Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Review from Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt and Matt - Friday, 19 September 2008 @ 1:19am

Demos are funny things.

I downloaded the demo of The Force Unleashed from the Playstation Store with some interest. Hey, there's nothing else on there, amirite?!

I cranked up the demo, watched the slightly out of context cutscene, and proceeded into the game. Meh. The demo showed something substantially less than I expected. A mediocre StarWars based third person combat game. Lego Star Wars without the Lego. I played it a bit, and thought it was ok. But I really wasn't that impressed.

My 8 year old son, on the other hand, loved it like it was a puppy carrying chocolate. He played it over and over, trying different difficulty levels, exploring, and mutilating enemies. In fact, I grabbed our review copy pretty much just so my son could play the full version. Dodgy, hey?

Unfortunately, grabbing the pre-launch review copy of a yet to be released high profile AAA title puts some obligations on me. I needed to review it. And that meant I actually had to play it.

So here's my review: I was wrong.

Many a morning he has been here seen, his tears augmenting the fresh morning dew

To elaborate, The Force Unleashed is anything but mediocre.

The mistake I made was to think that it was just a kind of generic combat game without much more to offer. Combat is of course the core of The Force Unleashed. You're a sith, and killing people horribly is your thing. Everyone knows Sith are way cooler than Jedi. The dark side is all about lightning and anger, which is much more interesting than the meditation and oneness with the universe the Jedi keep yapping about.

Thankfully you have a few things to help you out with combat. Number 1 is of course your trusty lightsaber. The lightsaber is good for a lot of things, but most of all making twitching chunks of your enemies. It also has a good "passive block" ability, knocking back occasional incoming fire automatically. Finally, your lightsaber can also be thrown at stuff. This is particularly fun to do to poor saps held in your force grip, but is also used to cut chains in at least one objective.

The other thing you have that separates you from your soon-to-be-minced Stormtrooper colleagues is the obvious one: the Force. The Force is strong with this one, and you have three buttons that make forcey stuff happen. One is Force Push, Force Lghtning, and Force Grip. Force Push is a blast of Force. It doesn't do a whole lot of damage, but it is particularly good for knocking down groups of baddies, opening up opportunities to attack. Force Push also lets you slam your way through theoretically locked doors. Force Lightning is the blue stuff the Emperor had, and has been pretty much established as a "dark side" thing. Force Lightning will kill weaker enemies, and makes a good ranged attack. It also will incapacitate stronger enemies for a time, making them vulnerable to more damaging combos and attacks. Both Force Push and Force Lightning can be used in lightsaber combos, too, for more damaging or strategic attacks. Swing, swing, push, for example, will blast apart a group of enemies nicely, quite possibly killing a few of them, and sword sword zap zap is a powerful electrical attack that becomes a key against large enemies and bosses.

You know... kind of like this

The other Force power you have is Force Grip. Force Grip is a pretty big deal, as it's your ability to grap, pickup, and manipulate things with the Force. This means everything from picking up objects and moving them out of the way, or even hurling them at enemies, to simply picking up your enemies directly and throwing them at each other, at walls, or simply down into an abyss. It's very quick, effective, and quite frankly hilarious.

Force Grip is a big deal. It's a great demonstration of the fun of the physics engine, and a well used gameplay element. It's not that dissimilar to the gravity gun of Half Life 2 in principle, but it's much more elaborate and practical. The other fun thing about Force Grip is that you're not just limited to picking people up and throwing them. You can also attack them while you're there. The lightsabre, force lightning and force push buttons all do their thing to a Force Gripped enemy, and picking some poor fool up, impaling him with your lightsaber, then zapping him before blasting him into the distance is satisfying and (as you would expect) devastating.

The physics involved in this game are impressive. Not Havok. Can I just say for the record that Havok is really overrated and overused? It's a physics engine that does ok with basic falling and rolling, but all it really does is make everything move like it's a cardboard box. Things move and bounce the same whether they're a cardboard box or a crushed engine. There's no feel of mass or momentum to anything, and it makes everything unreal. I kind of expected we'd see newer and fancier versions of Havok coming into modern games, handling more parameters like mass and momentum and flammability and friction, but it seems like everything still uses the same Havok engine as they used in the mid 90s.

What does work well is a new technology called Digital Molecular Matter, or DMM. DMM is essentially material modelling. This means that rather than just having size and shape, with a surface texture and colour popped on the outside, the objects are actually "made of" a material. This vastly changes its properties and the way it interacts with other objects and the protagonist. Wood splinters into various sized pieces. Glass explodes into small (and large) shards. Metal bends and warps. Plants sway and strange alien mushroom things spring and bounce like jelly.

As well as the way they act, the materials look like they should. Wood doesn't reflect much, and metals have a dull sheen, various shades of grey. Glass looks different depending on where or what it is too, but one section features hardened blue glass, which is a lot of fun to destroy. Most particularly, though, more organic structures (alien insides and plants, and stuff like that) have a pleasantly slick and slimy look, that combines nicely with their spongy textures to act and react.

