The Force Unleashed- not KOTOR

[Yassen]

Well, it's only been out for a couple of days but in that time I've already beaten it twice, finished all the side-missions and wondering to myself, "Is this all?" Perhaps my expectations were too high. After all, hype has killed more than one game, we all know that. Yet if you do some research you'll find Lucas Arts didn't overhype any part of this game. So why do i feel slightly empty inside? Let's find out.

To get the juices flowing, let's talk about the plot. You start the game as the big cheese, the black-garbed icon of fear that is Darth Vader. Your mission; to find a jedi being protected by an army of wookies and, to remind you which side you're on, kill him.

For those of you who spend weeks of your time racking in achievements this game is a god-sent to you. I had not even finished this prologue and already i had scored 5 achievements with only a faint idea of why the game thought i deserved them. Apparently slaughtering hundreds of wookies using only the most basic ability (force push duh) deserves some sort of reward...

Anyway, you fight and effortlessly kill the jedi. Now, in the trailers i watched mind-blowing acrobatics and force abilities executed against bosses and thought to myself "i can not wait to do those." To my utter shock, while they're still present, turns out the only way to pull them off and kill a boss is to partake in a quick-time event.

Now there's nothing inherently bad about quick-time events, but when there's no other way to kill a boss and when the game takes over the best bits it feels like the game has become the schoolyard bully who eats the favourite bits of your lunch and leaves only the ricecakes for you to nibble on. Are you meant to feel grateful or pissed?

So the years go by as 'Starkiller' is trained to be a Sith. With his training complete, you're given the first mission as well as being introduced to a homicidal droid who starkiller still keeps with him for some reason and of course the predictable love interest. Perhaps the most disappointing part of this game (to me at least) is the lack of depth in the characters, nay the story itself. Even as i neared the end of the game i thought to myself, "who is this guy I'm running around?"

Perhaps like many others I've been spoiled. To be honest, I am guilty of thinking this game would be KOTOR if it was set between episodes III and IV and with much better fighting. The lack of depth and player input left me feeling excluded from the story and that's something I had so loved in games like KOTOR and mass effect.

Yet, It's not a complete waste of money. The basic combat was thoroughly enjoyable and intuitive. You'll quickly get the hang of picking up stormtroopers and throwing them out into space. But I speak only from experience with the xbox so if you want to know what's its like with the wii I'm sure someone below will describe it.

Also, unlike KOTOR or mass effect there is next to no choice. The only choice you do get is right at the end where you either condemn yourself to an ironic fate or die...hmmmmmm. Still, the story fills in the blanks between episode 3 and 4 and i did enjoy knowing how the rebellion started but somehow I feel that's all the game has to offer besides only a fairly satisfying combat system.

Maybe I'm just addicted to RPGs but i felt this game could have been improved by giving the player input, such as dialogue choice. Also, while the ship is cool you never actually go in it and it serves no purpose than an explaination of how your character gets to places. Actually letting you choose where you want to go and walk around inside the ship really made it feel like it belonged to you in KOTOR, yet Lucas Arts still thought that a mission system would be better which is baffling.

In the end, force unleashed is a game I could only recommend renting since you'll finish it in a day or two anyway. But now that one high-profile game has been released, let's hope mirror's edge and Fable 2 don't let us down. We're counting on you Molyneux!

Note: constructive criticism appreciated, Thanks for reading.

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

Pretty good. I liked it, not too ranty not too brief.

 

[Humanfishboy]

Good review, informative and fair without being overtly ranty (although I wasn't too fond of the school bully analogy, I'm just not a simile fan though)

To review your review - 8/10

 

[GloatingSwine]

So, a third person action brawler isn't a dialogue heavy RPG?

No shit sherlock! Seriously, why the fuck are you drawing comparisons in gameplay style between games that aren't even attempting to do the same thing? What's your next review going to be? Quake: Not Tetris?

 

[Janus Vesta]

He means KoToR is regarded as one of the best StarWars games, if not the best. And from the demo it feels like a step down from any recent StarWars I compare it to. The story isn't as intriguing as KoTor, the gameplay isn't as fun as Battlefront and the characters aren't as likable as Republic Commando.

But it was only published by LucasArts so I'm not surprised.

 

[The Lyre]

So, a third person action brawler isn't a dialogue heavy RPG?

No shit sherlock! Seriously, why the fuck are you drawing comparisons in gameplay style between games that aren't even attempting to do the same thing? What's your next review going to be? Quake: Not Tetris?

It seems you have difficulties with your reading comprehension - let me help you out;

Perhaps like many others I've been spoiled. To be honest, I am guilty of thinking this game would be KOTOR if it was set between episodes III and IV and with much better fighting. The lack of depth and player input left me feeling excluded from the story and that's something I had so loved in games like KOTOR and mass effect.

His point, is thus;

1. Character depth and high level of player input worked very well in game A.

2. It could be easily transferred into game B.

3. It would improve game B.

4. It should, therefore, be included in game B.

Contstructive criticism only, please, "No shit Sherlock", is not constructive.

I personally believed that this was a fair, well written, and helpful review - I've been very wary of this game since the demo, so I have found this particularly helpful in whether or not I purchase; it looks like I'll be renting.

Either that, or getting the novel.

Cheers Yassen, good review.

 

[Yassen]

Thanks for the compliments everyone.

On a side note i should probably mention the enviroments. They're well done, possessing a clear structure so you always know where to go, but sometimes the platforming is rather dodgy and so much will be going on the game lags something fierce.

