equally satisfying and annoying - and not in a good or ironic kind of way.

User Rating: 6.5 | Star Wars: The Force Unleashed X360
I HATE THE FORCED SAVED. EVEN WORSE IS THE FORCED CUT SCENE WITHOUT THE VOLUNTARY SAVE POINT. These two features and some other minor annoyance more or less ruin this game.

I played my first time on Sith Lord level. This review is base don that.

you can't save where you want. period. I hate this, it sucks. no game should adopt this programming. yes, it does punish you for dying. However, here are other, far less annoying ways to accomplish that goal.

On top of that, there are endless cut scenes you're forced to watch over and over again because you're forced to constantly restart at the beginning of each stage. dumb. boring. frustrating.

And, OK, I can get the rationale for the forced save, but having decided to go with that policy, is it really necessary to postpone each stage save to the very last minute?!? If you're going to do the forced game save and take that option away from the player (no, there aren't any random life events I need to attend to while in the middle of a game) at least space the saves at a reasonable distance apart from one another and not include almost entire stages.

But still further, IF, and I've made it clear there is no excuse for this, you must use the forced game save format, please, please, make sure your publication is totally free of bugs. If I die b/c of a bug and there is voluntary saving, at least it's my fault for not saving enough. When I die multiple times because I got stuck, suspended over a big dinosaur bone trying to kill the bull rancor and have to start that stage all over again, I'm thinking legal negligence and infliction of emotional distress vs. the design team.

The angles will (literally) kill you on multiple occasions in this game. More than once I disappeared behind a wall only to to get smashed by a purge trooper because I couldn't see what the F U C Khe was doing. Again, design problem, corporate problem. Maybe if intelligent programmers weren't managed by moronic business school grads, this wouldn't happen. Alas, we all have to suffer b/c of their ignorance and idiotic bravado.

The real problem is that this is a really good game that is almost totally undermined by the issues above. The graphics are nice, combat is challenging, complex and satisfying. There's a decent story line and, for once, some nod to the dark side in the Lucas universe.

But here are two other major gripes I keep coming back to w/ this game: (1) Lucas and is progeny are F U C K ing boy scouts. Let ME decide whether or not I want to fall in love w/ this insipid B I ... Tc C and give up the allure of the dark side. you're forced to be good no matter what the story line and the lack of moral reality is disappointing. (2) previous releases in the Lucas production star wars series up until Outcast allowed the player to use multiple weapon types, not just the Force/Saber combo that dominates the Unleashed franchise. This is stupid. My guy can't pick up a sniper rifle from a scout trooper and make his forced-saved life just a little easier?!? I don't see the sniper rifle is significantly more "random" than the saber: it's pinpoint accuracy in most cases. Therefore, our fallen Sith/Jedi hero shouldn't have any qualms about grabbing one.

Any immersive game is bound to piss you off at some point or another. This one gets serious discount on its score though b/c it does this consistently in the most annoying way, w/o really adding to game play. Poor planning and, frequently, poor code execution, really detract from what is (and could be) in other respects a pretty fun game.