Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
by LucasArts
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Product Summary
Brand: LucasArtsAudio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Published: 2008-09-16
Release Date: 2008-09-16
Platform: Xbox 360
Model: 32761
Color: One Color
Publisher: LucasArts
Product features:
- Confront and associate with familiar faces from the Star Wars films, including Darth Vader in addition to new adversaries such as fugitive Jedi and Force-sensitive Felucians
- Unleash and upgrade the Secret Apprentice's four core Force powers - Force push, grip, repulse and lightning - throughout the course of the game, and combine them for ultra-destructive, never-before-seen combos.
- Examples of unleashing the Force in ways never thought possible: Secret Apprentice won't just Force push enemies into walls - he'll Force push enemies through walls, and will Force grip them in midair, zap them with lightning, then drop them to the ground
- Visit locations such as Episode III's Wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk and the floral Felucia, the junk planet Raxus Prime, plus an Imperial TIE fighter construction facility
- Decisions made by players throughout the game will determine the path of the story, including multiple endings that will rock Star Wars continuity as they know it.
Video Game Reviews of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Customer Review: What Happened?
Summary: 3 Stars
Star Wars The Force Unleashed, or TFU, after a long time in development has finally been released with all the polish and solid presentation that should be expected with a Lucasarts as well as the Euphoria, DMM and Havoc engines, as it should be, considering that Star Wars is what brought Lucasarts to the dance. The story is solid, the player takes the role of Starkiller, the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, a Sith who's charged with killing the last of th Jedi, but there is an underlying reason for why Starkiller is the secret apprentice mostly to do with the whole rule of two that the Sith have. As Starkiller the player must run, jump and knock the crap out of the same baddies and a strange kind of robot that pops out of nowhere, by using your trusty lightsaber, which can be upgraded but not at the level as KOTOR, the force powers as well as the lightsaber skill can be also upgraded, all to make Starkiller the powerhouse that he is, which both makes the game great, but also hinders the franchise at the same time.
The story is strong and original, however, it is uneven with the prequels and the original movies, an example of this is that the first level the player has control of the Dark Lord himself, Darth "head cold" Vader, the breathing thing that Vader has really started to get annoying, but asides that the power that Vader has does not match up with anything that was seen in the original movies. The same applies to Starkiller, he becomes really strong and all the force powers look impressive, but the powers he has were never seen on the scale as brought forth in TFU. Yes it is amazing to basically dominate the same enemies with massive force attacks or glide in superfast and lay down the hurt. Any other game with the obvious laziness in enemy design as well as level design would be destroyed in reviews, but this is Star Wars. The levels are essentially just corridors and arenas, sure there is that Star Wars aesthetic and gloss applied, also the levels are linear in construction no free roaming Starkiller can only go the path that is readily available with some environmental manipulation. This game is very much a God of War clone in some respects with a great deal of button mashing and those mini-bosses and Jedi with those specific button presses needed to finish the guy off, and not in that weird massage parlor sense. Actually, the finish move sequence is actually well implemented with a change in perspective and some great attacks getting done, but much like the force powers these are one of those moments where I wondered about how this works with the franchise, even though it looks great.
Now the camera, and targetting, one would think that with a great deal of development behind it that the cinematic camera would be really refined, but much like Too Human the camera is very difficult to work with. The platforming aspects to TFU suffers greatly from the bizarre camera angles, I found myself dying a great deal because the camera took a position right behind Starkiller making the jumping process a little difficult especially when attempting to gauge the jump it might be too short or too long, and by the time it is figured out that the jump was done wrong Starkiller is dead. The targetting is another problem with this game, and since the use of the force successfully strongly hinges on the progression the less than ideal targetting system makes for some problematic situations. An example of this is with the force grip, essentially and ideally the player can more or less grab any item and use it as a throwing weapon, even some enemies are subject to this, however, sometimes the targetting isn't the strongest there were many a time I would lift the wrong thing also when using the grip and lift Starkiller becomes completely stationary making him the perfect target, and when hit Starkiller will lose concentration and drop the object bringing the player back to square one. I wished I has more fingers to help with the constant button presses and re-adjusting of the camera, I ran out of fingers, this is a button mashing game that requires both hands to actually be able to execute parts of it.
The controls to the game are good enough, the ease of pick and play is there, it's fairly easy to just grab a controller and start your path on the darkside. But still in the back of my mind I would've enjoyed hacking and slashing with the right analog stick, but how would the force grip work since moving an object up and down is determined by the right stick, also the camera is adjusted with the right analog stick when not using force grip. The left analog stick is used for the force grip and its movement left, right, front and back.
Now the meat of the game, and not that charded coctail weenie that Vader has, the graphical presentation is top notch, but with some noticeable technical problems like clipping, and a weird bubbling sometimes that I have never seen before. The characters look solid, except for Juno, who looks like a rabbit with those huge front teeth and the cleavage, not very good cleavage either. The audio is solid, with John Williams supplying the rich orchestral music, but sometimes the music gets way too loud for in game dialogue like Juno or Proxy, the murderous andriod, giving obvious hints and tips on where to go next, which is an odd choice considering that the game only has one path. The voice-acting is decent but nothing that hasn't been heard before in Star Wars it's the usual melo-dramatic jabber.
