Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is one of the better Star Wars games to come out in the last couple of years. The story is engaging, the gameplay is fun, the graphics are great, the score is fantastic, and the overall gaming experience is very enjoyable. However the game is not perfect and there are a couple of things that could have been better but they are easily tolerated in a game that is this much fun.
The story is the real star in this game, it is set between episodes 3 and 4 and it links the old trilogy to the new one. You play as Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. In the prologue you play as Darth Vader and you get a feel for all of the powers. Then you go into the story itself. I am not going to spoil the story but I will say that there is a variety of environments and enemies to fight. Many of the Star Wars characters make an appearance and the game does a great job of putting itself into the Star Wars canon.
The gameplay is fun and when you level up you get to buy new force powers and abilities. Along the way you learn new force powers like force repulse, force lightning, and the saber throw power. All of these powers can be upgraded and they can all be used in massive combos. The main powers that you have are force push (b button) force lightning (y button) and force grip (right trigger) These basic powers can be used in combination with the lightsaber attack button (x) to really cause a lot of havoc in the environment. The environment is pretty fully destructible and it is a lot of fun to pick up a large item and hurl it at a Storm Trooper. Each mission has a specific task that you need to do to move on but there are also 2 bonus tasks that will give you a higher force rank. One is to get a certain amount of force points in a level (varies based on the level) and then there is another task that is displayed on the pause screen and it changes from level to level. These tasks are fun and add something new to do on a second or third play through if you missed them the first time.
There are several power ups available including both Jedi and Sith holocrons. Jedi holocrons are glowing yellow squares that will give you various rewards like 10,000 force points, lightsaber crystals, or new costumes. The Sith holocrons are power ups that will either make you invincible for a short period of time, refill your life, increase the damage that your attacks do, or drain life from enemies. Life is gained from killing enemies, much like in Ninja Gaiden, you kill an enemy and some green orbs come out and refill your health meter.
The graphics are great and all of the environments are rendered beautifully, from the Wookie home of Kashykk to the junkyard world Raxus Prime. You will feel like you are watching another Star Wars movie and that is a great thing.
But there are some rough patches that should be noted. The learning curve is a little steep and I had to bring down the difficulty level just so that I could beat the game and see the end. The mission select is not on the titles screen, if you wish to return to a previous level you have to load your game (wherever you are in it) then pause the game (after any unskippable cut scenes) then you can go to mission select. Why is it like this? Why isn’t the mission select on the main page? This just makes it annoying but bearable because the game is so fun. The same thing goes for the training modules, I didn’t even know that there were any training modules until I decided to see what everything on the pause menu did. These problems are just cosmetic and don’t damper the game itself but it does make for a slightly annoying experience.
If you have seen any of the trailers for this game then you will probably remember when the apprentice pulls down the Star Destroyer with the force. That part in the game is easily the most frustrating if you don’t know exactly what to do, and trust me I was lost. It took me over an hour to finish a sequence that should have taken maybe 5 minutes. But once I realized how to do it correctly and with a little bit of luck, I finished it but look out for this because it is frustrating and it will more likely than not piss you off.
Overall the game makes great leaps in storytelling. The graphics are superb and the gameplay is a lot of fun. Just a few minor problems keep it from being a perfect game but it is still worth a look.
Gameplay: 8.9
Story: 10
Replay Value: 9
Graphics: 9.3
Overall: 9.3
The story is the real star in this game, it is set between episodes 3 and 4 and it links the old trilogy to the new one. You play as Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. In the prologue you play as Darth Vader and you get a feel for all of the powers. Then you go into the story itself. I am not going to spoil the story but I will say that there is a variety of environments and enemies to fight. Many of the Star Wars characters make an appearance and the game does a great job of putting itself into the Star Wars canon.
The gameplay is fun and when you level up you get to buy new force powers and abilities. Along the way you learn new force powers like force repulse, force lightning, and the saber throw power. All of these powers can be upgraded and they can all be used in massive combos. The main powers that you have are force push (b button) force lightning (y button) and force grip (right trigger) These basic powers can be used in combination with the lightsaber attack button (x) to really cause a lot of havoc in the environment. The environment is pretty fully destructible and it is a lot of fun to pick up a large item and hurl it at a Storm Trooper. Each mission has a specific task that you need to do to move on but there are also 2 bonus tasks that will give you a higher force rank. One is to get a certain amount of force points in a level (varies based on the level) and then there is another task that is displayed on the pause screen and it changes from level to level. These tasks are fun and add something new to do on a second or third play through if you missed them the first time.
There are several power ups available including both Jedi and Sith holocrons. Jedi holocrons are glowing yellow squares that will give you various rewards like 10,000 force points, lightsaber crystals, or new costumes. The Sith holocrons are power ups that will either make you invincible for a short period of time, refill your life, increase the damage that your attacks do, or drain life from enemies. Life is gained from killing enemies, much like in Ninja Gaiden, you kill an enemy and some green orbs come out and refill your health meter.
The graphics are great and all of the environments are rendered beautifully, from the Wookie home of Kashykk to the junkyard world Raxus Prime. You will feel like you are watching another Star Wars movie and that is a great thing.
But there are some rough patches that should be noted. The learning curve is a little steep and I had to bring down the difficulty level just so that I could beat the game and see the end. The mission select is not on the titles screen, if you wish to return to a previous level you have to load your game (wherever you are in it) then pause the game (after any unskippable cut scenes) then you can go to mission select. Why is it like this? Why isn’t the mission select on the main page? This just makes it annoying but bearable because the game is so fun. The same thing goes for the training modules, I didn’t even know that there were any training modules until I decided to see what everything on the pause menu did. These problems are just cosmetic and don’t damper the game itself but it does make for a slightly annoying experience.
If you have seen any of the trailers for this game then you will probably remember when the apprentice pulls down the Star Destroyer with the force. That part in the game is easily the most frustrating if you don’t know exactly what to do, and trust me I was lost. It took me over an hour to finish a sequence that should have taken maybe 5 minutes. But once I realized how to do it correctly and with a little bit of luck, I finished it but look out for this because it is frustrating and it will more likely than not piss you off.
Overall the game makes great leaps in storytelling. The graphics are superb and the gameplay is a lot of fun. Just a few minor problems keep it from being a perfect game but it is still worth a look.
Gameplay: 8.9
Story: 10
Replay Value: 9
Graphics: 9.3
Overall: 9.3
No comments:
Post a Comment