Fox's First Impression: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (I don't know any more)

[Fusion]

This Star Wars game made a debut with massive hype because you would be playing directly under Darth Vader, as his apprentice, codenamed 'Starkiller'.  The game's early presentations, with Starkiller using the Force to basically beat the crap out of Stormtroopers was nice eye-candy, and was promising to be a fulfilling experience.  Is it worth it?  Only time will tell, but for now, here's what I've got to say about the game so far.

So I'll get the bad things out of the way immediately.  First off, the 'DMM Demonstration' bits of The Force Unleashed's demo seem to have been toned down by a lot.  A force push doesn't seem to do nearly as much as it did before, and right off the bat I'm disappointed because the Demo basically gave you all of the good Lightsaber combos you're going to be using.  Whatever happened to having content that wasn't in the Demo?  Oh, yeah, developers wanting to make a quick buck happened.

Right away, I noticed that the Stormtroopers did NOTHING but flail their arms, in this so-called "Euphoria" AI.  That's all it seems to be implemented for, that and the standard Havok physics which will, I will tell you this right now, frustrate you with how outright stupid this flawed concept is.  I was expecting the implementation to allow the Stormtroopers to be a bit smarter, as in not shooting their own allies like dumbasses but clearly that's just not a possible thing.

So aside from the standard Stormtroopers and people that have blasters that aim to kill you, there are also the standard melee fighters, the standard "nothing you do seems to phase it" enemies, and generally just standard crap all around.  Hell, the Force powers don't even seem as powerful as they should be, except Force Repel.  Throwing your Lightsaber takes too much time despite it's damage, you'll always be hit by blaster fire and will have to clear out an area of Stormtroopers and Imperials just to be able to survive the next, and there WILL be moments where you wonder how the hell you're supposed to do something when the A.I is spamming knockdown attacks.

But let's move on to the actual gameplay.  As far as Lightsaber combat goes, you should realize that the Lightsaber part of this game has been tacked on, there's no sort of depth to the saber play and maybe that's why everybody and their grandmother is giving it a thumbs down even though it's called The Force Unleashed which doesn't imply Lightsabers %200 of the time.  This game also has the unfortunate curse of somehow being linked to the Jedi Knight series even though to be fairly honest, this game does not involve Kyle Katarn from the Jedi Knight series at all other than a code you can input.

So I'll describe some of the enemy types that really piss me off:

Purge Troopers.  These Stormtroopers are twice as large as the other troopers, have a really cybernetic voice and don't budge from your Lightsaber attacks.  Compared to other stormtroopers they also have ridiculously high health.  Most of their attacks consist of ones that either grab you, knock you off guard, or just block your attacks.  I'm fine with the last one but the other two pretty much consist of his arsenal.  He can be stopped dead with Force Lightning or a Saber Throw but the latter is really all about being in the right spot.  You also can't throw them at all, not even lift them off their feet because your almighty force push does nothing to them.

Scout Troopers.  You know, those ones from Return of the Jedi?  Yeah, they're in this one.  But instead of being scouts, they're portrayed as... Snipers?  Yes, the Scout troopers use Sniper rifles which leave a HUGE laser that you can easily tell when they're going to fire.  The problem with this is that they usually end up having pin-point accuracy almost %100 of the time, and their shots cause knockback, can't be seen or can't be blocked unlike the rest of the gunfire in this game.  You might find yourself unwittingly sniped off a cliff while you were busy dealing with a Purge Trooper.

Jet Troopers.  Or whatever the game calls them.  They're one of my worst enemies because not only is their only attack a rocket, they also stay just far enough away that your Lightsaber can't reach them.  Force lightning can do the trick, but you'll need that force power to be able to manage everything else that's either firing at you, hitting you or the like.  You can throw these guys too, but do you really want to?

On the note of gunfire, almost everything in this game you can deflect with your Lightsaber.  Even the rapid Gatling Gun rapid-firing stationary E-Web turrets can have every single bolt deflected.  Yet we can't push back projectile bullets like rockets at the fools who fire them?

As for the story so far, I will say that it at least holds it's own, there is at least ONE event that will seem odd to you, but I'm not going to reveal it here because to do so would call upon the wrath of every midichlorian worshiping freak who thinks they have Jedi powers.

But for right now, let's just say it's kind of 'Meh'.  Full review later.

[DMK]

I also noticed some weird things due to the games engine and that is literally enemies tripping out of no where or over themselves.

This became the most noticeable on the fourth level(or Starkillers third level) where they would just constantly fall as they ran down from the sides of walls.

I'm not bitching about it because it's an easy stab kill, but it does make the enemies far easier even on lower levels.  :P

[Fusion]

For what the game does that's actually new and inventive, it's actually quite fun.

Also, for the last time, you idiotic Star Wars fanbase: THE FORCE UNLEASHED IS NOT JEDI KNIGHT 4.


UPDATE: Okay, I just finished the game, Light side ending (as in the only ending that's actually canonical.) Also found another glitch that kept repeating itself, one where Stormtroopers would not be harmed by my Lightsaber at all.  Usually happened after I clobbered a Purge Trooper.

[Jesuszilla]

Wait, there are glitches that bad? What the Hell, LucasArts. I mean Episode I for PC had its fair share of glitches, but some of the worst ones were nearly impossible to replicate (lol, two Qui-Gons fighting Darth Maul).

[DMK]

That Star Destroyer bs was the only video game sequence in 3 years that has honestly made me mad to the point I was sick to my stomach.

I think it also glitched on me. My first try was a "Oh I understand now and I'll get it next time" I finally figured out that you HAVE to move away and kill those re-spawning fighters to get it down. I had it all the way  down nearly and it completely glitched the scene on me and wouldn't invoke the cutscene no matter how close I got it.  >:(

Did you have any odd occurrences with that part?

[Fusion]

Killing the fighters with Lightning takes less time.  Lots less.  Also, ignore the on-screen guide and get the Star Destroyer to point at you.  With that you should be able to complete the scene in 2-3 pulls.