 I think we’d all be kidding ourselves if we said the concept behind Star Wars: The Force Unleashed didn’t provoke interest and intrigue. When LucasArts began this project in 2004, they wanted to create a Star Wars game unlike anything the gaming world had seen before. And in truth, they have accomplished their original goal. Unfortunately, it appears the game isn’t the world-renowned masterpiece they had hoped.
The basic idea here is pretty exciting. Finally, we get a chance to play as the evil apprentice of Darth Vader, destroying everyone and everything in our path. We’re unstoppably powerful, and we know it. How cool is that?!
The problem, though, lies in the execution. Sure, the core of The Force Unleashed can be pretty fun. But, it gets old very quickly, and you’ll soon find yourself trudging your way through the repetitive and mindless gameplay. On top of that, the title just doesn’t perform well on a consistent basis. In the end, The Force Unleashed could have used another few months in development.
Use the Force to hit the jump. If you haven’t upgraded your abilities enough yet, just use your mouse.
If you’re
well-versed in Star Wars lore, you’ve probably wondered what it’s like
to join the Dark Side. The Sith always seem more powerful than those
around them, and it feels like they always have a bit more fun than the
Jedi.
Luckily for us, we now have our chance to experience life as the bad guy. In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, you play the role of Starkiller, the secret apprentice of Darth Vader. Raised by the Jedi, Starkiller catches Lord Vader’s eye with his natural control of the Force. Naturally, Vader decides to use the child’s ability for his own gain.
The heart of our story takes place between the two movie trilogies, lodged directly between Episodes III and IV. Now that Starkiller’s in-house training is complete, Darth Vader decides to send his understudy on more thorough tests. Our task is to locate the remaining Jedi masters and destroy them, effectively eliminating the last threat to Imperial power. Our trek will take us through a multitude of environments, from Kashyyyk to Raxus Prime, including an exciting trip to the Death Star.  Each environment serves as a single level in the game’s campaign. At the end of each stage, Starkiller faces off with one of the remaining Jedi in a one-on-one duel to the death. The boss fights, as well as the battles with mini-bosses you’ll encounter throughout each level, end in simple quick-time events. Four or five timed button presses will secure your victory, and there’s never any punishment for failing one of these events. Miss a button press, and the whole procedure simply starts over.
Once you plow your way through enough Jedi rebels, you’ll be forced to make a decision between the Light Side and Dark Side of the Force. Sure, it sounds simple, but the final choice can actually be a difficult one. Your influences are not simply limited to your innermost sci-fi fantasies. Instead, your decision will carry the cost of lives other than your own. You’re not simply making a choice to be good or evil. Rather, you’re deciding whether you can live with yourself should you make the wrong choice. Although the core of the storyline can be a bit disappointing, the end result will actually make you think before you act. This, of course, has never been commonplace in gaming, and it’s very easy to get caught up in such an important moment.
In its purest form, The Force Unleashed is a 3-D action game. Toss in some hack-n-slash gameplay, some platforming, and some minute puzzle elements, and you’ve got LucasArts’ latest product. The combat in the game can be boiled down into a couple simple categories. You can eliminate your enemies via standard lightsaber combat, attacking them with your Force Powers, or smashing them with objects strewn throughout the game’s environments.
All of these abilities can be improved through the game’s upgrade menu. Here, you can spend points to buy new combos or Force abilities, as well as increase your vitality and overall command of the Force. You earn upgrade point by progressing through the game, but you can earn extra points by locating a multitude of hidden orbs throughout each of the game’s stages. While all of this gives you some motivation to explore every environment you encounter, it’s entirely possible to blast your way through the game without worrying about the upgrade system at all. As it turns out, Starkiller is a badass from the start, so any upgrades you might purchase are simply icing on the cake. In the end, it becomes extremely easy to forget the upgrade menu even exists.
