Early Thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (X-Box 360)

Lucasarts released the demo for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed last week.  Considering that this is one of fall’s most anticipated releases, I’m sure that it will see a good deal of traffic; I wouldn’t be surprised if pulled a Too Human and made the X-Box Live top ten.

For those not in the know, The Force Unleashed is set in between the last film of the prequel trilogy and the first Star Wars movie (does anybody even care about where things fit in the Star Wars canon anymore?) and features, as the player-character, an apprentice that Darth Vader kept secret from the Emperor; this apprentice handled Vader’s dirty work, eliminating the last few Jedi that escaped Order 66 in Revenge of the Sith.

The focus of the game is on using the Force as a weapon.  This is a departure from past Star Wars games wherein the Force was a supplemental weapon (and sometimes, not a weapon at all, but more of a defensive tool).  Vader’s apprentice can send out a concentrated blast of energy, lift objects and enemies and throw them through the air, gain a burst of speed, hurl his saber at distant foes, and create lightning.  All of the awesome things the Jedi and Sith did in the movie are now at your command.  Plus, if I’m reading the subtitles correct, he has the most awesome codename ever: Starkiller.

I played the demo, and as excited about the game to begin with I’m even more excited now.  The game uses the Havok physics engine, and it makes for some beautiful game play.  Watching bodies rag-doll through the air and slam into heavy structures or go flying off into the void is supremely satisfying, and as you experiment with the various Force powers it only gets sweeter.  Starkiller is not limited to what he can lift, as I found out when I sent a TIE fighter zipping towards a squad of stormtroopers; that made for a glorious, screen-filling explosion.

Combat is kept fresh by not only what Starkiller can send flying at his enemies (indeed, where he can send hs enemies flying), but his melee options as well.  While the Force powers are the star of the show, your character still has plenty of lightsaber combos that are silky-smooth in their responsiveness and empowering in their display.  Whether charging his lightsaber with lightning, impaling an airborne enemy on his blade, or–my personal favorite–severing a stormtrooper’s spine with a cruel, hard-hitting finishing move, Starkiller fights like the force of evil he is supposed to be.

The only problem I ran into was the game’s targeting system.  It’s sometimes hard to pinpoint exactly what you want to use your Force powers on.  However, there is a target lock button one can make use of; it’s just getting your target lined up that can cause some stress.

The graphics look great and–as always with the Star Wars games–the music and sound are superb.  Everything has a watery flow to it.  It’s just too bad that the demo was so short (in fact, it has taken me longer to write this than it did to play through the demo).  It definitely left me wanting more.  I can’t wait to get my hands on it when it’s released in just over two weeks.