Unfortunately it's not an Ewok. You know you would.

From the squidgy ground of a base inside a sarlac (srsly) to the squelchy bounciness of alien mushrooms, the force bending of metal beams, and the awesome smashing of a room full of glass trophy cases, the materials in The Force Unleashed act and look like the real thing. Well... more.

The other neat thing implemented is Euphoria. Euphoria isn't new, we've seen it before. It's the technology that gives Nico Bellic his realistic stumble. It's also what makes storm troopers stagger to their knees, and struggle to keep their balance after they've been dropped. It's what lets a storm trooper grab hold of a pole as you force grip him past it. Euphoria is basically behaviour modelling, letting enemies act like they're really thinking about stuff and doing logical things. All in all while not that glamourous and not as obvious as DMM, it's another step in realism, and a well used addition.

Ultimately, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a story. It's not just another Star Wars game, it's considered Canon. If you're not familiar with the term, canon means that it's official. This is what happened. That gives The Force Unleashed the same weight, from a story point of view, as A New Hope, The Phantom Menace or Return of the Jedi. So how does the story compare to those? How does it fit in? I'm glad you asked! Er... glad I asked.

The Force Unleashed is set between the two trilogies, and ties them quite tightly together. The prologue must have occurred within a few years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, and the ending must have occurred not long before the events of A New Hope.

The story is actually pretty good. It's relatively predictable, a story of betrayal and lightning and love. That last one is pretty questionable.

The romance of Leia and Solo was reasonable. They spent a lot of time together (three full movies) and bonded over that period. Plus Solo is awesome and Leia was kinda hot (mmm, gold bikini), so that works out. But the relationship between Padme and Annakin was written by a ham-fisted hack who'd never spoken to a girl. It was the most forced and unbelievable love affair I've ever seen since I let that girl out of my dungeon. Why she would like such a whiney little bitch man, not to mention one who was so much younger than her that she met him as a child, I have no idea. They were forced together, and of all the things that didn't work in the more recent Star Wars Trilogy (and there were a lot) that romance was probably the worst.

The Force Unleashed romance is more believable than that of Padme and proto-Vader, but it still feels rushed, not to mention obvious. The love interest is new pilot Juno Eclipse. I don't mean to be giving away spoilers here, but if you didn't figure it out straight away you need to start putting corks on all the sharp things around you and wearing a bib and helmet around the house. It was pretty obvious.

How obvious? She's an attractive blond woman, plucky and confident, yet vulnerable, with a hint of cleavage and a cheeky smile. She also has an appealing but inexplicable British accent. I'm going to assume she's from the planet Britannia in the Europa system. Right from the start she establishes herself as a no-nonsense independant woman, and Geran introduces her with a loaded "Who's that?!". Yeah... that obvious.

The relationship isn't handled too badly, it's just that it's kind of sudden, and as a result feels a little forced, like someone just had to check a box marked "love interest" in the design document.

Doing horrible things to stormtroopers is a big part of the theme

In a nice sense The Force Unleashed provides a transition from the style of the new movies to the classics.

The story is solid, and the dialogue is actually written really well. Unlike a lot of game writing there aren't really a lot of hidously contrived clangers stinking up the place, and in fact there are some very nice lines.

The Force Unleashed story starts off with a prologue. You start the game as Darth Vader. Vader is an unstoppable death machine of pure awesomeness. He has almost unlimited force energy. He's strangely slow, stalking through the level implacably. It sounds like it would be dull, but it suits. Wookies attack you with savage fury, but nothing can stop Vader, and a contemptuous blast of force hurtles them to their doom.

It seems like it might be disappointing to be reduced down to a mere apprentice after playing the master, but it doesn't feel like you're hobbled, more like you're starting. It's like being given a tasty treat just before dessert.

I should probably mention who you actually are. After Vader kills a Jedi, a small boy picks up the Jedi's lightsaber and cowers in fear. Vader saves the boy (killing a bunch of stormtroopers in the process) and brings him up as his apprentice, a secret apprentice that even the Emperor doesn't know about.

Galen Malek or Starkiller (his Sithier name) is a decent enough main character. He's eager to please his master, and takes to jedi killing quickly, but he's more complex than a killer like Darth Maul, and has a lot of "conflict", as they like to say in Star Wars. He's actually pretty likeable, compared to the paper thin archetypes that usually serve as a protagonist in videogames.

What a pretentious sentence.

Anyway, something else I appreciate. The word "midi-chlorians" is never mentioned, letting The Force return to being magical, mythic, charming and simple again like it should have always been. Similarly there's not a Gungan in sight. Actually that's not quite true. One level has a hunter who has a Gungan. Trapped in carbonite. On the wall. Screaming. I'm ok with that.

