One can say that the Star Wars franchise has been on a steady decline since the prequels have been made. That claim is up in the air with the latest arrival to the series, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. By letting you live vicariously through a young Sith warrior, it’s every fans dream, but is not necessarily a great game in its own rite.
In The Force Unleashed, you step into the shoes of Darth Vader’s apprentice. The thing is, no one knows about your apprenticeship, even Emperor Palpatine. You are sent on missions by Darth Vader to prove your worth to him, and eventually become his equal. Without giving away any spoilers, the story takes quite a few serpentine twists, and it turns out to unravel like a movie.
By Corey Struss
Staff Writer
One can say that the Star Wars franchise has been on a steady decline since the prequels have been made. That claim is up in the air with the latest arrival to the series, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. By letting you live vicariously through a young Sith warrior, it’s every fans dream, but is not necessarily a great game in its own rite.
In The Force Unleashed, you step into the shoes of Darth Vader’s apprentice. The thing is, no one knows about your apprenticeship, even Emperor Palpatine. You are sent on missions by Darth Vader to prove your worth to him, and eventually become his equal. Without giving away any spoilers, the story takes quite a few serpentine twists, and it turns out to unravel like a movie.
The idea behind your character, the Apprentice, is that he is unrelenting and just plain amoral. He’s also got some awesome looking attacks and powers at his disposal, like force lightning, lightsaber throw, etc. For every enemy that you kill, the Apprentice gains experience points that let you purchase new abilities. This is a great idea, but has been executed much better in games like God of War.
Being an action game, The Force Unleashed is partially flawed by the camera. Too many times I found myself being mutilated by a rancor (an enemy) due to the fact that I couldn’t see what was happening on the screen. Another technical flaw was the ridiculously long loading times. Much of the action is hampered by the technical issues.
The Force Unleashed is definitely more for the Star Wars fan than the action game enthusiast. It has epic and breathtaking environments and landscapes that won’t let a Star Wars fan down; from brawls on starships to the surface of Kashyyk, these are battlegrounds that scream authenticity. Within the first hour of the game, I new this game had high production values: The voice acting is superb, the cut-scenes are some of the best I’ve seen, and the game’s soundtrack is great. In a game with so many technical flaws, it is the graphics and story that will keep pulling you back.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a game that is marred by technical flaws. If you can overcome them, you’ll have a blast with it. It’s got a story that is worthy of the Star Wars name, and its got great graphics to boot. Its just a shame that the game clocks in under 10 hours, and is constantly burdened by a gameplay issue of some sort. In the end, The Force Unleashed is a game that any gamer should check out, but it just might not be worth paying the full price.
