Normally Star Wars games recap the events of the classic films or are set somewhere in George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away. The Force Unleashed takes a different approach,creating a narrative between the episodes III and IV - right after The Empire eradicated the Jedi.
You begin the game as the legendary Sith Lord himself, Darth Vader, on the Wookie’s home planet of Kasyyyk. It’s here you will get a taste of what The Force Unleashed has to offer. You’ll pull off some amazing feats here which have never before been explored in a Star Wars game. You can suspend a Wookie in midair and then launch them into the horizon. You can build up a Force ball in the palm of your hands and turn trees into woodchips, shatter rocks into ash and send enemies tumbling into the distance like bowling pins. You can even perform Vader’s trademark throat grip and choke someone to death with your fingertips.
The story eventually shifts to Vader’s secret apprentice, Starkiller, who is sent out to kill off the last remaining Jedi. Vader is keeping Starkiller’s allegiance under wraps for his own reasons so to avoid any suspicion you’re required to kill both the Rebels and the Imperial Forces on missions. Starkiller isn’t as skilled with The Force as Vader to begin, but as you progress you’ll collect skill points which unlock new Force abilities and combos that are even stronger than your master. There’s quite a list to choose from and it will probably take a few play throughs before all the moves are at your disposal.
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| Get a grip? Get A Grip!? |  |
At the end of levels you’ll go one on one with a Jedi in a lightsaber battle - these are not as impressive. There are a lot of razzle-dazzle animations with the saber clashes but you’re only hitting the Block and melee Attack buttons during these fights. You can try using The Force but we found your Jedi opponents are just as powerful as you and will counter anything you throw at them so this is mostly pointless. When you’ve beaten them down to an inch of their life you’ll enter a God of War style minigame where you have to hit the appropriate button within a matter of seconds to land the final blow.
Sadly this is not the only disappointment. Our main beef with The Force Unleashed is that in its effort to have everyone reach the end credits Lucasarts has made it a little too easy for you to get there. Every kill refills your health, and because there’s no shortage of enemies your health bar rarely dips. The only reason it would is if an enemy attacks you off screen courtesy of the unwieldy camera – I think it’s funny that your character can manipulate literally everything in the environment, yet there seems to be no way to properly control the camera.
Despite some flaws The Force Unleashed is still one of the best Star Wars games out there. The story is engrossing and playing around with The Force powers is a treat. You can spend hours picking up Stormtroopers and crashing them in to Tie Fighters, or pushing Rebels off platforms to watch as they hold on for dear life. There’s a lot of room for improvement for a sequel – still, The Force Unleashed is something no Star Wars fan should miss.
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