"Since Bioware’s Kights of the Old Republic, we’ve all been longing for another good, deep Star Wars story to get lost into. Well, at least I have been! With titles, like Full Throttle and Sam and Max no longer in the picture."
Overall: The story happens between Episodes III and IV, and before Dark Forces as well. Basically darth Vader is hunting the remaining Jedi, and he founds this kid, called Galen (you only know his name in the book, the game never quotes it), he takes him as his secret apprentice and send syou off in in many important missions as a SECRET agent, the game begins with your veryu first Jedi hunt mission. The really important point in the game however is that it'll show the very birth of the Rebel Alliance WITH Leia Organa and Bail Organa.
By now fans must be striving to get their hands on the game. But hold still, the story, as told in the game, is ridiculously POOR, it has a lot of blanks and very badly explained things, true fans MUST buy the book The Force Unleashed, since that's where the story is reall told, with all points well explained. The game is just an action game where you conrtol a Sith, that's very bad since you'd expect good storyline in a Star Wars game.
The controls are good, however you'll get very stressed at grapling thing cause the game doesn't consider the way the camera is looking, but where your character is... Still it plays very well.
The game brings many Jedis and inmportant characters in general, the cool thing are the fights against Force users, it plays like Mortal Kombat, and by the end of the battle you are prompted to use a series of buttom pressing in order to finish them, and that part is VERY cinematographic, that also happens when fighting certain enemies.
The Force however, became too strong, and it's not like YOUR character is the strong one, every Jedi and Sith is incredibly strong, And even though that's the fun of the game, for fans like myself it's also the biggest defect. If Vader or palpatine was as strongf as they are in the game, the UNIVERSE would have been destroyed, everyone would be slaves to Force Users, it's simply to big an ammount fo Force and it runs far away from what we see in movies. To make matters worse, if you're playing in the harder levels you'll be stressed at the fact that even though you're Mr. Sith does all, you'll be getting killed by a bunch of Stormtroopers (?!)...
The biggest defect however are the glitches, many people have been facing problems when facing a certain boos in the Imperial Raxus Prime: the game stops and the videogame with it, you have to rebbot it. Just awful!
All in all the game is good, but very short and relatively disapointing to big fans of the series. Fortunately the books isn't as half as exagerated or faulty as the game, in a matter of fact, the book fits perfectly with every other book and even the movies of the series. play the game for the graphics, design and action (those are really gorgeous), read the book for the story.
Overall: Star Wars The Force Unleashed was in my waiting list since the day I saw his first trailer. How could someone be not amazed by this ? The moment where the main character bring down a whole starship cruiser with the use of force is absolutly unforgettable. Unfortunatly, there is so many great games coming this fall like Fable 2, Gears Of Wars 2, Saint Row 2, Silent hill 5, Call Of Duty 5 and Fallout 3, that it is hard to recommend this game for a purchase. For me, it is only worthy of a rental. Overall, Star Wars The Force Unleashed (SWTFU) is indeed a great game. The story line is worthy of a movie script, the gameplay mechanic is really fantastic, but there is a lot of repetition in the level design and also in the ennemies we encounter. Finally, there is some major visual glitch who is practically unaceptable for a retail version.
To describe SWTFU, I could say that it is a third person action game developed by LucasArt and that the story line takes place after the event of Star Wars : Revenge Of The Sith. In the game, the gamer embodied the role of Starkiller, Dark Vador's first apprentice. He is send by his master all around the galaxy the destory and kill the remaining Jedi.
Gameplay: First of all, let's talk about the achievement. I must say that 80 % of them are really easy to do. Some consist of killing 35 droids, others are secrets that you must unlock by playing the game on any difficulty. Still there is some really frustrating one. I mean how does the h*ll I am suppose to kill 500 ennemies by using force push if I don't know what is considered as counting toward this achievement ? I used the B button to kill so many ennemies. In fact, some have been throwed on a explosive barrel, other have fallen into a pit or they just died because of low health, but still the game never gave me the award, not even for the 100 kills. The same thing happen with the shield. Do you really expect to do 500 kills with the shield ? I can't barely play with this abiltity.
The story itself is really good and the game give you the possibility to see a sith and a jedi ending. The problem is, if you choose the sith ending, the game show you a cutscene who broke the timeline of the star wars saga. Yes you hear it, if you choose the sith ending, the three others star wars movies have no sense at all. There is also a turnover in the story that some people will not apreciate. I mean, when you stop hunting the jedi, the game fall into some boring combat with empiral guard instead of Jedi master. I found this particular moment to be boring as hell. In the other hand, playing as Darth Vador for the first level is one of the best moment in a star wars video game history. I don't have any memories of a game where you can actually play as Darth Vador. So I must admit, this moment was awesome. Too bad that this game took me about 6 hours to get throught and I found all the holocrons ( with a guide of course).
