PREVIEW: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

David Hollingworth can kill you with the power of his mind. No, really... why are you laughing?

We recently had the chance to sit down and play the first few levels of the latest Star Wars epic, the Force Unleashed with our buds out at Activision. To say that we approached the game with some trepidation was somewhat of understatement; our opinions of the game had been super strong based on initial news and trailers, but after seeing a live demo a month or two ago, we felt a little... underwhelmed. It seemed awfully frenetic, a little too busy to have that real ‘Star Wars feel’. Like Too Human this month, it seemed too much like God of War and less like the gritty Star Wars action titles of the past, like Dark Forces and Jedi Knight.

Still, it’s impossible – for us at least – to actually sit down in front of a Star Wars game and not feel that first little thrill of excitement as the music blares over the top of that now iconic text crawl. This one informs you that Darth Vader is still up to his Jedi hunting tricks, this time trying to hunt down one of the last of the Jedi, hiding amongst the still cranky Wookies of the arboreal planet Kasshyyk.

And then you get to play him.

As a gambit to show you the full potential of the Dark side of the Force, there are few more appropriate options. And potential there is, as Vader barely needs to even raise his lightsaber to defeat his enemies, the hordes of leaping and pouncing Wookies that stand between you and your prey. You can push them aside with ease, pick them up like, well, rag dolls and smash them together, and you barely ever run out of force energy (the game’s mana equivalent, and staple of Star Wars games since Dark Forces: Jedi Knight).

And if a few random Stormtroopers happen to get in your way, well, there’s more my friend where that came from.

However, the phenomenal cosmic power doesn’t last that long – once you best that first Jedi in a pretty destructive boss fight, Vader discovers what he was hiding. The Jedi had a son, even more powerful in the ways of the force, and once the Jedi is dead Vader takes him as his apprentice. Starkiller, as he is known, is the main character for the rest of game, and he’s a pretty good antagonist. Funny enough to remind you that this is a Star Wars game after all, but still grimly set on the path his master, Vader, has declared for him.
Grim, yes, but oh, oh so pretty...

The truth is that having now played the game, I really cannot wait to get back to it, and September is a long bloody time away! Now, a part of that is of course that this is simply one of the prettiest games we’ve played in a long time, but a bigger pull – for a Star Wars fan, anyway – is that it really does have that epic feel to it. And not just in the gameplay, either (though, we do admit, the first time we blew a TIE Fighter to pieces using nothing more than the POWER OF OUR MIND we may have a giggled maniacally). No, the story, too is suitably wide in scope; Vader is training his apprentice so that they can one day take on the Emperor, which was exactly what Vader wanted to do with Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. Knowing that you’re a part of that great tale is pretty neat.

Starkiller isn’t alone, either, as he jaunts about the galaxy at his master’s whim. His personal driod, Proxy, is a fun guy tasked with both keeping him up to date on his latest missions but also with occasionally ambushing and trying to kill him – you know, just to keep him in tip-top shape. Vader’s apprentice also has a personal pilot, an ambitious young Imperial officer who is not at all surprised that she is just one of many pilots that Starkiller has used; nor is she surprised that most have met a sticky end. Even Starkiller’s targets are interesting, like Rahm Kota, your first target in the game.

He’s been attacking Imperial facilities for some time, hoping to draw Vader out into a confrontation. To say that he’s disappointed that Vader’s apprentice has come in his stead is an understatement, but it’s a nice story-telling touch that only makes you want to beat him that much more. The game is filled with these little nuances that help you get into the anger-is-good mode of the Dark side.
And, of course, it’s not all sore on the eyes.

The brilliant combination of the Havok physics engine and Digital Molecular Matter simply cannot be overstressed. All of those videos of Stormtroopers holding hands as you try to fling them about might have looked a bit funny, but it rarely happens in the game. It can, but the pacing of the game makes it more of an aside than a feature – a stunning technical achievement of an aside, yes, but not the focus of the action. Rather, you’re able to stride down corridors, flinging control panels, pushing aside barriers and other cover, arcing lightning into the environment and then throwing it at your enemies... the sheer combinations of things to do and ways to do them is almost boggling. The frame rate, even at this stage, is super solid on the 360, and the environments we looked at either free of drop-in or well-designed enough so that it’s never noticed.

Behind the graphics, there’s also a robust system for customising Starkiller. Like in Jedi Knight, as you level you earn points to spend on skills, such as powering up your Force Push power. You can also learn a variety of new combos, or boost things like your hitpoints or the rate at which your Force energy regenerates. Add to that unlockable or findable assets like new costumes, coloured gems for your lightsaber and other goodies, and this is a game rich with possibilities to play how you want to play.

The controls play well, too, and are also suggestive that simply hacking away with your saber is not the prime way to face down your enemies. The controls combine well, so that you can use the trigger to lift something, then move it with your thumbsticks; if you want to throw it, simply point a stick in the direction you want to throw and release the trigger. With just a little practice, we were flinging enemies literally over our shoulder, or simply bring them closer so that they could be impaled on the elegant Jedi weapon of choice.

You may have already worked this out (and we did give it away somewhere up near the first paragraph) but we really can’t wait to get back into Starkiller’s dark Jedi shoes. We’re expecting some very good things – once again – from The Force Unleashed, and we’re now expecting it to deliver.

Anticipation rating: 8.5/10