Star Wars: The Force unleashed
Reviewed on:
Xbox 360Also available for:
PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStaton Portable
The Good:
The story sequences, though brief, should prove engaging for franchise fans. The voice cast does commendable work, despite its lack of recognizable actors. Using the Force as an implement of death is fun...at least for a while.The Bad:
Long and tedious levels. Way too many cookie cutter enemies. Some attacks are difficult to execute. Buggy.The Verdict:
It's good to be bad for a change, but playing with the dark side becomes boring more quickly than you'd expect.
The dark side of the Force is something to be reckoned with in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the latest game set in George Lucas' iconic sci-fi universe.
The game begins with players assuming the role of Darth Vader as he casually strolls through the treetops of the Wookie home world Kashyyyk, dispatching rebel and Imperial forces alike by turning trees and rocks into ballistic projectiles, releasing surges of energy that send all nearby enemies and objects flying, and levitating and hurling individual foes.
You can see why a young Anakin Skywalker would have been drawn to this sort of power. Indeed, the developers at LucasArts Entertainment hope that players will find the dark side of the Force equally alluring as they wield it to destroy everything that gets in their way, be it human, robot, or sentient plant.
But it's not all good...er, bad. The Force Unleashed has some serious design issues that make it—like so many Star Wars properties in recent years—more difficult to enjoy than it really ought to be.
A long time ago, between episodes III and IV...
The most engaging part of The Force Unleashed is its story. LucasArts was tasked with the exciting—and likely intimidating—job of filling in a big blank spot in Star Wars' official history: The events that took place between the third and fourth movie episodes; an 18-year span during which the Empire flourished, and the Sith focused on wiping away all remaining traces of the Jedi Order.
The game begins with Vader killing a knight whose son, Galen Marek, is exceptionally strong with the Force. He kidnaps Marek, brainwashes and trains him, gives him the name Starkiller, and starts sending him out on missions to kill the last of the Jedi.
Making the audience empathize with a seemingly evil character is always tricky. However, the game's writers wisely took cues from the recently released Star Wars: The Force Unleashed novel (penned by Australian sci-fi scribe Sean Williams), and reveal Galen's humanity through his affectionate relationships with his personal droid PROXY (who, humorously, is programmed to help him train Kato-style by trying to kill him whenever he can) and Juno, a beautiful Imperial officer who pilots his ship.
The brave voice actors who take on the formidable challenge of portraying characters such as Darth Vader and Princess Leia—roles that literally billions of people associate with other performers—do commendable jobs, and help make the story good enough to be worth leaving unspoiled here.
Simply put, Star Warriors hoping to augment their store of knowledge about a galaxy far, far away probably won't go away disappointed by the narrative.
The power (and ennui) of the dark side
However, non-mega fans who are simply looking for a fun game probably won't be as taken by the experience.