It's not all good, though. There are some big problems with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. They're really unfortunate, as they tarnish what was otherwise a great game.

It's hard. I mean... really hard. At several stages the game erects roadblocks of suddenly ramped up difficulty. Enemies that are difficult to kill individually are suddenly in a group of 7. New enemies are introduced that do devastating damage, are immune to force powers, and explode when they die. Enemies suddenly start blocking to a ridiculous degree.

In most cases there are weaknesses to the enemy that can be exploited. A good example is the Pulse troopers, large dark men who look a lot like Dark Samus. Their rockets will take off a third of your health, and a punch combo from them will take half. They block like demons and pick you up and throw you (for about a third of your health) if you get too close. They can't be force pushed, barely staggering, and force grip does nothing. But they're vulnerable to lightning. Zap them, then run in and start an electrical combo for good damage. Rinse and repeat.

Bosses are particularly bad for this. Flurrying with your lightsaber often does nothing at all. You think you're hammering them but a glance at their health bar shows you're not even messing up their hair. They block everything you throw at them, but you don't seem to be able to block at all. Eventually you find something that inexplicably works, so you just have to keep doing that over and over. It takes a lot of the drama and action out of it.

Early on I fought a boss, a maddened Jedi in a scrapyard who was basically a cross between Invader Zim and the Crazy Frog. Yes, I'm serious. I had seemingly no chance to hit him. He ignored my attacks, no matter what I did or how well I seemed to be hitting. But lightning, followed by a force push, blasted the crap out of him. Why?

See! He looks like Invader Zim crossed with the Crazy Frog. Angry Crazy Frog.

These hard sections are strange, because they really get frustrating. The difficulty ramps up, but then eases right back down again. In the meantime, though, you're stuck banging your head against that same place over and over. Die, respawn, die, respawn. Combat isn't helped by the fact that some attacks stun you, leaving you getting stunned and then hit over and over in a standing juggle that gets old real fast.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed prominently features Quicktime events. Quicktime events are strangely popular again thanks to their inclusion in titles like God of War, and developers seem to think they're a good way of showing a cutscene and making you feel like you have a part of it. They are wrong. It's stupid. Just show the damn cutscene, or don't. But stop piss-farting around with making me press X at the right time.

One of the other flaws concerns the previously lauded DMM. Aside from looking shiny and breaking nicely, DMM appears to have the ability to make things slippery. This is a nice feature. But someone seems to have turned the slippery knob on the floors up to 11 in some places. It doesn't affect you when you're walking, but take a hit and you slide along the ground like the puck on an airhockey table. Seriously, about that much. It looks frankly bizarre, and it's frustrating waiting for your body to stop sliding so you can get up, especially when you're surrounded by baddies.

Considerately baddies don't shoot you when you're sliding. They just watch you. So you're sliding along the ground, with enemies staring blankly at you. Then as soon as you finally get up they all open fire, sometimes knocking you to the ground again to resume your world famous puck impression.

It gets old fast.

Blocking is weird. I don't get it. You can stand there holding block and deflect pretty much every incoming blaster shot. But you can't move while blocking. Which is kind of weird. It feels like you should be able to. And you can't block some things you'd think you should. Like lightsabers. Block all you like, you'll get hit regardless. One of the tips on loading suggests that blocking at the right time will automatically counter-attack, but not in my experience.

See, I actually thought "rancor" was also the plural. Apparently not.

There are certain types of things that don't appear to be blockable at all. Particularly thrown objects, including lightsabers. You can't block them. And you can't move out of the way because they track you. And you can't use the force to knock them. What can you do? Um... get hit. That's pretty much your only option, at least as far as I can tell.

One boss lifts a group of objects into the air, then hurls them at you one after another. If you leap up there quickly enough you can Force Repulse (a big area of effect blast) them out of the air. If you're too slow, or you got hit just before they went up and are now sliding along the floor like the granite in a curling match (obscure) you have no hope. You will eat each one. And they will quite possibly kill you.

Another thing that gets frustrating is that there are a few "fall here and you die" places, which I hate in games. It's not common, but it's certainly annoying.

This is a really long review. So here's the conclusion. The Force Unleashed is a lot of fun, and a real step forward for games in general. If all you have is a Wii give it a go on that, but the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are going to be your definitives.

If you like games at all, you'll like The Force Unleashed. It's fun. Buy it now.

Pros

Upsetting my girlfriend by killing her beloved Shaak Ti. RPG elements work very well. A lot of fun. Really good feeling of unstoppable power. Great materials physics and motion. Just plain fun. Start off as Vader!

Cons

Canonical or not? May upset the purists. Quicktime events... NO. Gets unbelievably frustrating at times. Combat turns into mashfests. Later levels get harder than Oracle at a Thai tranny bar. Known characters (vader, etc) don't sound like they should. Sometimes hard to tell where you're supposed to go, or what you're supposed to do. Love interest... why?