Star wars is one of those franchises that you just can’t ignore, no matter how hard you try. We all know what happens in the movies - Darth Vader gets it on with Princess Amidala then 9 months later out pop two little Vader-Lings called Luke & Leia who are destined to return balance to the force. This Tuesday (Friday for the EU) we’ll be seeing the launch of the next Star Wars instalment in Video Game form. The Force Unleashed fills “The Gap” between Star Wars Episodes 3 & 4 where Darth Vader is hunting the few remaining Jedi left in the galaxy.
However while he’s on the Wookie home world of Kashyyyk assassinating the notorious Jedi “Master Kento”, he discovers the Jedi’s son who manages to take Vaders lightsaber right from his hands – something that has never been done before. Without hesitation Vader hides this boy and trains him to be a sky whale hack donuts his Secret Apprentice, Starkiller, which is where your epic voyage through the Force Unleashed will begin.Nearly every aspect of the gameplay is based solely on being able to use your Lightsaber & Force Abilities strategically, there’s no more messing around with Blasters and Grenades like in previous Star Wars games [a very wise move on Lucasarts part in my eyes]. During your first mission you start out with one power, Force Push, however you do gain a new power at the beginning of each mission until you unlock them all. Each new mission does get you thinking about ways to use your newly unlocked ability, as the mission’s boss & obstacles in between tend to be more vulnerable to your new power than the others in your arsenal. The Force Unleashed has both a basic set of powers and an advanced set. The basic set being: Force Grip, Force Lightening, Force Push, Force Jump & Force Dash [All very self explanatory].
Then you have the slightly more advanced force powers that are executed by holding the block trigger [LT or L2], then pressing the necessary button to execute, these really are where the force starts to become unleashed. In your advanced arsenal you have a Lightening shield [If enemies get caught inside it will inflict some serious damage], Lightsaber throw [Self explanatory, however you can hit multiple targets that are near you with one throw] and Force Repulse [Sends out a huge pulse of force generated energy that sends your enemies flying]. As you level up these powers get bigger, better and more badass - but we’ll talk about that some more later on.The controls are extremely well optimized for speed and accuracy, however at first I did have a few problems getting to grips with the camera system. This was because the camera is 100% controlled by you [There’s no auto aligning optimizations], however once you get past the first mission this becomes second nature to you. The camera angles in boss fights are a whole different story.
When you get into a Boss fight, the camera automatically switches into an “Action” position that looks great and feels immensely cinematic. However when you’re forced to the other side of the playing field or right into the lens of the camera the battle can get a little bit awkward, a very minor issue though. Boss fights are pretty satisfying thanks to some Great AI, Terrain destruction & Special abilities. It may take you a while to beat them down, but getting to the end is certainly a relief.The major downfall of the Boss Battles is the unsatisfying quicktime events that you’ll have to go through after getting your enemy to a low level of health.
Quicktime events are a trend that’s catching on fast, but have very rarely been done in a way that leaves you satisfied at the end of them. In a Boss fight you easily spend a good 10-15 minutes wearing them down, only to go through one of these scripted events at the end of each battle, which really leaves you unsatisfied after experiencing the other Innovative gameplay elements elsewhere in the Force Unleashed. Some of these quicktime events can be avoided, but doing so can be extremely hard due to the event trigger button being the same as the attack button [Something that could have done with a bit more thought].Throughout the game you gain “Force Points” which are practically the same as an RPG’s “EXP”, in the way that once you gain enough of them you’ll level up. Once you’ve levelled up you’re given points [Currency basically] that go toward buying new Combos, Talents & Power Upgrades that add yet more depth to the fresh gameplay. Combos really are self explanatory [You just buy new combos that utilise a combination of your powers in one move] however Talents & Power Upgrades do require a bit more explaining.
Power Upgrades take the force to a whole new level, something that 2.5million people have experienced while playing the record breaking demo that released last month. Every time you upgrade your abilities not only the damage they inflict increases, but you can also hold in the button that controls the upgraded power to charge up an attack of catastrophic proportions. In a nutshell enabled talents increase your skills slightly each time you level up, these skills can be anything from Lightsaber Damage to the amount of time it takes for you to recover your Force Bar. You really won’t notice Talents taking effect until the later missions in the campaign, but essentially it does make things a bit easier on harder difficulties. A very minor feature in some respects but also one that’s a welcome addition to the game.The game utilises the force in a lot of innovative ways, allowing you to bring down a star destroyer with force grip and even link power generators with force lightening. You can also use the force to bend [And Push] doors & objects in unscripted ways which is one of the most satisfying things in the game, thanks to the Euphoria Engine. You can pick up and manipulate around 70% of the debris & objects within the game [Ranging from Huge objects to tiny ones], which adds countless amounts of ways to kill an enemy [Variety is the Spice of death after all]. The replay value I have to say isn’t very high unfortunately, which is mainly down to the lack of Multiplayer [On the Xbox 360 & PS3 versions].
You may squeeze an extra couple of hours trying to achieve either the Xbox 360 Achievements or Trophies, but other than that there really aren’t many reasons to campaign again.When you’re not too busy making Storm Troopers eat your lightsaber [heh], you’ll realise that the Force Unleashed has an incredibly deep story as well, something that many other Star Wars games to date haven’t had. As we’ve heard many times, George Lucas gave the team behind the storytelling of the game some great pointers as to what was happening during that period of time, which has made the Force Unleashed entirely integrated with the Star Wars universe [This will be more appreciated by the huge Star Wars fans out there]. The story, animation & voice acting combined are close to the quality of a Blockbuster Movie, which is a very rare thing to experience in a Video Game. I won’t go into the plot too much because I don’t want to spoil your experience, but I can tell you that you will be seeing some very familiar faces from the movies. If you want a little bit more story than the game has given you go and buy the hardback novel [Written by Sean Williams] or even the graphic novel – Both of these give a deeper insight into the story of the Force Unleashed [We’ll be giving away a copy of the Novel later this week].With a game that has Great gameplay & an excellent story, you would naturally expect some killer graphics too.
Well your expectations won’t fall short, the visuals have an epic quality to them and you will experience a fantastic variation in locations throughout the campaign. The environment quality is good, but can fall short as they get bigger [In terms of texture quality & model quality]. The force however, looks and feels immense at all times, looking better and better as you unlock higher force ranks. The cutscenes deliver Cinematic quality on an epic scale throughout, most of them do appear to be pre-rendered but that doesn’t really remove anything from the experience – if anything it helps continually deliver an immersive & cinematic experience.The Force Unleashed delivers on everything it had promised to do and more.
The Graphics are something to be marvelled at on the Next Gen systems, showing constant quality & scale throughout. I’m not a fan of how the quicktime events were implemented into the game, as they’re far too easy to complete and even harder to avoid all together. The fantastic gameplay elements completely overshadow the minor flaws, being able to control every element of the force you could imagine [Apart from Jedi Mind Tricks] won’t get old as you play through the game. The story is well written, the voice actors do an extremely convincing job and the character acting is flawless. It’s a shame Multiplayer didn’t make the cut into the next-gen versions of the game [This may have actually added some serious replay value to the game], but you really can’t criticise the game on this fact. You won’t need to be under the influence of a Jedi Mind Trick to buy this game, so make sure you get a copy when it releases in stores later this week!
