I want to enjoy my time with The Force Unleashed, I really do, but Lucasarts clearly had other plans. Every time I play through a legitimately fun section of the game, I am foolishly lured into thinking, for the umpteenth time, "Hey, maybe this will turn out good after all." Not so. Like clockwork, each fun section of the game is followed by a hideously annoying one. In short, there are many elements of TFU that work just fine, but there are at least as many that work poorly, and thus the newest Star Wars game is tough to reccomend.
Gameplay in TFU is an amalgamation of typical GoW-style hack'n'slash and a physics-based playground that ends up working decently. First things first, don't even bother trying to target anything using R1, as protagonist Starkiller (snicker) typically assigns more importance to the boxes sitting behind him than the Rancor/giant droid/army of soldiers loitering about in front of him. The mere fact that I can target a box is rediculous given that I can just look in its general direction and hit R2 to catch it in a force grip, but I digress. Aside from targeting issues, combat generally works well. It really is satisfying to electrocute a hapless soldier and fling him into his buddies, killing them all. Starkiller can also level up after killing a certain amount of enemies, improving his hit points, force powers, combos, and much more. The entire melee combat system is fairly reminiscent of God of War, but TFU (understandably) lacks the punch that made GoW so much fun to watch. Even if TFU was as gory as its inspiration, the combo upgrades still lack the punch that they have in many games of this ilk because on the default difficulty it is rarely necessary to use more than 3 or 4 different combos, making the combat seem less visceral and more boring than it should.
That's not to say that TFU is easy all the time, though. The difficulty level, while not as sporadic as in some games that suffer from this problem, seems to jump from easy to frustrating in mid level for no apparent reason. Luckily, it is possible to change the difficulty setting on the fly, but it should not be necessary to pause a game once every level or so to find the perfect difficulty setting for the particular moment. Sometimes, however, the difficulty is a result of poor programming rather than middling game balancing. For example, during the junk planet level it is necessary to traverse a series of cliffsides in order to find Starkiller's target. If Starkiller gets too close to the edge of a cliff in this section, he will slide right off the edge even if both of his feet are planted on solid ground. He will also often launch himself from the cliff mid-combo because once he begins an attack animation, he's locked into that animation until it finishes. Also, the game has frozen up on me twice, but only in the beginning levels.
Like I said earlier, though, for most of the downsides there is an upside. The graphics are pretty nice, especially during the great cutscenes. While the in-game character models are nothing spectacular, the environments have a nice concept-art look to them, and the fact that everything is physics-enabled is amazing. It is especially impressive to see a stormtrooper trip over his own feet as Starkiller gives him a shove with the force, or to see a hapless enemy reach for a ledge as he flies past. These small details make the entire world seem more alive, which contributes to the pretty strong story at work behind the action. Musically speaking, TFU is typical Star Wars stuff, and while I've never been a huge fan of the SW music, I do recognize the fact that it is ably performed and will please even die-hard fans.
While TFU has a nice graphical and audio presentation, it is unfortunately lacking in more important areas. The difficulty is sporadic, the game is a bit glitchy, the targeting system is an abomination, and combat loses its spice even after leveling Starkiller up. TFU has lofty ambitions, but it only reaches halfway there.
