Chewing at the Leash
Lets get things out of the way. I am a massive Star Wars fan, i mean obsessive. Also I was playing on Sith Lord difficulty and the entire game can be extremely frustrating.
You play the game as Darth Vaders secret apprentice Starkiller (as if you didnt know that) and the story takes place between episode 3 and 4. The scary thing is for the first time since the 70s the best bit of this Star Wars franchise is the story. It is tied together with a compeling moral choice between good and bad and enticing love story. You start the game as bad as bad can be and its awesome hunting down remaining jedi which takes you all over the galaxy to lush diverse environments abd thats another thing the artistic design and graphical design in this game is top notch really capturing the unique essence of the star wars universe.
The games controls fit well with one button for your lightsaber and others for indiviual force powers the only issue i had is the targeting system which means that sometimes you will hit the wrong people with your attacks or completely miss when throwing something around.
The rest of the gameplay is extremely dynamic with all three engines that have been publisised working perfectly together. Storm troopers cling to things when picked up, wood splinters and things bounce off walls really well. I have heard people being annoyed by the fact that their are enemies that are force resistent but in my book this is needed to keep the game challenging otherwise you would just walk through every room without any problems and I think the ballance is good.
The boss battles and large enemies is where force unleashed falls short. All the enemies have one main attack and you spend a lot of time running away while your force recharges and then holding down Y for force lightning and then repeating. All these battles end with a quick time event which is extremely repetative. Boss battles tend to have you fighting another jedi which should be the highlight of the game however, your force powers very rarely work against them so you end up hiding while they use theirs then rushing in and button mashing. There are some great moments though in those battles lightsabers occasionally clash and a little animation occurs which looks rather cool, also the QTE at the end of these battles happen over amazing cinematics that wouldnt look out of place in one of the films and feel extremely satisfying.
Overall I loved playing Force Unleashed it is one of the best Star Wars games in ages. The issue I have is that I feel with a bit more polish the game could have been truly awesome but is held back by frustrating boss battles which are another victim of the issue of lightsaber duels working in games.
