In what is becoming a reoccurring trend, I have been met with yet another disappointment in the video game realm. Maybe watching so much Zero Punctuation has altered my view on video games somewhat over time, but it seems like I can't play a game anymore without absolutely tearing it apart in my mind on the first play-through. Or maybe games are becoming this bad as a socially accepted norm, like eyeshadow on boys and tight pants. This is the fourth game in a row that has garnered negative attention from me: ladies and gentlemen, I bring you the kings of quick time events and repetition: LucasArts!
Let me start immediately and get this over with. I would go into the vomit worthy story, but I'll mention that at the end.
The graphics are still beautiful, despite the fact that a large portion of the game now takes place in stale Empire facilities. The environmental diversity from the first game has been ditched for a darker feel, but it doesn't do the game itself any justice. Corridor, corridor, oh look a door! Yay, we get to go outside! Oh...it's raining...That is the basic template for the the entire very short campaign. Other than a few mishaps within the world's geometry, it still runs smoothly and the collision detection is still decent.
When the first Force Unleashed was released, I was excited by what I saw. I'm not a hardcore Star Wars fan, so I don't care much about the story and how much it was butchered. I get to do with the Force as I please and wreck everything. The scene where you bring down a Star Destroyer by yourself with your bare hands gave me chills, and was something I could not have possibly predicted. The first game wasn't without its problems, but it definitely kept you on your toes. For those of you that have conquered the first game, you will find far less innovation in the gameplay here. The extent of manipulative environment is drastically reduced from the first game.
In fact, I believe that they purposely dumbed down the game to cater to the magnificent morons who can't tie their own shoes in the morning without lighting their house on fire. The upgrade system is not nearly as complicated, and you can use all of your powers at the beginning, so what else could they do but simplify it? That was rhetorical by the way. Upgrade trees that allow you to choose what kind of jedi combatant you want to be would much improve the currently stale system. Instead, from the beginning to the endgame, you're a jack-of-all trades, but your powers never feel as though you've put them to their fullest use, so why bother upgrading the powers to begin with?
Maybe if there were more than ten enemies attacking me at a time, I would feel like the Force had some more strategic use. For a massive Empire facility, there are so few troopers guarding the place! Walk into a room, find three standing around...maybe if you get lucky you'll face five troopers and two walkers at the same time! Golly gee, talk about a difficulty curve! I was sweating my arse off through every fight trying to hold my own against these bumbling idiots.
The unit variety of the enemy doesn't really make the game more difficult, since the AI is already incredibly dimwitted. Really, its just a way to extend the game and break up the none-too-subtle monotony around you. It came across as annoying most of the time, as the rock-paper-scissors feeling of pokemon suddenly sprang to mind. Hit this one with your saber. Shock that one with lightning, no don't swing that that one numbskull, he can block your saber and your Force powers at the same time! It's asinine.
Perhaps they thought adding a second lightsaber was all well and good for innovation. Maybe they thought that the Jedi Mind Trick - while good for a few laughs - was a genius mechanic. Maybe they thought the first game was so good that they didn't believe they should try to outdo themselves. Maybe they thought dismemberment could save them. I have no clue, but I bring you to the most aggravating issues there are here: Quick time events, and the story itself.
The first game was plagued with interactive QTEs, but at least they were awesome QTEs. Who wouldn't like crumpling an AT-ST into a tiny ball, after all? I certainly found it at the very least entertaining. Now, even the quick time events are boring. Perhaps this wouldn't have been so bad had they considered doing multiple QTEs per individual enemy while toning down the overwhelming Awesome. Instead, its the same ones over and over again, and it gets fairly tiresome fairly quickly. The boss fights suffer because of this too. The QTEs here are lame and unexciting. In fact, the boss fights themselves are lame and unexciting. Yes, the spectacle is nice, but its the same "predict this move, dodge, attack" that we've all seen before.
Yes, the above baddie looks unholy, but the fight against it is painfully easy.
And now, the story. SPOILER ALERT.
Why in God's name would you attempt to clone a Jedi that nearly killed you before? What do you have to gain from it? If you're already exceedingly powerful, why not just crush the rebellion yourself you lazy bastard? Darth Vader, you are no longer cool in my book, and you can blame it on LucasArts for turning you into an empty antagonist.
Next on the list is butchering the timeline of Star Wars. Yes, I mentioned I don't particularly mind if you stretch the truth a little, but this is over the top. First of all, apparently the Dark Side ending literally kills the alliance forever, including Han Solo, Chewbacca, and others. For some reason, Luke Skywalker died in the battle of Hoth, and the evil Starkiller marches across the galaxy destroying everything. The good Starkiller dies in the final scene, game over man.
The good ending made me laugh. Not because it actually managed to be humorous, but because it was incredibly short sighted. First off, Juno was dead, so why does she spontaneously come back to life in Starkiller's arms? This simple failure completely erases the weight of the rest of the scene, when Starkiller tells Vader "I let you live, I've broken your hold over me, etc." To which Vader replies "As long as she is alive, I will control you." Okay, first off, Juno is alive and you're going to be executed, so it doesn't matter what you feel like you can control. And Starkiller, its no longer a big deal that you let Vader live, since Juno somehow lives anyway.
And why doesn't the "perfect clone" show up in the good ending and kill them all anyway? As if Starkiller's decision to spare Vader somehow slowed down the perfect Sith clone's arrival time.
