Game Review: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition (PC)

So I finally got around to playing and finishing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and boy am I late to the party on this one.  Along with most of the Star Wars loving public (although I haven't read any of the extended universe comics or books), I was excited about this game, which is why I apparently waited so long before picking it up.  Truth be told, I had considered getting it for the DS, if anything to show that I supported the DS platform, but then I saw how it looked (not comparing though) on the PSP and thought, maybe I'll get it on that system instead/too?  Then the sequel came out to less than stellar reviews and I apparently forgot about The Force Unleashed series.  Then the Humble Star Wars Bundle came out and I knew I had to buy the lot for an embarrassing low price.

I had seen a former roommate, we'll call him The Sauce, play the later part of the game, but he was playing it on Jedi or whatever the super difficulty setting is called and going for a completionist run.  Something that I am typically not a fan of doing.  I had apparently forgotten that The Force Unleashed is a God of War clone, in that you play in third person with an active and moveable camera along a linear path and when you kill enemies you absorb both heath/hp and when you level up you are able to learn combos and increase your individual stats.  I was perfectly okay with this too as I had played (although not beaten) God of War: Chains of Sparta back in 2008 and really liked the game.

The biggest thing that I loved about this game, was seeing all of the force powers being used that I had become somewhat familiar with over the years, as well as new (at least for me) variations on familiar powers.

When the game starts, you take control of Darth Vader, which in one aspect is pretty awesome as by this point in the Star Wars chronology, Anakin has been Darth for about 16 years, so he has had plenty of time to get used to how to use the force with his cybernetic body parts in what appears to be a more restrictive suit.  And because it's Darth Vader, you start out fully armed with all of the force powers, but being a player new to the world and controls, you wobble around Kashyyyk killing Wookies like a drunk child who just discovered that they're a fully grown adult who knows how to use the Force.  Again, while this was a great introduction and being able to play an evil Darth Vader slaughtering Wookies left and right, I felt odd because I know I looked like a bumbling idiot instead of the Sith warrior that know Vader is supposed to be.

After the first level, the rest of the game is played as Starkiller as he becomes more attuned to the Force and learns various abilities and combo attacks.  About three quarters of the way through the game, the various points you earn from leveling, which are used for buying stat upgrades, combos and skills, but eventually I just let my points build up for skills and combos because I felt that I had already learned (half-assed memorized) enough button combinations.  It reminded me of currency acquisition in an RPG, that you just reach a certain point where having more money ceases to mean anything.

For the most part, I really liked The Force Unleashed, although there were certain aspects that I was not all together fond of.

My first issue with the game, was that when I first started playing, I had not expected levels to take upwards of an our and-a-half in order to complete.  After I realized that this time commitment would be consistent over the course of the game, I was able to plan to have the necessary time put aside in order to get through one level.  I think I just felt a bit daunted with knowing that in order to get through a single level, that I would have to invest that much time and usually, by the end of the level, I was ready to take a break, which was also the time when I was most invested in the story.

Even speed force dashing through areas didn't shave off much time.

The second thing was that I seemed to experience some kind of sound/audio issue on a couple of the later levels, specifically on Felucia (second time), Raxus Prime and the Death Star.  I have no explanation, but upon starting the level or after reaching a checkpoint, the music would cut out and the sound effects would be muffled.  At first (while on Felucia part II) I thought this was done for dramatic effect, as if something horrible was around the next corner in the vein of horror jump scares, which would be very out of place for The Force Unleashed.  In the case of the Death Star stage, this muted music lasted during the entirety of the first area, which took me about 20 minutes to get through because I apparently take a long time to kill all the enemies before moving on.  It was a little frustrating because I didn't know if it was a hardware issue or a software one.  Plus the composer Jesse Harlin had done a great job writing Star Warsesque music similar enough to John Williams' original score.

The third issue I had, again I am unsure if it was a hardware or software issue, but during both Felucia part II and the Death Star, I experienced significant lag in gameplay and significant framerate issues.  During Felucia II, the problem only lasted a few minutes while taking tunnel from one area to another.  In the Death Star, it lasted from the beginning of the stage all the way through the end.  I didn't have the fps counter up on Steam while playing, so I can't give an accurate framerate count, but it definitely felt like it was somewhere between 10 and 15 fps.  With a game like The Force Unleashed where you are constantly avoiding enemy attacks (both ranged and melee) and trying to perform combos and using various force powers at the right time to maximize efficiency, having the game skip/lag/what-have-you is exceedingly frustrating.

