Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Review PS3

For those of us who have played many of the Star Wars games that have come out over the years over many consoles, there have been very few Star Wars games that achieve greatness. Star Wars the Force Unleashed attempts to reach that plateau of greatness, but fails on a few points. The Force Unleashed is not a bad game, but is missing a certain polish with the camera angles and the overall balance between the player and the enemies that prevents the player from achieving the satisfaction of being one of the most powerful wielders of the Force. The overall story consists of the player known as Starkiller is taken in as Darth Vader’s apprentice to overthrow the emperor and through numerous plot twists is allowed one of two possible endings with one continuing on to an expansion pack and the other being the canon ending.

Graphic and sound:

Star Wars the Force Unleashed has average graphics for a next generation game. The game varies the environment by placing the player in different exotic locales, which is a nice switch from some of the other previous games that focused on the same boring locales and repetitious textures. The character animations and ragdoll physics are enjoyable when launching storm troopers into the air and into objects. The physics when grabbing and throwing items is mostly accurate, but can become frustrating at times when the wrong item or no item is selected in the heat of battle. The other minor complaint is that when crushing doors, they all crush in the same manner, which takes away from the realism and immersion. The sound effects are excellent as are the voiceovers of Starkiller and Darth Vader. This is a game that needs to be played in surround sound to truly experience the audio.

Gameplay and controls:

The Star Wars the Force Unleashed gameplay is based on a 3^rd person perspective camera with free range of motion to rotate the view completely around the player. The player has abilities such as Force lightning, Force push, Force grip, and use of the lightsaber. The Havok physics engine creates an entertaining environment in which to launch objects and enemies everywhere. The problem with the game is the balance between enemies and the player. As the player gets stronger, so do the enemies, which creates an environment where the player never feels as they have become a truly powerful wielder of the Force. By the end of the game, the player should be as powerful as Darth Vader and instead they have approximately the same strength as in the beginning of the game as an apprentice.

Overall thoughts:

Star Wars the Force Unleashed is a decent game, but the balance issues make the player feel as if nothing was accomplished and the character is just as weak as in the beginning of the game. The game looks great and sounds great, but I would definitely just rent it rather than add it to any collection as it is a flawed game in a series that should have been perfected by now.