This game is a blight on humanity in my opinion. It ruined the concept of the Force Unleashed. Wreck stuff with the Force, and screw the dark, angsty plotlines in favor of classic Star Wars formula story-telling.
LucasArts, please don't make a sequel to this. Unless you're going to blow your other two games out of the water, don't ruin Star Wars any more than you have.
Let me start immediately and get this over with. I would go into the vomit worthy story, but I'll mention that at the end.
The graphics are still beautiful, despite the fact that a large portion of the game now takes place in stale Empire facilities. The environmental diversity from the first game has been ditched for a darker feel, but it doesn't do the game itself any justice. Corridor, corridor, oh look a door! Yay, we get to go outside! Oh...it's raining...That is the basic template for the the entire very short campaign. Other than a few mishaps within the world's geometry, it still runs smoothly and the collision detection is still decent.
When the first Force Unleashed was released, I was excited by what I saw. I'm not a hardcore Star Wars fan, so I don't care much about the story and how much it was butchered. I get to do with the Force as I please and wreck everything. The scene where you bring down a Star Destroyer by yourself with your bare hands gave me chills, and was something I could not have possibly predicted. The first game wasn't without its problems, but it definitely kept you on your toes. For those of you that have conquered the first game, you will find far less innovation in the gameplay here. The extent of manipulative environment is drastically reduced from the first game.
In fact, I believe that they purposely dumbed down the game to cater to the magnificent morons who can't tie their own shoes in the morning without lighting their house on fire. The upgrade system is not nearly as complicated, and you can use all of your powers at the beginning, so what else could they do but simplify it? That was rhetorical by the way. Upgrade trees that allow you to choose what kind of jedi combatant you want to be would much improve the currently stale system. Instead, from the beginning to the endgame, you're a jack-of-all trades, but your powers never feel as though you've put them to their fullest use, so why bother upgrading the powers to begin with?
Maybe if there were more than ten enemies attacking me at a time, I would feel like the Force had some more strategic use. For a massive Empire facility, there are so few troopers guarding the place! Walk into a room, find three standing around...maybe if you get lucky you'll face five troopers and two walkers at the same time! Golly gee, talk about a difficulty curve! I was sweating my arse off through every fight trying to hold my own against these bumbling idiots.
The unit variety of the enemy doesn't really make the game more difficult, since the AI is already incredibly dimwitted. Really, its just a way to extend the game and break up the none-too-subtle monotony around you. It came across as annoying most of the time, as the rock-paper-scissors feeling of pokemon suddenly sprang to mind. Hit this one with your saber. Shock that one with lightning, no don't swing that that one numbskull, he can block your saber and your Force powers at the same time! It's asinine.
Perhaps they thought adding a second lightsaber was all well and good for innovation. Maybe they thought that the Jedi Mind Trick - while good for a few laughs - was a genius mechanic. Maybe they thought the first game was so good that they didn't believe they should try to outdo themselves. Maybe they thought dismemberment could save them. I have no clue, but I bring you to the most aggravating issues there are here: Quick time events, and the story itself.
The first game was plagued with interactive QTEs, but at least they were awesome QTEs. Who wouldn't like crumpling an AT-ST into a tiny ball, after all? I certainly found it at the very least entertaining. Now, even the quick time events are boring. Perhaps this wouldn't have been so bad had they considered doing multiple QTEs per individual enemy while toning down the overwhelming Awesome. Instead, its the same ones over and over again, and it gets fairly tiresome fairly quickly. The boss fights suffer because of this too. The QTEs here are lame and unexciting. In fact, the boss fights themselves are lame and unexciting. Yes, the spectacle is nice, but its the same "predict this move, dodge, attack" that we've all seen before.
Yes, the above baddie looks unholy, but the fight against it is painfully easy.
And now, the story. SPOILER ALERT.
Why in God's name would you attempt to clone a Jedi that nearly killed you before? What do you have to gain from it? If you're already exceedingly powerful, why not just crush the rebellion yourself you lazy bastard? Darth Vader, you are no longer cool in my book, and you can blame it on LucasArts for turning you into an empty antagonist.
Next on the list is butchering the timeline of Star Wars. Yes, I mentioned I don't particularly mind if you stretch the truth a little, but this is over the top. First of all, apparently the Dark Side ending literally kills the alliance forever, including Han Solo, Chewbacca, and others. For some reason, Luke Skywalker died in the battle of Hoth, and the evil Starkiller marches across the galaxy destroying everything. The good Starkiller dies in the final scene, game over man.
The good ending made me laugh. Not because it actually managed to be humorous, but because it was incredibly short sighted. First off, Juno was dead, so why does she spontaneously come back to life in Starkiller's arms? This simple failure completely erases the weight of the rest of the scene, when Starkiller tells Vader "I let you live, I've broken your hold over me, etc." To which Vader replies "As long as she is alive, I will control you." Okay, first off, Juno is alive and you're going to be executed, so it doesn't matter what you feel like you can control. And Starkiller, its no longer a big deal that you let Vader live, since Juno somehow lives anyway.
And why doesn't the "perfect clone" show up in the good ending and kill them all anyway? As if Starkiller's decision to spare Vader somehow slowed down the perfect Sith clone's arrival time.
This game is a blight on humanity in my opinion. It ruined the concept of the Force Unleashed. Wreck stuff with the Force, and screw the dark, angsty plotlines in favor of classic Star Wars formula story-telling.
LucasArts, please don't make a sequel to this. Unless you're going to blow your other two games out of the water, don't ruin Star Wars any more than you have.
