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Platform: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, iTouch iPhone, N-Gage

Genre: Action

Number of Players: 1

Support: HD 720p

How can you take a perfectly good science fiction trilogy and ruin it? You start first by taking the original movies and making “improvements” because technology wouldn’t allow you to capture your original “vision” when you made the films. Next, you decide to finally make the prequels that you originally promised, but you have to make sure that they really are nothing more than a patchwork of the original movies with very little in terms of characterization or plot. Somewhere along the line, make sure that you release the original three movies as fans remember them, but also don’t do anything to enhance the film itself. Grainy and worn looking video is good enough for them, right? Add in a lame animated series based on your new trilogy, a poorly constructed computer animated film, threaten a live action television series that is certain to destroy all fond memories even more and finally, release a video game that’s really just like others that are on the market save for the fact that it bears the name of a once beloved franchise.

I wasn’t against the idea of The Force Unleashed and as a matter of fact, I was looking forward to a next generation Star Wars based game. The screenshots and video looked promising, but companies often tease you with things that look stellar before you discover that really, that’s not the case at all. The Force Unleashed is set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Darth Vader has been sent out by the Emperor to exterminate the remaining Jedi and his hunt has brought him to the Wookie home world of Kashyyyk. There he finds a young boy who is strong in the ways of the force and instead of killing him, he takes the boy who is now named Starkiller as an apprentice in hopes of one day using him to fight along side him and overthrow the Emperor.

Palpatine however finds out about Vader’s new apprentice and orders him to kill him. Vader complies, or so it seems, but instead he has sent Starkiller on a new mission. Along with Juno Eclipse, an Imperial pilot now branded a traitor and PROXY, a droid who is determined to one day kill his master, Starkiller, the defectors set out to find others of like mind to form a Rebellion to oppose the Emperor.

So, it was bad enough that at the end of Revenge of the Sith Lucas took the fearsome Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, and turned him into a complete and total pussy. The closing moments of the film where we find Vader whining about Padmé has become a much parodied moment. But now, we have another example of compassion where Vader decided to not kill a young boy and raise him. Okay, Luke did say in Jedi that there was still good in him, but now it’s to get rid of the Emperor and when that doesn’t work, he wants a Rebellion. Sure, there’s a bit more to the story but still, I had hoped that maybe the storyline at the very least would be decent, though it is better than anything in the first three prequels. Starkiller at least gets a better name in the game, something that was incredibly annoying considering that any character that has appeared in a Star Wars film for a single frame has been given a name, but not something lame like “Starkiller.” Yes, I know; it’s a tribute to what Luke’s last name originally was, but even so, I don’t see much of a reason to use it for a character here.

The Force Unleashed at least isn’t a first person shooter, something that LucasArts has fortunately started moving away from, but it is another genre that we are all familiar with; it’s a hack-n-slash game with powers of The Force tossed in just to try and spice the game up a bit. The story unfolds, you learn a bit more about what’s going on and what you’re next objective is, and you’re sent to another planet to achieve your goals. This all culminates with a boss fight at the end of the stage and then we repeat the process. Since Starkiller is a Jedi who ends up working on both sides of The Force, his weapon is a lightsaber, something that you’ll use to slice your way through foes after foe. This can be combined with other attacks as well because no hack-n-slash title is complete without a combo system. This can be used to create aerial combos, your Force Push which can blast enemies back, your lighting attack that you gain later, and quite a few other abilities, but overall, it’s just the usual combo system that has been used over and over again in just about every game of this nature.

When you’re not slicing and dicing, you’re using the Force in some way to move forward in the stage. Some areas will require you to manipulate doors to access new areas, other times you will use your force blast to open doorways or other areas that should be inaccessible. You can also use the Force to pick up objects, and even enemies, and throw them aside. However, when using this you can’t defend yourself and you’re open to attack. Fortunately, just about every living enemy that you kill will give you health orbs to replenish yourself and your Force meter will recharge itself over time. The boss battles, both main and minor, end up breaking down to the ever popular quick time event, something that can be bypassed if you simply choose to fail and keep on slashing or unleashing lighting until your foe has fallen. These might give the game a nice visual approach, but quick time is really getting overused and needs to be shelved for a while in my opinion.

Each stage gives players a primary mission to complete and as often seen, once the first part is done, a new mission will be given to players. There are also secondary objectives which aren’t necessary but untimely will help you to build your Force abilities. Killing enemies and unleashing impressive combos will award you with Force points these act as experience which will level Starkiller up. Each stage also has a given number of Holocrons, items which will award you with Force points, replenish your health, grant temporary invincibility, unlimited Force, health drain and a few other abilities. These can be virtually anywhere and not always in easy to find locations. Completing all objectives will give you more spheres to work with when you level Starkiller up. There are three different areas to work with which are talent, combos, and power, and not all of them will be accessible but instead, you must complete the games levels to unlock more of them.

The Force Unleashed also gives players different costumes that can be worn, though like anything else, they must be unlocked, and the ability to change the appearance of your lightsaber as well as give it new abilities though the use of Power Crystals. Again, this is similar to what has been seen in other games, just used in this case within the Star Wars universe. There also is a database with information in regards to enemies and vehicles that you find along the way which can be somewhat interesting but not essential.

The game though does give fans some familiarity besides just including Darth Vader. Locations like Kashyyyk, Bespin, Felucia and even the Death Star are found during the course of gameplay. Wookies, Jawas, Ugnaughts, Rodians and plenty of Imperials are among the enemies that you will fight and on occasion help, plus there are some familiar vehicles from the movies that have been worked in as well. The locations are visually impressive, but there are quite a few issues that I found with them as well. In some instances, you will be in an area where you can’t fall off the edge, but when you’re suddenly faced with something like a huge canyon or a bubbling toxic soup, that protective boundary is suddenly thrown out the window. Starkiller can slash though living tissue, droids, and even huge AT-ST’s, but rock and plants often show that they are more powerful in the ways of the Force and invincible. While there wasn’t any slowdown in the game, there were a few sections where the game actually froze for a few seconds for whatever reason, and it was often not because of too many enemies being on the screen. The camera also isn’t nearly as intuitive as what it should be leading to trying to manipulate and adjust your line of site to deal with enemies or toss objects around. While the game might look good, for the most part at least, that’s not necessarily a saving grace and one area that I will state that LucasArts really needs to work on is facial expressions and mouth animations that match better with the dialog. The thing is that a game can look fantastic, but when the gameplay is rather ordinary, no amount of eye candy can salvage that.

Even as a fan of Star Wars, the original trilogy at least, The Force Unleashed simply because a rather common experience that could be found in other games like Devil May Cry, Onimusha, or Ninja Gaiden, only this time set in the Star Wars mythos. It’s still more enjoyable that Episodes 1 – 3, but so is a good nap. The Force Unleashed may not even impress diehard fans of the series and unfortunately, it seems that the developers were out of touch with the Force . . . even the Dark Side.

-mike-