Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Review
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a game by LucasArt in which you will play the role of Darth Vader's apprentice. You will be taking missions from Vader through your android Proxy, who is also programmed to kill you if he gets the chance. Your mission is simple, snuff out all the Jedis that Vader uncovers. The twist is that the Empire is unaware of you, so you're going to have to kill anyone and everyone that gets in your way.
Graphically this game has some small problems if you're looking at areas that you're not going to be able to get to, but overall each level has a unique look to it, and it makes you feel like you are actually in that galaxy far, far, away. The cut scenes also look solid, my one qualm is that your light saber color in game won't always match the one in the cut scenes. Some characters look better than others in the game, but you're not going to be able to look at them for very long as you're probably going to be too busy running your light saber through them.
The sounds of the game definitely make you feel like you fell into a Star Wars movie. Combine the music with the light saber sounds and you're feeling right at home in this game.
The controls are solid for the most part there's a couple small issues when it comes to try to take in your surrounds, but other than that you'll find the controls, overall, comfortable. You are going to find that you're going to be spamming the crap out of some buttons, and forgetting what others will do. Just remember, as always use the guard button more than you'd like, and you'll survive through most of the game.
As stated before this game is about being Vader's apprentice, and the storyline for that is pretty decent. Does the battles through the levels sometimes get tiring, yes, but you're wielding a light saber, so I overlook that. Does the novelty of having to play the mini-game of push the buttons at the right time to defeat a boss kind of lose its glamour after a while, yes, but still you're kicking Jedi ass. As you can see this game sounds like one that might actually be worth the money, but there is a couple small issues that might end up driving you away. The first is the collision detection. There will be times when you are running up a ramp to a platform, which the ramp is attached to, that your character will get stuck and you'll have to jump to actually be on the platform. If the terrain that you're stepping on has the slightest amount of slope you're going to slide down it, if the slope hits just the wrong angle of an adjacent piece of ground you'll be sliding in place forever, and you'll find you'll have to restart from your last save. Using the force is a blast, figuring out how to aim the objects you have floating in the air is a pain.
This games has so much potential, and I hope that some of the mechanics makes it into other Star Wars games, but I hope that they fix the collision issue. The one amazing thing about this game is that the loading is almost non-existent in game. The problem is that to access anything in the pause menu makes you want to claw your eyes out, as they each have to load for an extended amount of time. Its hard to say no to this game, but just be ready for some frustration in some unexpected places. This game gets a 7.9 out of 10.
