1977. One of my earliest memories of going to the movies was when my dad loaded us into the car during the school holidays and took us to the local drive-in to see a movie like no other before it.  Star Wars.  My world would never be the same.  From the very next day I was fighting with my brother and friends; “I’m Han Solo!  You can be Luke.” I would not surrender to resistance. “Well if Luke is better, you can be him then, I am Han.” Then if they persisted, the ultimate put down; “You can be the Princess then!”  This film and its two sequels captured a generation’s imagination and gave us a trilogy that to this day is still without equal.  These two words were symbolic of premium storytelling that would fill all and sundry with a sense of wonder and awe.  That is until 1999, when we were introduced to two new words; Episode One.  Sadly from that point on, the name Star Wars was not what it used to be.

So now it is with me that anything with the name Star Wars generates feelings of scepticism and doubt.  Needless to say as the hype machine revved into top gear for the franchise’s next game; Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, my expectations were low.  Can it make us feel like an all powerful Jedi and forget Episodes 1, 2 and 3?  Yes and no.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed tells a story set between the events of the new trilogy’s final instalment Revenge of the Sith and the original classic Star Wars.  It is a story of a secret Jedi apprentice to Darth Vader named Starkiller whose existence is unknown to the Emperor.  In the prologue level of the game you play as Lord Vader himself on the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk and learn how his path crossed with young Starkiller.  For the remainder of the game you play as the powerful young apprentice as your master assigns you the task of ridding the galaxy of every last remaining Jedi.  One of the highlights is the voice acting, particularly Starkiller and a few of the Jedi you encounter along the way are very convincing.  Some of these early cut scenes have a classic Star Wars feel and are enjoyable to watch as the story progresses.  Without giving away any spoilers you can also expect to encounter some familiar faces from the films.  Your verdict on the story will probably depend on your expectations; if you look at it as a video game narrative then it is a solid effort.  If you were expecting something to rival the original films or provide redemption for the last three then I would caution you on setting yourself up for disappointment in the future.

The game did meet one of my expectations very early in the piece; playing as Darth Vader and then Starkiller through the first few levels you do get the feeling of being a totally evil Jedi bastard who will stop at nothing to accomplish a mission.  The first deliciously all conquering moment was Vader lifting a massive Wookiee off the ground by the throat and tossing away like a ragdoll.  Equally ruthless was Starkiller’s finishing move on wounded enemies impaling them to the ground where they lay with his lightsaber. All of this rebel scum massacring by way of force powers or lightsaber thrusts is complimented in the animation of Starkiller.    The visual representation of each force power is excellent and emphasises how powerful your character is.  As a whole though the game is a mixed bag graphically; there is a lot of detail in the environments and character models but just lack a certain polish, nearly everything on screen has a shiny finish which does detract from its presentation.  The artwork for all of the game worlds is excellent, they all feel like they are plucked straight from a Star Wars movie set and really enhance the atmosphere of each level.  Cut scenes are not a strong point in the eye candy department, the characters’ faces all lack detail and look unfinished.  But enough about visuals how does the game play?

SW: TFU is a story driven single player only campaign with each level requiring you traverse a linear path dispatching hordes of enemies along the way with some occasional basic puzzles to break up the action.  You’ll encounter some ‘mini bosses’ during levels including Rancors (Jabba’s large nasty dungeon creature from Return of the Jedi) and AT-ST walkers to name a couple.  Each level will culminate with a boss battle comprising mostly of rival Jedis.  You start the game with limited force powers and a couple of lightsaber combos, as you defeat enemies you earn force points which allow you over time to level up your character and spend on increasing your powers and unlocking new combos.  Killing your enemies in more impressive and varied fashion rewards you with more force points so there is incentive to constantly learning new moves and increasing your repertoire of attacks.  One discouraging feature though is there is a plethora of lightsaber and force power combos to unlock which are completed with a series of button combinations; you won’t really remember more than a handful at any one time but checking how you perform a certain combo is cumbersome.  You have to hit the select button, choose the combo menu then wait for a load screen and then scroll through all the combos with very similar names to find the ones you want.  Then after committing to memory you have to reverse the menu navigation process to get back to playing, it does get quite annoying and the game could have done with a fast menu option for just checking your combos.

From very early in the game you are decimating rooms of enemies as you push, lift and throw opponents and objects around the environment with the power of your mind or discharge lightning from your fingertips.  To mix it up a bit, you can get up close and personal with your trusty lightsaber and get all hack and slash on their arse.  One of the highlights of the game are the early boss battles, they truly feel like a movie moment as two Jedis face off in a clash of titans.  You are constantly probing and defending and need to experiment with all your abilities to find each individual opponent’s weakness.  These moments feel more like a top notch fighting game such as Soul Calibur or Streetfighter than your standard boss battle.  Quite often you will both strike at the same time, lightsabers will clash and you will retreat to regroup and launch another assault.  It is thrilling white knuckle action that any Star Wars nut will love.  Even a god awful decision on camera angles for some of these battles is not enough to detract from the experience.

After completing probably half of the game my impressions were very positive and was eagerly anticipating the culmination of this story.  Unfortunately the second half of the game did not continue in the same fashion, in fact the remainder was spent neutering my arse-kicking-all-and-sundry-Jedi’s awe inspiring arsenal by making the enemies particularly the Jedi bosses, impervious to my Force attacks which left me only to wade in repeatedly with jumping lightsaber flurries.  There is a massive increase in the amount of Quick Time Events (push the right button sequences) which had been used sparingly in the early stages and the last handful of boss battles make a departure from the spectacular showdowns of earlier and become a grind.  Late in the game you face a challenge of a nature different from a Jedi battle that is incredibly frustrating as you are given an on screen indication to perform a certain type of control action but then the instruction disappears making you think you have completed the task when in reality further finessing is required.  I know of a few people who were caught out with this little gem.  Last but not least I found on the final level that enemies you have been treating with complete disdain for the entire game have now been granted ‘aimbot lock-on’ and can shoot you from a ridiculous distance regardless of how much lateral manoeuvring you perform to try and counter their new found marksmanship.  The game itself is not particularly long either, I was able to finish it over the course of two days play and that was with wasting between an hour or two with the aforementioned boss battle.

On the achievement side, I was able to rack up 450 points on a single play through and that was without trying to get a single one.  If one was to cast an eye regularly on the available list a much higher score could be obtained in the same amount of time.  One important note is the difficulty achievements do stack (if you finish on medium difficulty, you will get the easy one as well).  Sadly once again there are no Trophies for the PS3 version.

Ultimately your opinion of the experience will come down to your expectations for not only the game but also any efforts from this once storied franchise as a whole.  The Force Unleashed was a lot of fun to play and I’m sure any die hard Star Wars fan will enjoy it.  I was just left wanting more.