 The Force Unleashed uses some advanced technology to produce its unique style of gameplay. First, there’s Digital Molecular Matter, or DMM, which is used to give realistic properties to all the materials in the game world. Using DMM, wood and glass break and shatter as you would expect, shrubs bend and sway, and trees snap. Ultimately, it adds a layer or believability to your Force abilities, as plants and small buildings fall to pieces whenever you throw an enemy into them.
Secondly, there’s Euphoria, a behavioral system that regulates the actions of all the characters in the game. Euphoria allows your experience to vary with each playthrough, inspiring different actions from every enemy you encounter. During your first experience with a given level, a group of Stormtroopers may charge at you in anger. During your second go-around, these same foes may retreat in fear. Although this makes each enemy encounter different from those before it, it ends up not making much of a difference. Starkiller is so powerful that it doesn’t matter how your enemies react; they’re going to die quickly anyway.
Lastly, there’s the Havok physics engine, which sets the laws for the interactions between items and characters in the game’s environments. Havok produces the exciting ragdoll physics, to which you will become very accustomed by game’s end. It also establishes the collision models for all the debris you’ll be slinging around in your space saga.
The overall appearance of The Force Unleashed is relatively positive. The worlds through which Starkiller travels are often vibrant and full of life. Everything from dank hallways and cavernous factory rooms to expansive outdoor environments has a distinct feel. Mechanized assembly lines and laser force fields litter the battlefield, and each carries a unique aura and experience.
Sadly, though, that’s where the positives end with The Force Unleashed. The cutscenes are less than spectacular at times. Some of the cinematic sequences, like those depicting massive space environments, look fantastic, while those that display close-up interactions between characters often feel awkward and uneven.
Worst of all, the game just doesn’t perform well. A mere 10 minutes into our time with the game, we encountered multiple instances of slow down and framerate issues. We even had the game freeze for a second or two on a few occasions. While a small amount of technical hiccups can easily be forgiven, The Force Unleashed has issues occurring on a far too regular basis. In the end, it makes the game almost painful to play, and it certainly takes away a large amount of the “fun factor.”
Additionally, game saves do not always work properly. The game saves your progress automatically at predetermined points throughout the campaign. While this usually functions without incident, there were two separate instances in which a save point was seemingly erased the next time we went to load the game, forcing us to replay some frustrating areas of the story.
You can also save manually, should you so chose. But, this doesn’t work properly either. On multiple occasions, our manual save points also disappeared, forcing us to begin our quest at the nearest auto-save point. But that’s not even the worst part. See, on Starkiller’s in-game map, there is a little yellow arrow indicating the direction you should be traveling. But, when our manual save failed and we reloaded from the previous checkpoint, this arrow was missing. It seems that the arrow was maintained where we manually saved, so it didn’t show up on our map until we reached that point in the level. Needless to say, this can easily cause a large amount of disorientation.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, the game’s load times were a frequent cause of frustration during our playthroughs. There seems to be a loading screen for every action in the game. Bringing up the main menu, bringing up the upgrade menu, transferring between each section of the campaign, and triggering cutscenes all produced relatively long load times. This can easily be overlooked, if you don’t mind waiting, but it completely pulls you out of the experience of playing as Darth Vader’s apprentice. In fact, there were multiple occasions in which load times took so long that I actually forgot what planet I was going to for my next mission.
The folks at LucasArts obviously had good intentions with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. The core mechanics of the game show plenty of promise, and the initial adrenaline rush of playing as a member of the Dark Side can be extremely enjoyable. But, the end product takes away too much from the overall experience. In the end, this game feels very rushed. If it had had another 3 to 6 months of development time, it may have been one of the best games of the year. As it stands, however, it just doesn’t produce a memorable gaming experience. If you’re a fanatical follower of Star Wars canon, you’ll undoubtedly find more enjoyment in this game than the average consumer. But if you don’t have dreams about the plight of the Rebellion, this is probably one you can pass over without any lingering guilt.
Final Score: C-
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
