May the fourth be with you! Haha! Even though it’s a tired
joke and I’m about a week late… Anyways, I was a little late in getting “into”
Star Wars, and though I’m not sure I’d consider myself among the fans yet
(considering how much some people I know are into it) I gotta just say that
it’s a fandom that is well deserved. Even as old as I was watching the original
trilogy for the first time, I wanted MORE. Luckily, that is not hard to find
now a days, with many comic books, TV Shows, books, board games, video games
and tons of other media based on it (sorry if I’ve opened that fresh “expanded canon”
wound for anyone). Now when it comes to people wanting to be “in” Star Wars,
one of the first things I hear (along with light sabers) is how they would use
the force. Well here’s a game with a title promising just that: Star Wars: The
Force Unleashed for (among many others) the Nintendo Wii.
This game takes place between the original trilogy and the
prequels. The game starts with Darth Vader searching the Wookie home world for
remaining Jedi and discovering an abandoned child he can sense is strong in the
Force. He decides to raise him as his own keeping him a secret from Emperor
Palpatine (cause as Episode 3 shows Anakin can “take care” of kids). We learn
that Vader’s ultimate goal is to assassinate the Emperor and rule the galaxy
with the child called “Starkiller” (a name that would be “trying too hard” in a
universe where the main character isn’t named “Skywalker”). Or Vader claims.
However when Palpatine orders Vader to kill his apprentice, Starkiller is
knocked into space, where two secretly dispatched droids save him. Starkiller
meets up with one of the Jedi that he had previously fought with, where he
learns of the Jedi way while traveling throughout the galaxy.
What really holds the story is that there is a whole lot of
ambiguity to some of the character’s motivations. As previously mentioned,
Vader said he wanted Starkiller by his side to rule the universe, but later
attempts to kill him. He saves Starkiller, but it’s never clear if he actually
intends to share the rule at all. And what about Starkiller? He aligned himself
with the Rebellion, but still kept in touch with Vader. Is he seeking revenge,
or will he change sides? Even after the game is done, it’s hard to say what the
characters wanted. The big disappointment is that there are two endings, and
without activating a spoiler alarms, they are the “good” and “less good” endings.
I would have liked a few more options.
Star Wars: the Force Unleashed can really only be put under
the vague category of “action adventure game”. Starkiller is sent to various
planets in order to walk around and destroy so and so. However, you’re just
waiting for me to talk about the light saber and the Force, aren’t you? This
game has an upgrading system and with each new ability you unlock, you might find
a new power you enjoy more. The bad thing is that the Force makes combat kind
of dull and repetitive for the this reason: you might as well stick to what
works, and what works is grabbing one person and slamming them into the others
like curling rocks over and over. Yeah, it’s cool to be able to use the Force
and the destructible stages do give you some freedom of creativity (anything
that reminds me of Freedom Force is cool), but it can get dull. Later on in the
game, they’ll try to overwhelm you with enemies to maybe even things out, but
then it becomes infuriating as you’re so used to playing a certain way, it
feels unfair when you can’t do it.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed isn’t a great game, but it
functions well enough and does what needed to be done. The Wii version has some
control issues with forced motion controls, but at the same time doing a motion
for a force push and having it knock a room full of guys on their ass is so
satisfying. There are also God of War inspired quick time events with cut
scenes, and they’re cool for what they were, but there are FAR too many here.
The game play has some issues, but given what they wanted you to be able to do
in this game, Lucasarts might have painted themselves in a corner. The story is
good to me in its mysterious character motivations, but I can see how other
might think it’s more like they just aren’t fully realized. However, at the end
of the day, I just can’t say that there is anything terribly flawed about this
game, and it does have a few cool aspects that really won me over. Its story is
placed between the original Star Wars trilogy and the prequel films, and that’s
kind of where its level of quality is placed too: mediocre, but nothing
insulting. I give Star Wars the Force Unleashed 7 levels out of 10.
