Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Throwback Thursday will feature Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
I remember this game coming out and the amount of hype over its 3 game engines (Havok, Euphoria and DMM). Getting them to work together was the technical challenge, but the end result was that you were supposed to feel like a force wielding warrior.
The game itself, when it came out was good, you pick up the controller and proceed to fill the shoes of everyone’s favourite villain, Darth Vader. That’s right, first level you’re the big bad himself and it is epic. The level design is vibrant, detailed and absolutely gorgeous, right down to the shine on ol’ Vaders dome cap. You get the opportunity straight away to show off your force power with an epic display, as you start you immediately come across this ginormous wooden barricaded. It is huge and there is no way over or around it, so time to UNLEASH THE FORCE! You concentrate force push, Vader crouches down and compresses this ball of power and then BOOM! You decimate this structure as though it was made of paper, Wookies go flying in all directions as this structure is torn apart and your left feeling like a the ultimate badass. As the level goes on, you are perfectly in your rights to kill friendlies and enemies in your path as you play with these powers. Force choking, throwing, pushing and repelling anyone in your path, whilst your lightsabre turns people into chopped liver. What a power trip it is, made even more badass by the fact Vader casually walks through this level.

Unfortunately, once you get into the game as your main character, Starkiller (I know), you will be forever trying to chase that high, with only a few occasions coming to mind that come close (I will list these later). Gameplay wise, it isn’t bad to play. Controls are pretty fluid, not great for accurate platforming but for combat manoeuvrability you zoom across the battlefield. Mid-air changes of direction and an automatic blocking means that you become very hard to hit by mere grunts. Lightsabre combat is a little clunky and would have been better if it was a little more lethal rather that the bright club it is most of the time. Force powers are pretty awesome, though muted due to character progression prerequisites in all games. My favourite uses were catching moving TIE fighters, bringing down a Star Destroyer and force punting Jawa (which is as ludicrously fun as it sounds and admittedly once spent 1 ½ hours solely doing that). Bashing solid metal doors open with force powers is also fun, but admittedly I would have reworked the progression so that I had everything and then just upped the power and carnage behind them. Force lightening isn’t bad but I feel like if I’m holding someone with lightening for a certain length of time, they should be cooked for the sake of realism. We’ve covered movement, combat and force powers, so lastly onto boss fights. Again, I feel that if the combat was reworked for lethal lightsabres, this would have benefited greatly. What we ended up with is boss fights pre-scripted into a patterns that aren’t hard to figure out and then you bash them with your light-club until a QTE sorts them out.

The graphics are pretty good, nicely polished and are a good standard for the PS3, but I just have this nagging feeling that the Vader level got that bit more attention as in my opinion, looks better. The grunts look good throughout, but Starkiller himself could have used some Vader love as he can look awkward at times. All in all, graphics are good. The in-game menu’s are a real pain though, you get two of them on start and select, and the two real options you end up in the most is upgrade and lightsabre. What bothers me here is that you have to go through a load screen each time, which I admit is a small annoyance but I can’t stand it for these small bits.
The story is primarily a story about freedom, with an arbitrary choice at the end. It is fairly enjoyable but not really going to elevate it to the greats of Star Wars. Though it does provide an interesting insight into Vader, his relationship with the Emperor and you. It looks at more militant types of Jedi and the start of the Rebellion (including fan favourite, Princess Leia). From the start of this game you get cool opportunities to utilise the environment and create havoc but as you get further in it falls into the dynasty warrior trap and seems more concerned throwing enemies at you than letting you be inventive.

As I read over this, it sounds as if this game is mediocre and that I don’t like it, but that would be wrong. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is set up not to immerse you in rich Star Wars lore, but rather to give you the feeling of being a force (sorry) of nature and it succeeds magnificently. Tossing round people who grab onto the friends desperately, punting the Jawa and punching through metal doors, this game fulfils a Star Wars power trip rather than give you an emotional journey and I am totally OK with that. Now, where the hell did that Jawa go…?

Hints and tips for unleashing your force:

• Always be moving, get used to your camera control and move some more. Starkiller is blessed with infinite force dashes to exploit and whatever does come your way gets deflected automatically anyway. So stay mobile and even the big guns will have trouble with you.
• Upgrade your automatic defence as it is the most practical to upgrade.
• Upgrade force push for epic moments, nothing looks cooler that breaking a metal door or send a whole alley of people scattering with this bad boy.
• Explore the levels carefully, there are Sith Holocrons (for temporary boosts) and Jedi Holocrons (For unlocking stuff like lightsabre crystals)
• Customise your lightsabre, always have a power crystal installed for a boost. Get to pimping, as you can get cool effect to it as well.
• QTE walkers whenever you get the chance, it looks cool, you feel awesome and it is just easier than hacking away at them.
• Consider your environment, if you’re on a ship then the vacuum of space can help clear a room. If the floor is lava, feel free to chuck enemies in. Careful though, it can hurt you too.
• Feel free to rip pieces out of the wall to hit your enemies.
• Force Lightening can paralyze foes briefly, giving you time to put some distance between you.
• Make the most of the Vader level, as you can’t go back to it later like the other levels.
• Punt a Jawa. Laugh. Punt another one. Laugh some more. Repeat this until you a) feel bad or b) stop laughing