Lets make this very clear. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is not a
good game. I want it to be. I tried telling myself that it was. It is
not.
That said, The Force Unleashed is not a complete failure of
a game. There are two aspects of the game that keep this sinking ship
afloat.
The story feels contained, but existing in a larger
world -- a balancing act that Star Wars stories often seek but rarely
find. The Force Unleashed's story is that of Starkiller, but it's also
the story of the birth of the Rebel Alliance. It's the story of how one
man stood up to the Empire, and how this inspired a handful of others
to do the same. Along the way, Starkiller makes very substantial
choices at crisis moments that affect the the growth of the character.
The most overreaching crisis action is Starkiller's choice to trust and
remain loyal to Darth Vader after a massive betrayal. The aftermath of
this sets the stage for the last half of the story.
The Force
Unleashed also paints you onto a beautiful canvas for Starkiller's
adventure to happen. The game moves from the rust colored world of
Raxas Prime, across the saturated colors of Felucia, and up the trees
of Kashaak. On and around these locations the monolithic metal of the
Empire intrudes. The Empire's conquest over the natural world even
leads you down an elevator into the belly of a Sarlaac. These three
main set pieces are wonderful, but all reused in the last half of the
game and don't feel as impressive the second time through.
This
is the good that The Force Unleashed has to offer. If you're a Star
Wars fan, then you will probably want to muscle through it for the
story. It really is that good. If you enjoy playing video games, on the
other hand, then you should, probably, not play it.
The Force
Unleashed's problems aren't it's presentation, it's its gameplay. It is
not a good game. There is no two opinions, this isn't a good game.
Every part of The Force Unleashed feels gamey.
Let's start with
the fighting, the real meat of the game. There are a good selection of
enemies, but none of them work well together. Each enemy type has a
different way they fight. Different animations, different weapons, and
different strategies. It's great -- on the surface. Break each enemy
type down and they are only trying to do one of two things. Shoot you
or connect and continue a melee combo. How the enemy performs combos
and how you perform combos seems to come from a different view of
reality. Enemies can block your combos at any time. Sometimes they have
a protective bubble, sometimes that's a shield, sometimes they just
choose to block a light saber with whatever they're holding at the
time. You cannot do this. Once a melee combo begins, you're there for
the duration. Sure, Starkiller has the ability to block, but this
doesn't seem to matter too much. He also has the ability to dodge left
and right when locked on, but transition into a dodge is awkward, slow,
and projectiles tend to turn and track you regardless.
Enemies
don't have complex movement patterns that you can learn and work
around. What they have is defenses that you must learn to break, and
the ability to spam you with the one attack they do have. Break one
enemies defense, then repeat. Boss fights suffer similar problems.
There is no pattern to learn, no attacks to be avoided. Sometimes they
attack you and you get hurt, other times you attack them and they get
hurt. Often, you attack them and they hurt you. There is a lot of
consistency to bosses hurting you, not so much the other way.
Group
fighting is a pain. In addition to a lack of clear enemy patterns, The
Force Unleashed has an almost useless lock-on system. While, it's
useful in the fact that you need it to fight enemies without attacking
a rock instead, it's useless in the fact that there is no good way to
choose to lock-on to anything specifically. You could lock onto the
enemy immediately ahead of you, or anything behind him. Even when
you're locked-on, the lock-on may simply switch to another character
without rhyme or reason. This is doubly frustrating because there isn't
a way for you to change targets to begin with.
Boss fights show off the weakness of the games health system. Before
you can regain your health, Starkiller must fight and defeat an
enemy. I've seen this done well in other game, but in The Force
Unleashed it ends up feeling like having to combat a sandwich before
you can eat it. The goal of a boss fight, with the exception of two, is
to get to a checkpoint, since there isn't a way to regain health.
On
top of it all, movement and fighting are just stiff and mechanical.
There isn't room for any kind of free form movement. If enemies charge
to attack in anyway, it's usually too late to move out of the way by
the time you notice. You must complete the current animation, wait for
Starkiller to return to the idle animation, and then begin his dodge
animation. These extra seconds add up to sluggish and unresponsive
controls.
Even if you learn the games broken rules of engagement an enemy may still spawn behind you and immediately start in on a melee combo that costs you half your health and leaves you open to attack coming from anywhere else.
There are good Star Wars games. There are great Star Wars games. The Force Unleashed is neither. Don't play this game. Don't rent this game.