzle, helping to determine the animated behaviors of many of its CG actors from Stormtroopers to Jawas and in how they react to the environment. Force throw a Stormtrooper towards a window and he might just grab the edge to keep from getting sucked into the vacuum, or he might not. This along with your usual Havok physics manages to create a subtle effect in that what you are seeing as bodies go flying and enemies scramble to their feet isn't entirely scripted...that sometimes the enemy will try and grab for objects or react to certain items in ways that you might not expect.
The other part of the puzzle is DMM, or Digital Molecular Matter. Glass won't shatter in the same way twice, trees splinter apart as you would expect them to in the great outdoors at the hands of a Force wielding Paul Bunyan, and Force pushed doorways won't bend open in the same way all the time, all of which lends a another understated layer of detail to the world of Force Unleashed completing each environment.
Starkiller's mission will take him to several places in his quest to fulfill his destiny from a Tie Fighter factory teeming with plenty of cannon fodder to a planet-sized junkyard that would make Fred Sanford weep with joy, to the very bowels of the Death Star itself. While the special effects look good, not everything else does. Raxus Prime's rusting skin delivers tetanus shots to the eyes, only to be later dulled by linear level design, occasionally dull texture work, and pop in. The same goes for a few of the character models, such as those in the cut scenes. They don't look terrible until you see things such as the Emperor's robe clinging to him like a tube sock when he walks away or a costume's cape wrap around Starkiller's head as it tries to untangle itself during the game. On the other hand, the animation work is pretty impressive all around, with lightsabers clashing and the combatants spinning off to face each other as if posing for Lucas' camera eye.
Most of the controls do take a little getting used to, the camera doesn't often get in the way, and swinging your lightsaber is as easy as running up to an enemy and spamming the button. Extra force powers are eventually unlocked that are automatically mapped to your controller buttons for easy access. There aren't a huge number of these which is a good thing since there's already enough to remember with special combos that you can perform with the lightsaber. In addition to laying waste to your foes, you'll also earn points during each level which translates into a sort of experience gauge. Saving is handled via checkpoints. Manually saving preserves what points you've earned or items found afterwards, but you'll always restore your save at the last one.
There's also a cursor that shows what objects Starkiller has his sights set on making it somewhat useful in tossing items or in using the Force to shock foes, but it is also extremely dodgy to use. You can lock onto enemies using it, but good luck on trying to pick up a specific item from a cluttered pile or group of would-be heroes. It also would have been nice to have the ability to snap Starkiller in the direction of his most immediate threat with a button instead of having to often babysit the cursor.
Hitting certain score limits will “level” Starkiller, allowing you to allocate points into learning new lightsaber combos, strengthening Force skills, or investing into talents such as accelerated regeneration for your Force energy or improved toughness to damage. There are also Jedi Holocrons scattered and sometimes hidden in each area. Finding one will reward you with an improvement point for your powers, talents, or lightsaber combos that you can also save up. They might also reward you with a new costume, or one of two types of lightsaber crystals that you can use to customize your weapon with. Lightsaber crystals can change the color of your blade, but others can also add certain enhancements such as improved damage or randomly shock foes which can be very useful. Each area also has bonus objectives that you can follow up on, such as destroying a piece of equipment that you might run across or in collecting all of the Holocrons that are there.
As fun as it is to tear through the game with the Force at your command and revel in all of the Star Wars goodness that it brings to the table with its technical accomplishments, there are also quite a few rough edges that bite into the experience like a rabid Rancor. One of the most obvious is the lagtastic menu matching the speed at which Starkiller actually pulls himself off from the ground in case he gets knocked down. I dreaded every moment spent there because, for whatever reason, it has to load most every choice. You can almost hear the zeroes and ones spinning off of the disk as fast they can into memory just so that you can view your upgrades. Since you will be visiting this part of the game often, all of this waiting adds up and it doesn't end there. Most every action requires a lengthy load. Changing your costume during the game is one of the worst offenders because that will drop you back to the last checkpoint for whatever reason. I hope you remember where that was in case you want to try a new look.
Then there's the generally unfinished feel. As one example, there's an area built around a gigantic space catapult cannon that launches molten balls of ore into orbit. It's pretty awesome stuff and as any tourist would after taking out any pesky Stormtroopers that might be in their way, I wanted to take a closer look. Looking straight down, I could see the catapult begin to lower itself and then suddenly disappear and then reappear much lower down while coming up with a ball of ore. It was as if someone had cut out a few seconds of footage from a film, only here, it was with a level prop. In the last area of the game, I wanted to take a look at my objectives and found “*DEFAULT TEXT” greeting me as one bonus objective while my point counter was frozen at zero along with my Holocron numbers. Particularly busy scenes will also inject some slowdown into the action which can throw you off. There's also talk on the internet about corrupted saves, but thankfully, I must have lucked out.
The game is also pretty short. Star Wars fans might not have a problem with the price, but it's still something that might matter to other players hoping for more than eight or so hours from the game. There are two endings that players can experience and they can go back through any of their previous missions to find any extra Holocrons they may have missed for upgrade points or costumes. Additional difficulty levels will challenge Sith padawans, and there are a fair number of fun Achievements. Star Wars fans will also like the database that comes with the game, detailing the characters, droids, locations, and other pieces of lore. Other than that, however, there's not a whole lot else.
I still had a lot of fun with the game despite its rough edges, but adding the short, fleeting hyperjump to a galaxy far, far away to your collection may appeal only to fans eager to continue the story from the prequels if the comic adaptation isn't enough. With a gripping, new tale, making it an entertaining journey over to the Dark Side that Lucasarts hasn't done in awhile, it can still fill the need even if only for a weekend for players that want to broaden their Force wielding horizons while living dangerously as Vader's bitterly drawn trump card.
