TAG | Review: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed |
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| by Mike Bantick | |
| Wednesday, 17 September 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 3 As a single player game, The Force Unleashed needs a strong story line. And I am happy to report it does, with just the right amount of Star Wars Cheese(tm) and a nice safe story arc that is required given its place in the Star Wars time line. During the opening jumpy Darth Vadar sequence, a young boy is discovered; strong he is in the force. This becomes the players character; Starkiller, and as Darth Vaders secret apprentice initially embarks on some Jedi knight clean up operations. Accompanied by a dry-wit training droid – Proxy and a beautiful pilot – Juno, both the comedic and love-interest story components are covered. The cut scenes in game are a good length that keeps the story flowing, involving familiar and new characters along the way, the scope is epic enough without breaking the self imposed shackles of events between the cinematic episodes III and IV. But, what about the actual game play? Well it is a mixed bag. The lightsaber battles are similar to many games before it, and though satisfying at one level, the weapon does not seem to have the impact you would expect from such a martial device. The Force elements on the other hand are a hoot! The effect of shooting Force lightening from your hands to disable an enemy, and then Force gripping the hapless being to have him soar, flailing, up into the air and then finally flung against a bulkhead is a great game element. But targeting some of these abilities is difficult, to pick up a crate or similar object, you need to be facing the object or enemy so that the targeting reticule appears on said target. There is a ‘lock on’ button, but the default controller setting also maps this button to the ‘fly forward’ skill if no target is available. This resulted in a few frustrating death plunges as Starkiller launched himself off into a lava filled ravine, instead of grabbing a flying piece of debris – like he was supposed to do. In the heat of battle, where Havok, DMM and Euphoria are doing their thing, targeting of force powers is a skill to be learned – I tried letting myself go, shutting my eyes, feeling the force, etcetera, just like Old Ben said – still I plummeted off the ravine.  |
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