force unleashed |

Publisher: LucasArts

Developer: LucasArts

Release Date: 9/16/2008

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I was really excited about this whole game, and I’m surprised LucasArts lied and made a lot of things up. First, I have to mention that you can’t choose which side you go on until the final boss fight. Without spoiling anything, the whole game is based on you fighting with the dark side as Vader’s apprentice to bring the Emperor, the Sith Lord, and the Dark Sidius down so Vader can take his place. So, Unleashed takes place between episodes 3 and 4 (ok, if you can’t read the original 3 as 3, 4, and 5), and you try to bring about the Rebel Alliance to take the Empire down. While the story flip-flops a whole lot and doesn’t get interesting until the very end, it keeps things interesting, and there are a few new memorable characters that help make it interesting.

The whole point of the game is to make you feel ultra-powerful, and it mainly focuses on force powers. The controls take a bit of getting used to, but you basically learn force powers over time and can upgrade your lightsaber and your powers by using force powers. You can earn yellow (combo spheres), red (force spheres), and blue (power spheres). Each section has abilities that cost sphere points and can increase your max health, max force energy, give you new combos, etc. I found only a few of the combos really useful since the game is full of cheap fighting and death. You have to use your most powerful stuff on your weakest enemies, thanks to your falling down and not being able to recover. You’ll flop around like a rag doll while 20 enemies are wailing on you and you can’t get up. You can only recover in the air by pressing A really quick, so this really kills things—a hell of a lot too. You wind up dying and being overwhelmed because you get knocked down and can’t get up, so you die almost instantly, even in the easiest setting.

The game throws way too many people at you, so here’s a scenario. You have a bunch of Stormtroopers, 2 AT-ATs, 4 huge black Imperial dudes, 5 snipers, and 3 guys with turrets all wailing on you. How the hell can you beat them all without dying? Well, use your force powers like a lightning shield, saber toss, force push, or force throw. When you fight bigger enemies like Rancors or AT-ATs, you get a button-pressing sequence like in God of War, and it’s not as fun as you think. There’s no variation like stick turns, button-mashing, etc. Most of it is just sitting and watching, so it’s really broken.

I also have to mention that the game is absolutely gorgeous, and this is probably the only superb thing about the game. Everything is huge, and you really feel like you are almost on these planets. Of course, a Star Wars game wouldn’t be complete without finding stuff. If you get Jedi Holocrons, you can get new lightsaber crystals to change the color of your blade or power crystals to change the properties of your saber. Good luck finding them all since they are so stupidly hidden that you’ll only find half on every level, and there’s really no incentive to replay the game since it’s so darn cheap and retarded. If the game wasn’t so cheap, you could possibly beat the game hard, but even on medium, you almost can’t beat the game. I have a strong feeling that this game wasn’t playtested much, or these flaws wouldn’t exist.

Another major flaw is when you’re force-throwing. The game uses both sticks to do this, but it lacks depth perception, and it’s hard to aim objects properly. Another stupid flaw is the retarded camera; even though you can control it, the camera likes flopping around constantly, and it makes you feel sick after a while. PLEASE!!!! If you’re a Star Wars buff, then there are a lot of files you can unlock and read, including an art gallery, unlockable costumes, a cheat code section, etc. I guess only the rest of the hardcore players will go back and play this again, but even I (a HUGE Star Wars fan) won’t go play this more than once. So, if you can bypass the absurdly cheap deaths with no recovery after falling, the repetitive fighting, and the lukewarm plot, then, by all means, go for it.