-- OXM review --

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Luke Skywalker was a wuss

Ah, life's simple pleasures. Exploring new worlds...chatting with your robot sidekick...hurling Stormtroopers hundreds of feet in the air. It's good to be a Sith warrior, skilled in the ways of the Force.

The Force Unleashed offers one of gaming's great setups. After a short prologue where you play as Darth Vader, you're cast as the youngJedi, seething with Force Power. Sensing opportunity, the Dark Lord takes you. Cut ahead 16 years, and you've become his apprentice and learned to tap into the power of the dark side. You're sent to eliminate the last of the Jedi Knights, in service of the Republic...and the story moves onward from there.

Over the course of 10 missions - about a dozen hours of play on normal difficulty - you'll visit famed Star Wars sites (the cloud city, Bespin; the Wookie homeworld, Kashyyyk) and some lesser-known locations, like the fungal world of Felucia. As in LucasArts' Jedi Knight games, the environments are often big and expansive - which, in this case, definitely caters to the Xbox 360's graphical prowess. But where those games let you wield blasters and other weapons, you're a real Jedi here, using just your lightsaber and your Force abilities. So the action's a little more close-up and immediate - and that plays to the game's strengths.

Force Unleashed's finest moments are in the typical combat scenario: en route to your objective, you move through an area, you're mobbed by a half-dozen (or more) grunts, and you have to nix their numerical advantage with sheer, overwhelming brutality. So you cut loose with your force powers - using Force Grip to fling a canister at advancing soldiers, frying nemeses with Force Lightning, or using Force Repulse to repel nearby foes in all directions. Or maybe you just slash 'em with your lightsaber, using cool combo moves like Saber Slam ( a Lightning-infused saber) or Saber Swing ("home runs" a guy into the distance) to put them down.

The game definitely cooks in these situations of you-against-many, where exercising your awesome powers and diverse abilities is a rush. These encounters are everwhere, so yes, the occasionally feel repitive in that "go here, kill enemies; go there, kill enemies" way. But whether you're plowing through Stormtroopers in a TIE-fighter factor - hey, Vader said "No witnesses!" - or obliterating droids on Raxus Prime, these scenarios offer a genuine sense of Jedi godhood. And the tactile feeling of using Force Grip to, say, pick up a Felucian Shaman and hurl him across the screen (using the right thumbstick) makes you feel that much more connected to the action.

Annoyingly, though, the boss battles are a very different experience. Most levels end with you fighting a Jedi or other "big bad"; you essentially have to whale away at him until you figure out what Force powers or combos work best and you see his health bar start to drop. Lower his bar enough, and you'll trigger a quicktime event (QTE) where pressing the right face buttons defeats him. Now we're not against QTEs per se, but this whole boss-battle setup feels disempowering and anticlimactic - suddenly, you're week and ineffectual, and when you do win, the QTE steals the tactile feeling of victory. You finish off AT-STs, Rancors, and other mini-bosses with QTEs, too, and again, you feel oddly detached from combat.

Though it's our main complaint, it's one we kept coming back to - especially in the late-game, where, having milked our unlocked combo moves for much of their fun factor, we were eager to vanquish new bosses and mini-bosses using our leveled-up Force powers...not a few well-timed button-presses. On a smaller note, we had a nagging feeling that the game could've used a little more dev time to eliminate irritables like invisible walls and a lack of contextual clues in a few spots (so it was, say, clearer what machinery you need to move so you could continue through a level).

Balancing that aggravation is the game's story - a definite strong suit. Force Unleashed's plot bridges Episodes III and IV, and the game wholeheartedly embraces its role in official Star Wars canon. To their credit, the exciting cutscenes and dramatic finale do the Original Trilogy justice, and while we didn't buy the hokey love angle with pilot Juno Eclipse (even if we are talking about hokey religions and ancient weapons), we remained hooked by the overall tale.

The vehicle for that story- the game itself - proved less engaging. With its non-branching storyline and no multiplayer, Force Unleashed is certainly less ambitious than the classic Jedi Knight games - and ultimately, its design makes it feel more videogame-y and less of an all-engrossing Star Wars experience than Xbox entries like Jedi Knight II or Jedi Academy. But when the game's on, it's on, and Star Wars nuts will revel in those moments where you can be an unbridled, Force-fuled bully.

