Star Wars The Force Unleashed Review - Become the ultimate Jedi.

By Sam Coles:

Star Wars has always been a mix bag when it comes to its video games some are great and some are bad, but there tend to be more good than bad games. Star Wars The Force Unleashed was a game I followed when I was 15 with all the marketing, at the time I only had a Nintendo Wii and that was the version I first played, however I got an Xbox 360 for my 16^th birthday a year later and picked it up for that system. I love this game with a strong opening where you get to devastate everything as Darth Vader, to a really good story that ties into the Star Wars mythos.

Star Wars The Force Unleashed takes place in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, it begins with Darth Vader invading the Wookie home world Kashyyyk where he is hunting a Jedi in hiding. He finds the Jedi and kills him, but Vader senses someone more powerful, which turns out to be the dead Jedi’s son, Vader adopts the child and trains him as his secret apprentice. Years later you take control of Star Killer the child Vader trained, who is now an assassin who is tasked with taking down any remaining Jedi in the galaxy. The story in this game is very good and it can get dark in parts, but that’s not to say there are no humorous moments because there are, but it has a very dark tone throughout. The game has an explosive opening which is fantastic where you play as Darth Vader killing and destroying anything that gets in your way, you really feel the power of the dark side with the opening level.

Gameplay is a hack and slash game which were very popular at the time because of the success of games such as Devil May Cry and God of War, where Yahtzee coined the phrase “Like God of War but”. You go around stages battling cannon fodder enemies, with a few boss fights spliced in which consist of AT walkers, Rancors and even a Star Destroyer. There are light platforming elements which can frustrate because Star Killer feels rather floaty in these parts as his movement are designed for combat rather than precise platforming.

There are one on one fights with other Jedi’s or The Emperors Elite guards, these are a lot of fun as they are faster and smarter than standard enemies, so you need to be quick and the fight with Vader and Palapitine at the end of the game is challenging.  

Visually the game looks pretty good still considering it came out nearly a decade ago, that is if you’re playing on the 360 and PS3, the Wii and PS2 version on the other hand are not so good, but that is to be expected with the weaker hardware. Character models look very good with a surprising amount of detail, but the animation is very odd you can tell that motion capture was not used for cutscenes because it looks very stiff and robotic.

Star Wars The Force Unleashed is a fun game which lets you cause chaos with a vast array of force powers. I would recommend getting this game on the 360 and PS3, as the PS2 and Wii versions are lacking.