Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a third-person action game, which is hindered by a poor lock-on mechanic and a little clunky combat system. On the other hand it tells an original Star Wars story that is interesting from start to finish.
SECRET APPRENTICE
Force Unleashed takes place between episodes 3 (Revenge of the Sith) and 4 (the New Hope). Darth Vader takes himself a new apprentice called Starkiller and sets him off to do some wet work. Goal is to annihilate all the remaining jedi warriors in the galaxy. On the way Starkiller meets interesting characters and as you might expect: in the end things are not so straight forward as they first may seem. Story is the reason that kept me playing until the end and it’s the best part of the whole game.
LOOKS AND FEELS LIKE STAR WARS
Graphics are very colorful and detailed, but also quite static. Level design is for the most part linear so I would have expected even better visuals because of this. As it is the graphics do their job, but they are going to impress you only in few instances. What are good are the character designs (especially facial expressions) during cutscenes. Sound design is of course pure Star Wars and all familiar effects and music is here. Voice acting is appropriate so what you hear in Force Unleashed will please any Star Wars fan.
CLUNKY GAMEPLAY
Unfortunately gameplay itself is not so great. Sometimes the camera does what ever it wants and the lock-on system works only sometimes. This is very annoying, since you are supposed to thow things around by using your force powers. Attacking is fluid until you need to stop your attack and do some evasive maneuvers. You can’t do it: once you start a combo it always goes to the end. Also after being knocked down it takes too long to get up and you usually end up taking a few bonus hits just because of it. Boss fights are epic, but they drag way too long and usually you are not getting a proper feedback about what you are supposed to be doing.
There are some RPG elements in a way that you can buy new Force powers and combos as you progress. This way you have new things to try for the most of your journey.
PLAY IT FOR THE STORY
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has an interesting story and it looks and feels like a proper Star Wars title. Play it to experience the story, but don’t expect a top notch gameplay experience.