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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Review (X360)

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Review (X360)LucasArts
The force is finally ready to be unleashed, but instead of the best Star Wars game yet, we end up with a game that just feels like it is missing something. The Force Unleashed can be great fun when it is firing on all cylinders, but so-so levels and a limited selection of force powers hold it back from being great. As it stands, The Force Unleashed tells a good story and throwing Stormtroopers around with the force is always fun, but it is more of a rental than a must-buy.
Quick Hits

  • Title: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
  • Platform: Xbox 360
  • Publisher: LucasArts
  • Developer: LucasArts
  • ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
  • Genre: Third-Person-Action
  • Pros: Good story; nice graphics and sound; using the Force rocks; decent replay value
  • Cons: Inconsistent levels; shallow gameplay; needs more “stuff”; bad levels and set pieces overshadow the good things; load times

LucasArts
Story

The story in The Force Unleashed is definitely one of its strong points. We all know that it occurs between Episode III and Episode IV and that you play as Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, but the real meat of the story is absolutely fascinating. I won’t give anything away, but for Star Wars fans it is pretty darn awesome. It doesn’t really step on any toes or spit in the face of any established storylines (mostly because this era hasn’t really been explored all that much), and the story is believable enough that I’m willing to accept it as canon. The story also covers all of the Star Wars basics. It is a love story and a political story. Someone has a bad feeling about something. There are some great cameos from other characters. And Proxy the droid is completely amazing. The Force Unleashed is worth playing just to see the story through to the end.

Features

TFU is, unfortunately, a single-player experience only. The story takes about 5-6 hours to play through on your first time, but the replay value is actually quite good so it isn’t much of a problem. In addition to the story missions, there is also a training mode.

Gameplay

The core gameplay in The Force Unleashed is fairly solid all around. You move with the left stick, jump with “A”, use your lightsaber with “X”, shoot lightning with “Y”, and use force push with “B”. By holding the right trigger you can grab objects and enemies and pick them up, and then fling them in any direction you want. There are also special moves and combos you unlock as you play. All in all, the controls are pretty darn intuitive and playing the game exactly how you want is very fun and easy.

What you can actually do with all of these powers is a bit of a letdown, however. As fun as the game is, it is hard to not want to be able to do more. More force powers and more ways to use them would have been great. Bending girders so that TIE Fighters run into them, blasting through doors, and flinging objects around is fun, but the force (particularly the dark side, hello!) is about much more than that. This is kids stuff. Also (and I apologize for the spoiler but this needs to be said), but when you play as a good Jedi, it seems odd that your powers don’t change. Last I checked, light side Jedi don’t use force lightning. The game just seems to lack ambition. It could have been the definitive Jedi game, but instead it seems a bit lacking.

One thing that would have helped, I think, is some puzzles. TFU is pure action for 99% of the time, and some puzzles that really made use of the force would have been interesting.

Replay Value

LucasArts
One complaint people had about the demo for the game is that they thought the full game would be repetitive. I can say that, at least until you reach the top end of your powers, that definitely isn’t the case. From the time you start playing as the apprentice (you play as Darth Vader on Kashyyk on the first level) to the end of your first run through the game, your powers change greatly. As you play you level up but also earn force points and ability points by finding hidden Jedi Holocrons. You then spend these points to power up your force abilities or buy new combos. In order to fully power up your character, it takes about 3-4 playthroughs depending on how many holocrons you can find. The difference between level 1 force push and level 3 force push is massive. Likewise the difference in your force lightning or force grip is similarly huge as you level up.

To put it simply, the game gets way more fun the longer you play. You see the world differently as your powers increase, and everything becomes a tool you can use to your advantage. Your first time through the game is about survival and learning your way around. Subsequent runs are all about just goofing off and playing how you want to, and it absolutely gets more fun as you not only get more powerful, but also learn how to use those powers better.

I would also say the game is more fun on higher difficulties. On the lowest setting, you are basically unstoppable. On higher difficulties you have to really use the force effectively and be smart about how you play, which is a lot more fun.

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