The Vedict- 7.5
+ Demolishing enemies like a Jedi badass.
+ Entertaining Star Wars story.
- Boss battles and QTEs; less inspired and less polished than the Jedi Knight games.
? Why is Force Pushing enemies off cliffs so addictive?

Here what I think about that review.

First the reviewer is whinning because he cannot force push or force lightning the boss's to death and totaly overpower againts something that should in my opinion give you challenges. I bet that guy never played a single God Of War because its the same exact mechanics even if you builded up your character to the max , you wont really get advantage againts the boss's.
just for that point that guy removed at least 1.5 pts.

another 1 pts for no multiplayer wich i think is not important many master pieces doesn't have multiplayer ,its give a chance to the devlopers to make a perfect and deep story.

from that review i Give TFU a 9.5/10.
i took a .5 pts because of no minigame or special level , it could have a spaceship level why not ? Anyway ill make my full review once i played the game and another review for the demo.

Nice find Zayne and I agree a lot with your rating based on the review, although the boss battles and QTEs are a bit disappointing but I don't think it will greatly affect the overall game play.

I really don't have problem with QTE happening when fightning a rancor or something bigger, when i watched the TFU Rancor videos i realized how far we've come since JKA.

In JKA it was just hackin n' slashing the Rancor awkwardly and maybe occasionally Force Lightning it, there wasn't much variety.

But when it comes to deciding whether or not there should be QTE on lightsaber sequences, i would say Nay, because it would completely ruin it for me.

Ps. wouldn't it be cool to manually cut an AT-ST's legs with your lightsaber, though? ;)

non branching storylinr im sure there where supposed to be 2 endings?

Grats for digging that up, Zayne. But he didn't said anything really significant. I agree that he (the reviwer) probably never played a GoW game, especially because that QTE are everywhere on the Kratos franchise and I just don't get tired of executing the enemies. If like that game TFU also has the option of slaying common enemies the old-fashioned way as well, that complaint becomes invalid.

I'm glad the gameplay is addicting throughout the levels but I'm worried if it can grab the player's interest long enough for some replays.

I'd like to draw your attention to the score I speculated The Force Unleashed would receive on June 15th of last year.

Oh well, lets guess scores for it. I'll go with 7.8.


Tragically, I'm very good.

I think TFU will be the kind of game that you will play 1-2 each years. Kinda like metal gear solid series for me or God of war.

But once you knows the full story and master the fighting system , you start loosing interest for that game . But no worries I'm sure with the success that TFU will archieve , there will be sequels maybe not with the apprentice but other characters.

LA builded that awesome game engine , there big chance for sequels or other SW tittle.

2009-2010 are the years for SW tittles

SW TFU
SW Clones Wars
SW Battlefront 3
SW Kotor mmo
SW TFU sequels

You missed by a 0.3 difference. What can I say, I'm good at math.

Tragically, I'm very good.

Hah! So you're an Oracle now, i don't suppose there's anything else you could predict, oh Wise One? ;)


@DarthZayne; That's why it would be good to have multiplayer, because when you have mastered the game, you can put your skills to use and compete.


There's already some TFU Combos for some LAN parties assigned for next month, dunno how it will play though, Wii Duel-mode?

You missed by a 0.3 difference. What can I say, I'm good at math.

heh no..

the reviewer gived a 7.5

and i said he took a 1.5pts and another 1pts that make 2.5

so 7.5 + 2.5 = 10

That was actually directed at Rhett.

this game might be the best SW game since kotor.

You missed by a 0.3 difference. What can I say, I'm good at math.


Yes but that variance is due to the fluctuation of the dollar against the euro as well as gas prices. Video game scores are intrinsically related to these things, you see. Taking that into account, my score from 07' equates to 7.51983 in 08' game scores.

Yes but that variance is due to the fluctuation of the dollar against the euro as well as gas prices. Video game scores are intrinsically related to these things, you see. Taking that into account, my score from 07' equates to 7.51983 in 08' game scores.

That made absolutely no sense at all.........:confused:

It made perfect sense. It'd just beyond you. Or something. I dunno.

This guy knows nothing about the game's story. It definitely branches. If there were only one ending, there wouldn't be all the fuss about which one is canon. I'm also surprised he didn't comment on the new engines (which I know the version he reviewed has because it's an OXM review).