The Force Subdued

I finally got round to picking up Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. When I originally played the demo, I didn’t engage with it. The Force powers available were very fiddly to use, and it didn’t really showcase what was possible given the physics engine and artificial intelligence that had been touted during the leadup to the game’s launch.

Since the game is now in bargain bins everywhere, I figured I should pick it up and give the game another chance (and catch up on Expanded Universe canon).

Read on, but beware of spoilers…

My first impressions were largely correct. While my control of the Force powers did improve, my control of the character within the game didn’t. Between the wildly swinging camera (not as bad as Prince of Persia, but in the same league), and the sluggish response to control, I found myself almost constantly frustrated with the number of deaths suffered due to my character’s incompetence.

Level design is ordinary. While completely linear, you can get both turned around or stuck while you figure out exactly where to go next. There are no real puzzles, since anything requiring a Force power to activate glows blue, and everything else is either platforming or killing opponents.

Fortunately, the visuals are stunning. There’s a great blend of both Original Trilogy and Prequel sets here. Both are realised beautifully, which made the game highly immersive (when I wasn’t accidentally tripping under the feet of AT-STs). Likewise, the cutscene animation and voice acting are stunning.

The story is overall decent, though I didn’t buy the romance plot between the Apprentice and his pilot, Juno. It kind of came out of nowhere in the third act and made no impact to the outcome. Likewise, I’m not sure that I like the Apprentice’s death being the catalyst for the inception of the rebellion either. To me, it lessens the importance of Luke Skywalker as the new hope after the abrupt end of the Jedi order. I know I’m not articulating well, but I think there’s too much Jedi activity between The Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

I did like the inclusion of Senator Garm Bel Iblis. He’s a character from Timothy Zahn’s awesome Dark Force Rising trilogy (which you should read if you haven’t) who one doesn’t hear very much about. In the Expanded Universe, he’s credited with being an early player in the Rebel Alliance, and though minor, I thought his inclusion was a nod in the right direction.

In conclusion, play the game for the story and the prettiness, but don’t feel bad about doing it on the easiest difficulty level. There’s and endless number of replays stretching ahead if you’re a completionist looking to get all your Xbox Live Achievements and the unlocks, but I’m not sure I can be bothered, even if the game is only a couple hours long.