Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Review (Xbox 360)

By Joe Haygood | October 2, 2008

Throughout the Star Wars films, books and games, we have always witnessed great Jedi battles, full of acrobatic lightsaber duels.  However, the battles have always felt one dimensional, and lacking what could be the full power of a Jedi unleashed.  The Force Unleashed looks to change that opinion, with spectacular set pieces that show off what kind of force a Jedi can be when allowed to use power without restraint.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed tells the story of the events between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, focusing in on Vader and his secret mission to overthrow the Emperor.  To assist in this plan, Darth Vader has secretly groomed an apprentice, a child he found while ravaging the planet of Kashyyyk, to do his bidding in this task.  The Apprentice, also known as Starkiller, has been dispatched by Vader to kill the last remnants of the Jedi, who have hidden themselves on planets throughout the galaxy.  From the beginning, your character moves from a loyal apprentice, to one that questions whether his master has been completely truthful to the final outcome.

Playing as Starkiller is a new and exciting experience, for we finally have a Jedi that actually uses his power to the fullest extent.  From creating force explosions, to saber combos filled with force power, down to taking out tie fighters and crushing them into balls of crumpled metal, you feel the true power that one with the Force can truly have.  To my recollection, there has never been a Star Wars game that hands you so much power in one being.  It was an incredible sight to watch my character throwing Tie Fighters at hapless Stormtroopers, or casting myself out of the pit of a Sarlacc to attack a powerful Jedi Master.

Of course, you do not start out with ultimate power, but more as a wet behind the ears Jedi, fresh out of training.  As you play through the game, you start to earn Force points, which allow you to upgrade your character in three areas.  Force powers, skills, and attack combos.  The more you use your powers and sword play in harmony, the more points you will receive to upgrade your character.  You can also get extra upgrade points by finishing sub-objectives on each mission.  Sub-missions will require some out of the way searching to finish them all on a level, but the perks you get for finding and completing them all will pay off in the end with a fully upgraded character, ready to take on any challenge.

The other great experience that is found within The Force Unleashed, are the characters that you are surrounded by through the game.  You have a co-pilot by the name of Juno Eclipse and one of the strangest droids in the Star Wars universe since HK-47, Proxy.  While these characters are only scene during the cut scenes, they round out your character, adding a sense of humanity to him, that is missing during his missions.  Proxy is especially enjoyable, because Vader has made his primary mission to kill the Apprentice, which really makes for some fun banter between the two.  Some would look at these two as bit players, but I really enjoyed their time on screen, and I would hope that they are expanded on in later games.

The Force Unleashed takes us to some new locations, and some that have only been touched on briefly during the movies.  Unfortunately, these locations while having some sharp detail tend to be repetitive in nature.  Walking from one section to the next just feels like more of the same.  A good example is Felucia, which looked to be a very colorful and rich planet in the movies, but here it just looks very dark and uninteresting, almost without any character whatsoever.  The planets have significant differences between them, but they still just feel generic at best when you are moving through them.  Also, the closed, linear nature of your path makes you feel like you are in a corridor no matter where you are walking, even when out in the open.  This is probably by design, but it just made the environments feel claustrophobic and uninteresting to be in.

The voice work in The Force Unleashed is very well done.  Sam Witwer puts in a top notch performance as the Apprentice, giving the character a sound of someone curious with his surrounding, yet calculated in his path to the stated goal of a mission.   Juno and Proxy also stand out with their voice work, giving great performances, with Proxy probably stealing the show with some of his quips during missions.  Jimmy Smits joins the cast as one of the only persons from the movies to provide dialog for his character, although it felt like a phoned in performance.

As I have stated, your character is very powerful, as a fact he is so powerful that he seemed to kill the game on several occasions.  It seems that there is an issue with stability in with The Force Unleashed.  No fewer than seven times over three days did the game crash, and it happened quite a bit during either heavy exchanges during boss fights, or in crowded areas, where you are fighting a dozen or so bad guys at one time.  Each time, I lost progress, and in the case of one long boss fight, had to start the game all over again.  I do not know if this was an Xbox 360 issue or a technical issue with the game, but a patch has not been released as of yet, which is disheartening for a game that has so much going for it.  Crash flaws with this kind of consistency should have been noticed before the game was released.  Another huge issue is that your main character becomes far too powerful by the end of the game, making the end fights somewhat easy.   It also makes some rather large leaps at the end to totally fit the game into canon, and yes, Lucas has said that this game is part of Star Wars canon.

Even with these flaws, the game does stand on its own to provide the gamer with a rather solid story, and huge battle set pieces that let you flex your force muscles.  Add to this the ability to customize the character and your lightsaber to fit your style of combat, and a lot of extra back story on characters we have only seen in glimpses will have Star Wars fans grinning from ear to ear.  While it is far from perfect, The Force Unleashed completes its main task of providing the player with tons of Jedi combat, and Force powers galore.  One just wishes more spit and polish would have come along the way.  Star Wars: The Force Unleashed gets 3.5 out of 5 Aeropausonauts.