I'm totally winning right?  Yes?  No?  I can't tell from here.

And having the game skip/lag while fighting the Emperor with a camera that only rotates left to right is even more frustrating.  You cannot see Starkiller at all here, but you can just barely make out his lightsaber clashing against the staff of one of the Emperor's Shadow Guards.  I also happened to find myself stuck between two of those black diamond pointy things (yay English) so all I could do was button mash and move the control stick around frantically until I became visible again; while still avoiding projectiles from the Emperor.  The stationary camera during boss battles was a little annoying, but I found that, for the most part, it was pretty manageable so I will not complain about that aspect of the game.

Overall I thought the costumes designed for the characters and the pre-A New Hope world were all very good.  The one exception was for that of Empire pilot Juno Eclipse.

Outfit #4 I feel would be the most appropriate outfit for Juno seeing as how she is appointed by Darth Vader to shuttle Starkiller around the galaxy and as a secret agent.  Since she's still an "employee" of the Empire, I would assume that she would dress as such, or maybe I'm just old fashioned.  However, the outfit she wears throughout the entire game (forgot to bring a change of clothes?) is outfit #5.  I thought, yes, we know she's a woman, do we need the top-of-the-boob-service to be reminded of that fact?  And the fact that she is just the right age to create an unneeded (and brief) romantic interest for Starkiller?  It was a little too cheesy for my cheese loving tastes.  At least she didn't have the Miranda butt going on.

The last thing that I had an issue with was how short the story seemed to be and how fast events seemed to happen.  By the end of the game, it was revealed that the Emperor's plan the entire game was for Starkiller to feel betrayed by Darth Vader and the Emperor by having him killed off, but then saved by Darth Vader in a decoy (and false) plan to kill the Emperor, so that Starkiller could root out who the powerful enemies of the Empire were (what would become the rebellion in Star Wars IV - VI).  Maybe it was because Starkiller was more of the action side rather than the diplomatic side of the formation of the Rebellion, but I felt that the missions had little impact on the actual formation.  Sure, Starkiller had to go and save Senator Organa from the Empire, then save his adoptive daughter Leia Organa as a sign that he really was trustworthy.  Then at the end, you find out that everyone went ahead and got them selves captured again, which you go ahead and save and during the final mission.  And while the family crest of the Marek is used to be what is now known as the symbol representing the Rebel Alliance.

When the Marek family crest is introduced in the game, in the first level, I felt like, "Oh hey, it's something to do with the rebels!"  Then when it became clear that this symbol was known as a crest of the Marek family, my thought changed to, "Wait, families have crests/symbols in the Star Wars universe?  Since when?"  Maybe they did before this point and I have just been unobservant.   I do not recall seeing a crest for the Skywalker family or the Organa family or the Kenobi family.  The way that the Marek family crest came about in the game for the rebels to rally behind however seemed very sudden, like "Hey we need some symbol to rally behind.  How about this one right here?  Yeah, let's do that."  It was just about that quick, with maybe a couple additional lines of dialogue, but not too many more.

"That one looks good!"

So, despite all of the negative things that I have had to say about the game, I thought it was a lot of fun.  The gameplay was solid for the most part and despite the sound/lag/fps issues, I would recommend the game to fans of the Star Wars universe.  Additionally, despite the fact that Disney has turned the game and expanded universe stories from being cannon to being "Legends," that does not take away from the story that is being told here.  Especially when dealing with prequels, you already know ahead of time that certain elements have to remain in tact in order for the original series to not be completely destroyed (Darth Vader, the Emperor, Princess Leia all cannot die so anything conflict involving them is kind of moot since they are all alive up to Return of the Jedi).  I also felt that there was no explanation as to why there would be no mention about either Starkiller or the Malek family from any of the Rebel Alliance in the future movies (obviously because the character hadn't been created yet).

But again, I am indeed looking forward to playing the apparently less than stellar (eh?) The Force Unleashed II to at least see where the story goes after the events in the first game.  I still had a lot of fun using the best example of Force powers in any Star Wars game that I've played to date.  And I mean, it is not every game that lets you pull an Imperial Star Destroyer out of the sky and into a city (although that level was a pain in my ass until I found out I could take down Tie Fighters with Force Lightning instead of trying to grab them and tossing them at each other or using other floating debris).

And those controller command prompts were not 100% accurate either.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
We Serve Thee Henceforth No More

It was quite a rush though.