Late to the Party Review: Star Wars The Force Unleashed

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the unfortunate vicitm of expectation. It’s an average game, but contains so much potential that it is hard to not be disappointed with the final product.  Star Wars fans will want to come for the story, but the tedious process of actually playing through the game ruins this one redeeming quality.

The game starts out promising, placing you in the boots of Darth Vader in a too-brief prologue mission. Using various Force powers, you can toss aside incoming Wookies, shock them with blasts of Sith lightning, or simply hack away with your lightsaber. Flash forward, and the lead role switches, and you take on the role of Vader’s secret Sith apprentice, Starkiller. The majority of your powers are stripped away, leaving you as a mildly overpowered warrior instead of a powerful Sith master.

And this is the biggest failing of the game. The potential to play as a total bad-ass Sith is definitely compelling, unfortunately it’s diminished by terrible controls. Picking up objects is a slow and annoying process. Lightsaber techniques boil down to simple button mashing. And epic boss battles boil down to quick time events, in which you simply press an abitrary button as it comes up on screen. So even though you may be taking down a massive rancor or a fallen Jedi Knight, you are unable to really take part in, or even fully watch, the on-screen events, as your eyes are must be on constant look out for the next button to press.

This frustration extends to the light platforming sequences found in The Force Unleashed. Though Starkiller has incredible, Force-powered jumping abilities, actually landing jumps can be difficult. The slippery controls mean that you will constantly be falling to your death, and rarely does it actually feel like a mistake on your part. These problems are made worse by an uncooperative camera system, which makes lining up a jump a difficult task.

The game does look great, though, capturing all of the trademark Star Wars feel. The cut-scenes are well-acted, if too short, and the variety of alien planets you explore helps keep things fresh visually. Of course, you don’t actually do much exploring due to the incredibly linear nature of the game. But that aside, The Force Unleashed definitely impresses in terms of looks, which is significantly improved by the epic boss battles and massive enemies.

Really, whether or not you should play The Force Unleashed depends on how big of a Star Wars fan you are. The story is certainly interesting and does a great job of connecting the two film trilogies. Starkiller is a great character, and helps to provide a more human side to the dark, cold Sith order. However, the gameplay and control issues mean that this game can only be recomended to the most die-hard of fans, as fans of third-person action games will end up simply frustrated and annoyed.