A lightsaber and the Force at your command overrides less-than-perfect levels to a degree.
The game's greatest asset is the Force itself. Players have an impressive array of attacks to decimate foes-from electrocuting them with lightning to hurling them at other targets and everything in between. With most or all attacks unlocked with the Force points collected from defeated opponents, taking down stormtrooper squads or groups of hostiles indigenous to certain planets is extremely fun. Plus, all Force powers can be leveled up with Force points, increasing their power, range, and visual appearance. The Force is unleashed in a way previously unseen.
But the game is not without it's challenges. Boss battles are hard enough to give you a run for your money, and sometimes you will die multiple times before you're able to bring a lumbering beast or an enemy leader down. Luckily, when you die, you respawn at the closest checkpoint, and all the damage you previously dealt remains, so with patience (if nothing else), you will triumph in all your battles. Furthermore, the quick time events at the end of these boss battles are varied and quite impressive looking to pull off, giving you a sense of satisfaction as a rancor or an AT-ST walker bites the dust.
Characters don't look all that good in cutscenes, but this game's most noticeable flaw are it's levels and level select system. Certain levels are unnecessarily long and possess multiple bosses. Furthermore, these certain levels do not have many new elements, such as interesting new parts of the environment, to counterbalance repetitive hordes of grunt enemies that can start to trump even the diverse array of attacks at your disposal. Furthermore, you cannot replay previous levels at will-you have to go through the story in the same order each time, so in order to experience the long yet entertaining final showdown on the Death Star, you are forced to replay the long and fairly tedious levels on Raxus Prime and Felucia.
Different lightsaber colour crystals, combat crystals (these enhance a certain attribute, such as amplify lightsaber damage or the lethality of Force chokes), lightsaber hilts and unlockable costumes provide incentives for replay, though these might not fully counter long and repetitive levels. There is no multiplayer mode, as there is in the otherwise very similar Wii version. Overall, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed offers many powerful attacks, challenging boss battles and a nice story, but at the same time there are levels and a level select system that could certainly be improved upon. Star Wars fans should consider this game, as it is worth a rental at the very least.