Dying a lot? It's not your fault. Though decent overall, this game deserves your screamed profanities.
This game has gotten a lot of hype, even a launch centre from Gamespot, which to me is a bit surprising. I suppose that given the new Force mechanics, this is the game Star Wars fans have been waiting for. I guess the Star Wars name still carries a lot of weight. Not being a big Star Wars fan, but rather being one who simply finds it enjoyable from time to time, let's see how this game fares with me. In otherwards, the tilt is at a minimum here.
The Pros
Indeed, a lot of attention has been put into the Force here, moreso than any other game. There are tons of lightsaber combos and moves to be learned, the force blast has a really cool looking ripple effect, and lightning can be used more than in perhaps any other Star Wars game to date.
At it's best, it truly is satisfying. Charging up a force blast and watching the screen drain of color before unleashing a hellish hadouken is magnificent. Running into a horde of storm troopers and killing them all with one scatering of lightning or simply tossing men and wreckage this way and that with the Force grip is truly satisfying. More satisfying still is when you're able to use all of these abilities in tandem. Force blast through a door, shock three storm troopers, and toss the last one over the edge of a cliff all in the space of 5 seconds. Tell that that isn't cool.
With all this talk of tossing people around, special mention must be made of the physics in this game. It's hard to believe that this game was made using the standard Havok engine, considering how good it is. Tossing and lifting things feels as it should, and despite there being so many things flying through the air at some points, the engine never hiccups. Things never get stuck in the air and they never disappear. Tossed items are slow on the incline and fast on the decline. The physics are a beautiful thing in this game. It makes using the force grip so enjoyable, that you may find it to be your preferred weapon. It's just so much fun tossing guy's over balcony's simply to see how far they'll fly.
Special mention must also be made of the your character's dash/side-step. You'll actually WANT to dash, perhaps more than necessary. It simply feels Force-y. I don't know if i've ever seen a cooler dash in any game. It truly makes you feel empowered and invincible with it's satisfying "woosh" noise and blurring/rippling of the air around you. Oh, and you can air-dash as well.
The same goes for how you're character jumps. Instead of standard jumps, the game has placed a moment of delay after each jump, giving a brief portion of a second where it feels like you're floating. In other words, it's apparent that you're jumping with the force, Jedi-style. Granted, veterans of platformers will have to get used to this. Indeed, I did mistime some jumps at first, but once you're acclimatized, it's a cinch.
The lightsaber combos are nothing to write home about, but are more than serviceable, as are the boss fights. While it is sadly true that you can get through the game lightsaber-wise simply by hammering the attack button and using no other combo, there are options available to spice things up. Being able to infuse your lightsaber with lightning mid combo adds flavor and looks great. Air combos however, in my experience, are difficult to pull off and utterly unnecessary, which is unfortunate. Also, lightsaber combos have a nasty tendency to keep going when you don't want them to as well as pushing your character forward, which means that until you get used to things, expect your combos to carry you right off edges.
The graphics are overall pretty solid. Your character looks great and generally speaking, so do the environments. Felucia's organic setting deserves special mention. It's also great seeing steel doors deform under the power of the force, as is seeing the forest on either side of you ripple when you summon a blast, as though the game world had been hit with a strong gust of wind. It's a decent looking game with a good set of character models, boss-wise and with regards to your character, the environments look good and react well to your powers.
Lastly, as a Star Wars game, the story is actually pretty good. Considering the overall brevity of the cutscenes as well as the shortness of the game itself, many of the characters are enjoyable. Your main character, stupid name aside (Starkiller? Really?) is relatable and likable in a plot that could have easily led to him being a mopey whiner. Your robot buddy Proxy is also great fun. It's a good story for a game simply because it's your standard Star Wars tale. That said, that level of quality is pretty good as far as games go.
The Cons
This game is loaded with cheap deaths. When I say cheap deaths, I don't mean deaths where the game is simply difficult and in need of being mastered. Rather, I mean that it feels as though you are fighting the game itself. By that I mean, rather than fighting obstacles or the enemy, you are fighting poor development, poor design, and poor quality assurance.