By the way, the gameplay mechanic is awesome. Pushing ennemies, throw and move ennemies or object, light saber combat, choke and throw lighting out of your hand is absolutly beautiful. It reminds a lot of the gravity gun in half life 2. I must admit that it is really hard to corectfully aim at first, but when you mastered everything, the gameplay feel like you were a real sith and a powerful one. They even add some Role Playing Game element where you can upgrade Starkiller's abilities and buy some new combos. Did I mention that you can change his costume and light saber colour ? Seriously, the last costume and the black light saber is so awesome, you won't believe me if i say that Starkiller look more awesome and badas-s than Dark Vador with those element. Like I said a little earlier, there is some big ennemies repetition in this game. Snowstropper are a common one, but doesn't bother me at all because they naturally fit in the game. It more about the felucian, the A&T, the rancor and the junk titan who really bothers me. I mean, how many times I had to fight those guys ? Plus, I always used the same stupid combos to beat them. First, I shocked them with my lighting skill, then I usually bashed them with my light saber and I finished them with the sensitive context button option. You kill those thing so many times, that I used to skip those fight and runs straight to the end because it was really getting on my nerd. For the level design, I could say that you come back twice to the same planet. In my mind, it is a good way to say : we don't have enough times or money to do more ennemies and level design, so let's just take the one we have already have. Recycly bin is only for tree, not for video games. Also, the boss battle are amazing, but some, like Paratus, are a way harder that Dark Vador and the emperor which is hard to believe. And do you already forget the best part of the trailer ? Of course not, but you should. The part where you bring down a whole starship cruiser is one of the most frustrating moment in video games history. The goal is to turn around the ship so he can face you. After that, you need to crash it, but the problem is that you must also fight some tie fighter in the same time, which result in some bad timing because the ship regain his main position after a while, but also because you are lacking of times. Did I mention that that you only need to push both thumbstick at the same time to crash the ship ? Only this part, it took me around 30 minute to do it and I really don't want to see this part again. Finally where is the multiplayer ? The WII's version got a jedi battle arena and we don't have anything ? At least, we should have an arena to fight other Jedi like what we saw in the training room ? But no, they give us some rancor and A& T once again ?
Graphics: The visual in this game is a little bit too glichty. As an exemple, I saw the emperor stuck in the ground, I saw Star Killer stuck near a mushroom, I saw ennemies on the middle of the sky, I saw ennemies spawn on my face and lips that are moving without any sentence ? Did I mention that I encounter a lot of freeze times ? In the last two level, the game began to freeze every ten minute of gameplay. Level design are so unspired, that you came back twice to the same planet and everything practically look the same. At least, the draw line is perfect. Finally, the euphoria engine is a mess ! You must be really lucky to actually see it in action. All this times spend to make that engine and I never saw it in action in the retail version, only on video made on the web.
Sound: This is the star wars sound library, what do you expect more and of course it is fantastic. It is alway a pleasure to hear the star war theme with the story scrolling down the screen. There is some sound coordination to do with the cutscene, but still really good.
Suggestions: Mutilplayer, more variation in the level design and a jedi arena.
Overall: This is a game lots of people have been waiting for me included and does it live up to the hype well i think it does,its the best star wars game since knights of the old republic 2.
You play as starkiller apart from the first level when you are darth vader.
The story takes part between episode 3 and episode 4 and a great story it is with lots of well known characters such as princess leia,darth vader,the emporer and many more.
The gameplay is great and the force power's make you feel like you are in the films and like a jedi. Gameplay: The gameplay is very good with lots of different moves and ways to dispatch of your enemy,the force power's are great and playing the bad guy a great twist to all the other star wars games,being able to pick them up enemy's and throw them about like a rag doll is very cool and that is only one of many.
The levels are all different with lots of objects to use like you can pull parts of the ceiling down on your enemy.
The end of level bosses could have been done better but they are ok and to finish them off you have to press buttons in sequence.
There is no multiplayer which could have made the game better but i think there is a lot of replay value. Graphics: I will have to say the visuals are quite stunning the levels are different and the colours are bright and colourful and the different worlds are true to the films and like great.
The cutscenes are great to look at and go well with the storyline and all the characters are well designed thats why i gave it a good score.
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