Lucasarts' latest effort shows its face on Marketplace
Previewed on Xbox 360
Pleasing people can sometimes be difficult; hundreds of thousands of budding comics, authors, musicians and directors will tell you that without hesitation. Sometimes it can be very easy, by, for instance, slapping "Star Wars" on the front of pretty much anything, from lunchboxes and drinks to shoddy sequels and games. If the logo's there, the happy faces will appear alongside the cash.
That's not to say that The Force Unleashed is your typical lazy, Lucas-branded cash-cow. Far from it, the game impresses on many levels, even in the short segment of time the demo allows. Stylistically, it seems to capture the Star Wars universe to a tee, while in purely graphical terms it cranks out an expansive array of lighting effects, anti-aliasing and explosions. The touted Euphoria AI is every bit as astounding as it was hyped to be, and although there wasn't a great opportunity to test it out, the DMM engine for realistically breakable objects looks tantalisingly worthy of the claims as well. Pretty much all the tech going on behind the scenes packs a considerable punch.
Sadly, the same can't be said for character movement. Simply running around and jumping feels nowhere near as meaty as it should be, and watching Starkiller leap about in an almost cartoonish fashion jars with the surprisingly lifelike AI and Physics. The lightsaber combat also falls victim to this. There is no sense of power to be had from your supposedly deadly weapon, and although they feel less like shiny batons than in some games in the franchise, you can't escape the fact that it's little more than a glorified stick.
Force Powers, on the other hand, work fantastically well. Endless fun can be had from picking up Stormtroopers and lobbing them around with Force Grab, Force Push busts open doors with aplomb, while Force Dash neatly serves as a dodge function when locked-on. The only power in the demo that seemed lacking was Force Lightning, with no real consequence from zapping an enemy other than them falling over like a pole. This spoils the illusion somewhat and is evidence that Euphoria is great for some elements of the AI, but not so much for others, as a simple animation would have better suspended one's disbelief on these occasions. When it comes down to it, the whole point of The Force Unleashed is to make the player feel as if they're in a Star Wars film, and when the player doesn't have this sensation for more than a second, the effect is ruined.
Were this an unlicensed game, we'd be chastising it, calling it foul, but, for the most part, it maintains the feeling of "being in" the films pretty well, and for that it must be commended. Though the combat seems a bit on the unimpressive side, the Force Powers are well implemented, the technology running everything on screen is polished and the score is a rousing halfway point between the Trilogies. Some small criticisms include the lock on system, which is a little odd and distracting as the camera adjusts to an unhelpful angle and the game sometimes struggles to find what you want to be facing. Similarly, the awkward character movement is often the only thing on the screen that appears stilted and out of place, causing it to stand out even more than it should. Sadly, given the nigh-on complete code of the demo level, none of this is likely to be altered before release. Overall though, The Force Unleashed looks set to be a boon for dedicated fans, who will be so amazed by how legitimately Star Wars an experience it is they'll need to pick their eyes up off the floor when they see it in action. It doesn't come close to justifying how much hype it's had, but when it hits shelves it will doubtless be an enjoyable romp through some familiar territory, although one wishes that little extra spit and polish had been applied that would have made all the difference.
One liner sum up: "The Force is average with this one"
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