'The Force Unleashed' reviews (spoilers)

[Sidewinder]

Wikipedia describes 'Star Wars: The Force Unleashed' as a multimedia project, with a novel, a comic book, and a video game simultaneously promoted and released on the market, like 'Shadows of the Empire'. I saw the novel, the comics (as a TPB), and 'The Art and Making of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed' at the local Borders Books, and read the art book, the TPB and parts of the novel for comparison (the comics and the novel differ in portraying Vader's apprentice's final confrontation with Sidious). I don't have a PS3/Xbox 360, so I can't review the game.

Overall, I thought the comics were okay; they were better than those of 'Shadows of the Empire' (I'll post a review of the novel when I'm done reading it). The writers miraculously, successfully shoehorned Starkiller (Vader's apprentice) into the timeframe between Episodes III and IV, and kept the characters (Bail Organa, Vader, and Sidious) in character.

The comics' main flaw is at the ending, when the Jedi general Kota stopping Starkiller from killing Sidious because doing so will forever bound Starkiller to the Dark Side; Sidious then sends Force lightning at Kota, and Starkiller sacrifices himself to save the Jedi (in the novel, Starkiller chooses not to kill Sidious; Kota didn't have to sprout the "Killing him will send you to the Dark Side" line).

Another flaw (and a potential violation of canon) is when Sidious captures Bail Organa, the Sith Lord declares him a traitor and sentences him to death. Starkiller performs missions for Vader two years BEFORE the Battle of Yavin; shouldn't Sidious NOT publicly declare Organa a traitor, or if he does so anyways, send a fleet to bombard Alderaan as a warning?

Please share your thoughts on 'The Force Unleashed'.

[Sarevok]

Generic corridor stroller that will quickly be forgotten for the next fad in gaming.

[Aquatain]

Maybe it's just me, but i think this game gets very boring very quickly ..

[Battlehymn Republic]

what the hell

[Revy]

I downloaded the demo for my PS3. Meh. Good for about ten minutes fun, but overall it's just a limited corridor trawling affair with some nice touches tacked on. The main character is detailed, but the enemies seem tiny to me. The weapons are pathetic, I can stand there and shrug off multiple blaster shots even without blocking. Lightsaber combat is shite, it's a glowing stick that beats people to death. The only plus on that is that some combo's can infuse the attacks with force lightning, which is very effective.

There were some cool moments. If you smash any exterior windows, things get sucked towards them (though not out into space, sadly) until blast shields drop down. You can really overkill enemies, with me force gripping, hurling my lightsaber into him, zapping him with force lightning, and then sending him flying across a huge bay and into the wall or ceiling, still crackling with lightning. Another fun bit was getting annoyed at the strafing TIE fighters and catching one as it flew past, and then hurling it into a wall.

Overall though it's pretty uninspired. It's a generic 3rd person bashing game with the usual quirky powers thrown in, clumsy and awkward controls (especially for combat) and little depth. Of course it was just a demo, but I'd be willing to bet the game itself is not much more than a bunch of different enviroments, enemies and outfits, ad nauseum. I think I'd get bored real quick anyway.

[SylasGaunt]

There were some cool moments. If you smash any exterior windows, things get sucked towards them (though not out into space, sadly)

Uhm they do get sucked out as long as they're close enough to get pulled through before the shield comes down.

[TK-984]

I've only read the comic thus far. The entire Bail labeled as a traitor thing is inexcusable. Seriously, did these guys watch the first movie? I thought Bail was lookin' good for how old he was - old Ben Kenobi must have been leadin' the hard life on Tatooine.

Also, I thought the formation of the Alliance meeting was really cheesy and included absolutely no interesting politicking or negotiations. Presumably the frame takes place after the negotiations, but still, it felt really short and unimportant. Something to the effect that Garm Bel Iblis would provide the navy and Mon Mothma provide the soldiers really had me cringing for some reason. This is an extremely important event -- hopefully the novel does it justice.

All in all it was OK, the art was competent, though lacking a little when compared to some the artist's other work. I'm getting tired of jedi-wank though. I kinda miss starfighter wank. C'mon Lucasarts!

[VT-16]

Well, Bail was only mentioned by his daughter in the context of "struggling against the Empire". Since she wasn't present at that meeting, it'd be somewhat easier to believe she took over his job as Senator while Bail went underground.

I do hate the supposed Marek-wank they go with towards the end. Though it's somewhat redeemed by Palpatine and Vader seemingly shrugging off his ultimate attack.

[Kurgan]

Does the game have actual multiplayer?

As it's not on PC, I won't be playing it anytime soon, but I was just curious.

Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy had the dismemberment and blood censored, but it was able to be re-enabled by cheat codes and patches.

Of course it might not have been designed with those things in the first place, and so not part of Force Unleashed (and with no modding, it won't happen). JK2 and JA after all, were based on the Quake3 engine, which had those things already as features.

[Sarevok]

Hey Kurgan you seem to be rather distinguished in JA / JO circles. :d

I have not kept tabs on the online matches, clans, mods etc in long time. How is the community reacting to Force Unleashed in general ?

[Kurgan]

I think the console owners are excited about it, but I haven't check the reaction since the demo's release.

The fact that it doesn't really give the JK players what they want, it doesn't show any sign of hurting the community though.

To be honest, I haven't done much in the community in awhile, as I've been busy with school/work. But every now and then I'll pop onto the forums to see what's going down.

You're welcome to join us at Lucasforums, of course!

[Darth Fanboy]

This is an extremely important event -- hopefully the novel does it justice.

In my opinion, it doesn't. I decided to read the novel first because it was much cheaper than the game, and I had to do a bit of flying this past weekend and a novel passes the time much better. The plot was mostly interesting right up until that part, and then it seemed to be hurried. Then the whole revelation of Galen/Starkiller's upbringing and training to be one of Palpatine's schemes within schemes instead of Vader's own plot just about killed it for me. The game will probably be a rental instead of a purchase now, if I decide to play it at all.

[Darth Yan]

My opinion is that if Lucas had just stayed the fuck out of this the game could have been truly great. Originally, the climax was supposed to be the battle of Toprawa, where the rebals got the death star plans. Starkiller would fight the other secret apprentice, and then choose between resuming his apprenticeship, and destroying the rebellion, or sacrificing himself to save the rebellion by attacking vader. Also, in a making of guide, it was mentioned that lucas is the one who encouraged the design staff to use palpatine as the big bad. Shame it cant be undone, but one can dream. So if anything, dont blame the writers, blame george lucas for messing things up.

[Ghost Rider]

Just a tad dead