Time and again, you will fall dead due to bugs. Twice, I have been shot dead while stuck in the opening between two doors I had blasted open with the Force. I have been killed by larger enemies, Purge Troopers notably, who simply would not lose that last sliver of health regardless of how hard I pounded them. Worst of all, I have been struck dead by things that I dodged that didn't even come close to hitting me.
For example, in the Shaak Ti boss fight, three times a tentacle would be coming down on top of me. I dodge. Tentacle slaps the ground three feet away from my character. I take damage/die. Another example. I'm hiding around a corner. A purge trooper shoots and I dodge. The shot hits the wall two feet to the right of my character, even leaving a burn mark where it hits. I take the damage and fall dead. Right.
That's the thing too. I said I was 'hiding' around a corner. That doesn't sound very "Force Unleashed" to me. Hiding around a corner and leaninig out to take quick lightning potshots? Really? Well, the thing is, with brutally damaging and annoying long range troops such as the afore mentioned Purge Troopers and their loads of health and homing missiles or the ever irritating Scout Trooper snipers, if you try to play it "Unleashed," you'll die. Single enemies, notably the Purge Trooper, also have a nasty ability to attack just fast enough so that once you're hit, they'll hit you several more times before you can get up. This is the same with many of the bosses. This is doubly bad if you're assaulted by several EVO troopers and, God help you, get hit with a stun shot. Chances are, you'll get hit with several stun shots in a row, totally helpless as your character slowly dies.
Compounding this all, is of course the much discussed problem of so many enemies being "force immune." For a game that is so "unleashed," it sure is very interested in limiting and tethering the very thing it says it's unleashing. Long Range troops, weird bugs, and force immune troopers mean cowardly, cagey gameplay.
The other major problem that cannot be stated enough is the AWFUL targetting in this game. Theoretically, you automatically target the nearest object, though sometimes the targetting system doesn't even seem to obey this rule. This is obviously a problem, particularly because you're stuck with what the game automatically targets for you and you can manually move around among viable targets. The only way to do that is to move your actual character around, exposing yourself to gunfire, hoping that eventually you'll "automatically" target what you wanted to. Cheap deaths here I go! So many times your character will end up targetting the hell out of an innocuous rock three feet away, ignoring the guy in front of you whose blasting you in the face. Joy.
A few more minor grievances. The menu system and interface looks ugly, cheap, and budget and could've used more work. Worse still, the game has a lot of loading. Even moving from the pause menu to your stat allocation screen requires loading. Of course, moving back out of your stat allocation screen requires more loading. Want to change your lightsaber color? Takes more loading to get there too. Outside of basic options, pretty much anywhere you'd want to go on the menu/interface requires loading. Come on.
The game also does experience a little bit of slowdown here and there. Also, some of the enemy character models seem unimpressive, lacking detail or texture. It's really strange and stands out quite a bit considering how everything else looks pretty nice.
The Force Unleashed is also a short game without much replay value. It's around ten hours, maybe less. There's no multiplayer to speak of. I suppose you might want to play through the game again to get the second ending, but beyond that, I can't see any reason to replay it again. What's worse is that even in such a short game, three of the levels get re-used. Granted, the levels appear much altered and you don't go to the EXACT same locations, but it's still disappointing.
Finally, special mention must be made of the famed Star Destroyer section. This might be possibly one of the worst portions I've ever played in a major release. It is unfun, boring, and totally unlike the rest of the game. It is also totally riddled with bugs. The directions are incorrect, the prompts to pull down the Destroyer vanish, and worse still, you can only move left and right. The problem with that, is that if you're caught in a blast, you'll still be knocked back, leaving the game totally confused as to what to do with your character now that you're no longer on that "left right" plane. Chances are, you'll end up sliding off the edge to your death or locked in place until you're shot dead. Did anyone even playtest this section? What makes it worse is that pullind down the star destroyer was supposed to be a flagship moment for this game. What an anti-climax.
The Conclusion
It has a good story, it looks pretty good, and it does things with the Force that no other game has done. Given this, it CAN be fun despite also often being an exercise in frustration. Given this, I totally recommend giving this game a rent. That said, given the game's bugs, little replay value, and it's often sloppy gameplay, I would not, under any circumstancs, recommend purchasing this game full priced or even budget priced. Anything more than 20 bucks probably isn't even worth considering, even if you're a Star Wars megafan.