Overall, TFU is a good game, which is worthy of the title Star Wars, but with a good amount of glitches and some camera issues, to be honest I think this game was done in response to the growing criticism of Lucasarts not putting out good titles since KOTOR. And let's not forget the worst part of this game, and this is one of the worst sequences I have ever played in any game, the dreaded Star Destroyer on Raxus Prime. The boss fight on Raxus Prime is an Imperial Star Destroyer, which sounds amazing, Starkiller has to bring a the massive ship down using his force powers, however instead of actually doing an amazing sequence of moves as they did before with other bosses, this sequence is basically stand on a platform force grip the ship and slowly, and by slowly I mean torture slowly haul down the Star Destroyer, one problem is the constantly re-spawning TIE Fighters that are sent in to protect the ship, allow for the Star Destroyer to reposition itself somewhat only to repeat this sequence again and again, always being attacked by the TIE Fighters. This sequence is the perfect example of how the development team for TFU just stopped building on this game, rather than getting the Star Destroyer close enough and having Starkiller jump from TIE Fighter to TIE Fighter getting closer to put that final strike to the Star Destroyer, the player must deal with this horrible redundant gameplay, also the recycling of the levels is another indication that the development team for this game just rested on their laurels, which is a shame this game could've been amazing. So what's the final verdict on this game? The story is a good one, but it's peppered with laziness, presentationally it's solid, but with glitches, audio has always been a strong suit with Lucasarts, but the music being too loud during some points of the game is an annoyance. The camera along with the targetting isn't the best. But to be honest, regardless of what is written or seen in review for TFU fans of the franchise will clamour for this game. As a fan I felt this game was 'OK', but I think the best Star Wars games have all been done, and with TFU, Lucasarts played it very safe with the subject matter opting for an all too familiar storyline, also it is pretty easy to figure out how this game will end before even playing it which is another problem, why wouldn't the development team put some effort and imagination into producing a new Star Wars property instead of the all too familiar formula, the success of KOTOR proves that an alternative Star Wars timeline and storyline can be popular both commercially and critically.
Asides all that I am still enjoying the game, it has some pretty fun elements to it, but for all the hype around this game, maybe everyone was expecting a little too much from the beligered Lucasarts. Also Lucasarts is mostly to blame for this as well, hype aside, Star Wars is already a popular franchise and for the development team to produce a game that lacks so much and is basically a clone of better games, and this is supposed to be a part of the franchise that has made Lucasarts, where's the pride, or is it just a huge cash grab?
Description of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
The next chapter in the Star Wars saga, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, tells the story of Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice, a mysterious figure trained by the menacing Sith Lord, to hunt down the last of the Jedi. Set in the dark times between Episodes III and IV, the story is both a continuation of the prequel trilogy -- exploring the aftermath of Order 66, which called for the immediate execution of all Jedi, and focusing on the continued rise of Darth Vader -- and a direct bridge to the Original Trilogy. The Force Unleashed will forever change the fate of the Galaxy and explain key plot points that directly lead into events in Star Wars: A New Hope. With The Force Unleashed , LucasArts not only introduces a new chapter in the Star Wars saga, but also two completely new and innovative technologies -- Digital Molecular Matter by Pixelux Entertainment and euphoria by NaturalMotion Ltd. These groundbreaking technologies combine with Havoc physics to create true next-gen game play and the Force like it's never been seen or experienced before.The Star Wars saga will continue in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a videogame developed by LucasArts, which casts players as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice" and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. In it, players will assist the iconic villain in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi - and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny.
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Game Features:
- During the period between Episodes III and IV, players hunt Jedi in the role of Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice.
- Unleash and upgrade the Secret Apprentice's four core Force powers - Force push, grip, repulse and lightning - throughout the course of the game, and combine them for ultra-destructive, never-before-seen combos.
- Examples of unleashing the Force in ways never thought possible:
- The Secret Apprentice won't just Force push enemies into walls - he'll Force push enemies through walls.
- The Secret Apprentice won't just Force grip foes to throw them aside - he'll Force grip them in midair, zap them with lightning, then drop them to the ground to explode like a bomb.
- In addition to new adversaries created just for the game, such as fugitive Jedi and Force-sensitive Felucians, players will also confront and associate with familiar faces from the Star Wars films, including Darth Vader.
- Visit locations such as Episode III's Wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk and the floral Felucia, the junk planet Raxus Prime, plus an Imperial TIE fighter construction facility.
- The Force Unleashed is LucasArts' first internally developed title for next-generation consoles, and it represents the first in-game collaboration of talents and technology between LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic, two companies now finally under one roof at the new Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco's Presidio district.
- The Force Unleashed debuts Digital Molecular Matter from Pixelux and euphoria behavioral simulation from NaturalMotion Ltd.
- LucasArts is preparing an unprecedented promotional effort around the launch of The Force Unleashed, encompassing a full line of toys and game-based action figures from Hasbro, as well as a full publishing program from Dark Horse, Del Rey and Palace Press.
Meet the Cast
The Star Wars Saga will continue in 2008 with LucasArts' biggest-ever video game event. Set during the "dark times" between Episodes III and IV, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed portrays the previously untold story of Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice -- and now you can put a face to that mysterious character as well as the major supporting cast members as LucasArts unveils the actors set to star in The Force Unleashed.
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The New Technology of The Force Unleashed
With The Force Unleashed, LucasArts not only introduces a new chapter in the Star Wars saga, but also two completely new and innovative technologies -- Digital Molecular Matter by Pixelux Entertainment and euphoria by NaturalMotion Ltd. These groundbreaking technologies combine with Havoc physics to create true next-gen gameplay and the Force like it's never been seen or experienced before.
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