Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Ian rips into LucasArts' much-hyped debut of Starkiller.

	Version 360, (All formats)	Developer LucasArts	Publisher LucasArts	Genre Action

Page: 1  2 

Page 2

Then they all went out and played laser tag, or skee ball or whatever it is those Lucas folk do. It forces you, as a fair and balanced member of the community, to resort to very cheap tactics and exploit failures in the game itself to achieve this fabled quick-time victory. Look at Shadow of the Colossus, look at God of War, look at any game from the last ten years that has realised boss battles don't have to be about overpowered adversaries taking the piss as they defy all of the laws the game has taken its time laying down. Look at them and hang your head in shame, LucasArts.

I've mentioned it already, but it really has to be pointed out again - mainly because it's in my notes about fourteen separate times. The implementation of force powers is so unbalanced it's bordering on farcical, and the inconsistencies - as well as concessions made - take what should be an empowering and liberating experience and turn it into... well, just another game.

Grunts should not be able to block the force. They just shouldn't. I'm not up to speed on all of my Star Wars mythology, but I know people who are good at that jazz - like the Apprentice (not Alan Sugar's) - should be able to kill the crap out of any non-jedi they see fit. Using their mind. I understand it's a game and there needs to be challenge crow barred in there somehow, but by crikey it's annoying to see a stormtrooper with a 'force proof' shield, or some alien prats who can easily block a lightsaber strike which would cut them in two.

Then we come to the biggie, which, frankly, has already been summed up a lot better on Quarter to Three.com:

"Picture Vader in the conference room in "Star Wars," raising his hand to choke the guy and then delivering the line, "I find your lack of faith disturbing." Now imagine if he raised his hand and instead accidentally crushed the speakerphone in the center of the conference table. Awkward. Would he pretend he meant to do that? Or would he fumble around and try again, destroying more appliances and furniture in the process before eventually choking the faithless guy? Because that's what would happen in Force Unleashed."

Yes, your targeting couldn't be less accurate if you were actually a blind man. Who was a quadriplegic. Who had no innate sense of how to aim anyway, nor did he even know the concept of what 'to aim' was. Also he was dead.

You go to pick up a box and hurl it at some bad dudes, you pick up a flower and throw it off a gantry. You want to pick up a man and throw him at the moon, you pick up the moon and throw it at yourself. It's so, so off-target it's not even funny and the looseness with which the targeted item changes does nothing but hinder the experience from start to finish. It's very, very satisfying when it goes right, but it's so bloody awkward in getting there that half the time you can't even be bothered.

But wait - did I mention 'fun' there? The magical thing that we all aspire to 'have'? Because yes - there is some in The Force Unleashed. In fact, while there may be over 1,000 words above slagging the game to Cloud City and back, it has quite a lot of fun in it.

Yes, it's broken - but it's still a game where you get to feck about as a powerful force-wielding mofo. You can destroy environments to a satisfying degree and - initially at least - you are suitably nails. Things do go off the rails as more types of enemy are introduced to throw in 'challenge' and 'variety' as the suits like to call it, and the boss battles are bona-fide shit, but when it goes well, it goes very, very well.

Unfortunately it doesn't quite hit the same level of broken-but-still-great as something like Mercenaries 2 (a personal favourite of the Dransfield flathold), as you can't order a MOAB strike on a civilian, but you can throw people at things and things at people, and that does raise a smirk when things look at their glummest.

Another positive mention goes to the story - while it isn't the best in the world, it has more than its fair share of obvious plot twists and it's sure to get a fair few fanboys up in arms with its revelations, it's certainly a good effort. Not only is it a Star Wars story, it's one that dares to have a direct effect on the events of the movies we all love so much - even if some of the exposition is a bit shonky, it's still nice to see the developers daring to take on George Lucas' job. And it has to be said they've surely done a better job that ol' turkeyneck would with it.

Oh, and bar the tearing, glitching, clipping and other crap, this is one finely-presented game. It looks nice, the cutscenes are pretty well done - even if the Apprentice does look like his designer took then entire time s/he should have spent designing the character drawing skinheads with no discernable facial features instead - the voice acting is of a good standard - bar the impressions of Darth and Palpatine - and the musical score is, shock horror, brilliant.

Page: 1  2