REVIEW: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Spoiler Free)
By Jacob Bond
February 20th, 2009

I am by no means a Star Wars fanboy. I enjoy the movies, I own them, and I will do the occasional movie marathon, but that's no different for me than other franchises such as Indiana Jones or Alien. I don't often play Star Wars games, the last one I half heartedly gave a chance being Knights of the Old Republic on the PC, which I honestly didn't get too far with because I'm not adept at using the keyboard for gaming. So when this game was announced with the promise of being a more action-oriented title I found myself mildly interested in it. Just about the only thing that could get me to give a Star Wars game a shot was the ability to use force powers like in the movie, and up to the point of this game's release nothing could come close.

I'll be honest I had a lot more fun with it than I thought I would. It's definitely a game that had to earn it, though.

While this review is spoiler free, I am going to explain the general plot. If you consider that spoilers then skip to the next paragraph, but really it's the basic idea behind the game so I don't see it as much of an issue. The game picks up after the third movie (of the new trilogy). Darth Vader has trained an apprentice in secret with plans to overthrow the Emperor. As Starkiller you travel on secret missions for Vader, all leading to the goal of taking down the Emperor.

It took a while for me to warm up to the game. Naturally Starkiller starts off with limited abilities, initially only able to use force grip and force push. The force grip was extremely frustrating at first because I expected to have pinpoint accuracy when it came to throwing things at enemies. It was something that almost ruined the experience for me until I realized I was going about it all wrong. The force grip was never meant to have such accuracy. The power was meant for quick attacks, throwing something in an enemy's general direction and causing a lot of damage quickly as opposed to targeting specific baddies. Once I realized this and began using the ability with that in mind it became one of my favorite powers to wield, especially when following it up with other attacks.

While Starkiller starts off with few abilities they are already powerful, giving the impression of a character that could go toe-to-toe with any Jedi. As the game progresses new abilities are learned, either by gaining a certain amount of experience or earning points that can be spent on upgrades and combos. By the end of the game Starkiller had an incredible variety of combo moves and an obvious increase in strength. It wasn't until near the end of the game when I used a force push on some storm troopers that I truly realized how strong Starkiller had become. All of this and I had not even earned all of his upgrades. New crystals for the lightsaber can also be found throughout the game, which affects enemies in different ways. I honestly found this hardly worth going out of my way to mess with, however, since using the force powers were rewarding themselves.

The story seemed a bit so-so from the start but eventually sucked me in as it neared its conclusion. It's unfortunate it took almost the entire ten hour experience before I found myself truly enjoying the game but the truth is even a few hours in I was still unsure whether I liked it or not. It was only when I saw the true scope of the story and what Starkiller became from where he started that I truly appreciated the game. While I won't give away details I will say the George Lucas said the story is canon and it does play an important role in the overall movie storyline.

While the story was satisfying (along with the music, which features classic Star Wars sound effects and themes, helping make the game feel more epic) the graphics were more of a mixed bag for me. Darth Vader and Starkiller look fine, especially at the beginning of the game. The cut scenes do an amazing job showing off force powers on a far grander scale than can actually be done during game play (although "finishing moves" for boss fights were annoying; instead of pressing the buttons they told me to I would have rather just seen a cut scene). Halfway through the game, however, things get a little murky. I was enjoying the amazing cut scenes up until the very moment a familiar character from the original movie series appeared and I found myself giving out a "Gah!" out loud. Not only did the character look absolutely terrible but so did the entire cut scene. I immediately wondered if they had their B team take care of some of the less important parts of the game. It certainly would have explained the sudden dip in quality out of nowhere.

Fortunately the quality picked back up as the game reached its conclusion. I was actually surprised by how hard the last two fights ended up being. I never felt the previous boss fights truly prepared me for what I faced. Once I came up with a strategy it was much easier but still extremely challenging.

Overall the game was an enjoyable experience and almost what I wanted to see from a Star Wars game but comes up just short. I wouldn't mind the fact the game is only about ten hours except I was hoping to face off against more Jedi than the game actually has, which was very disappointing. The fights hardly felt epic, either, instead relying on the cut scenes to do that. For a bunch of Jedi and Sith I was kind of hoping for more of a challenge, but as I already pointed out the only time I truly experienced that was during the last two fights.

It's a good game, there's no doubt about it, and I don't necessarily feel I wasted my $40. However if it wasn't on sale when I bought it I'm sure I would feel much differently. This doesn't feel like a $60 experience and as soon as I collect my last few achievements I don't see this game staying in my collection.

It's good but for me it's not beloved.

SCORE: 8 / 10