Also the enemies and bosses feel a bit unbalanced. Most of them have unblockable abilities that knock you away or require you to press the B button with the speed of a jackhammer. What's more when they knock you away you can only scream at the screen as they dash straight towards you while you're helpless and cut off a third of your health.

This can be adjusted with the difficulty setting but if you lower it to beat bosses then the common enemies become a bore. So you either beat the game and feel unsatisfied or chore away on a single enemy and dance around the room when you can finally begin the QTE. Which by the way has no penalty if you fail, simply requiring you to try again. The best way i could think of to make QTE's more interesting in the boss fights is if you failed to press a button or pressed the wrong one, the battle would go a different direction, so every time you played through you could see a different sequence of combat.

 

[GloatingSwine]

His point, is thus;

His point was "I thought this game would be like KOTOR, it's not, so it sucks". Even though the things required to make a good third person action game and the things required to make a good RPG are far from the same.

No amount of epic storytelling, character depth, or player input to the story would have improved TFU, because TFU does not get the basics of third person action gaming right, the levels are boring, the fighting is boring, and the enemies are boring. However, the review does not mention these points, points which are actually relevant to the quality of a third person action game, on which the story is never going to be more than window dressing.

Remember, not all games must be deep narrative experiences. No-one to my knowledge bemoans the lack of narrative in Minesweeper, because narrative is not the point of minesweeper, nor is it the point of an action game. No-one cares about God of War because of the story, everyone loves it because of the visceral and enjoyable combat.

 

[Ixus Illwrath]

I was pretty disappointed with the game environments. Most surfaces that look like they could be stood upon merely slide you off, telling you 'look don't touch' Which really seems a bit dated by design. Then you have to find a bunch of glowing cubes that can only be reached by finding the one spot on an otherwise unusable platform, so a huge part of the game ends up where you kill all the enemies in an area, then sit around exploring the same area for about twice as long as it took you to kill everything.

That seriously fucks up the pacing of an action game.

 

[Yassen]

His point was "I thought this game would be like KOTOR, it's not, so it sucks". Even though the things required to make a good third person action game and the things required to make a good RPG are far from the same.

No that's not what I'm saying. The characters are pretty lifeless and bland anyway, so allowing the player to create the character 'like in KOTOR' would have made the story much more interesting.

Besides, the combat is ok and the combat in KOTOR was probably the worst aspect of it. But it made up for this with it's story. Yes you don't need a story to play pac-man or whatever, but this is star wars we're talking about.

The point I'm saying about TFU is that they took 2 steps forward in combat and 3 steps back with story and design.

 

[Copter400]

The title reminded me of this:

http://theslackerz.com/comic/091.jpg

 

[shatnershaman]

Great Review. I beat this game on the PSP and while it was fun and the best environments on the system I agree the Story was terrible, Bad acting and bad characters (not to mention contradictions with the movies) kinda ruined it.

 

[H.R.Shovenstuff]

Thought that review was great, might get this game, but not sure.

 

[PurpleRain]

Good review. While it did seem to come off a bit as you're comparing it to KotOR. I know that's not your point, but it seemed you were expecting more RPG elements out of a fighting game.

Aside from that, I enjoyed it. Gave a different aspec to it other than "ZOMG it's the sex!"

Maybe a bit more length and depth for next time. Otherwise two thumbs up.

 

[hbomb]

I like the combat and the story, but the length does seem to be a problem. In the store I got it from, it was £5 cheaper, so I'm willing to let that slide.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

I'll echo what others have said. You either need to work on how you communicate your ideas or you went into this with the completely wrong mindset. You're reviewing a third person action-brawler. Games like this should be compared to God of War, Heavenly Sword, Conan, maybe something like Crackdown at a stretch. Possibly Jedi Knight to contrast the difference in pacing. I see you comparing it mostly to KOTOR and Mass Effect.

Your review mentions that you are an RPG enthusiast, and I can get behind that, but again, this isn't the game to be waxing your RPG love.

That said, don't think that I'm defending the game. I'm just defending it from your arguments, which are the wrong sort of arguments. What needs to be said is that the game is highly redundant and totally not worth the money. While it's true that you can upgrade your force powers, it never really gets any different than that first hanger room from the demo. I started playing it (and finished it, both endings) last night and I'm so very glad that I didn't actually spend $60 on it. Might've been worth $20 from a used bin, but a rental is probably the cheaper way to go.

- J

 

[GloatingSwine]

The point I'm saying about TFU is that they took 2 steps forward in combat and 3 steps back with story and design.

Yes, but you're still using Knights of the Old Republic, a completely different type of game as a reference point for this one. None of your points of comparison are relevant to this game. It could have had a story as paper thin as Ninja Gaiden II's, and if the actual game was as good as NG2, it would have been good, but the game isn't good.

As has been noted, the force power upgrades are irrelevant, the lightsaber combat is unsatisfying, hell I know someone who decided at one point to just ignore the enemies and run past them all, worked fine, because they're so useless as to be irrelevant much of the time.

But your review ignores all that, because you like RPGs, so you're going to whine that this isn't KOTOR3 or something.

 

[Slycne]

Here is the think though. The developers did make it a point to try and have a decent narrative behind TFU. They chose a setting that hasn't been seen yet and even consulted George Lucas( that might have made it worse...). So while there are third party action games on the market that sacrifice story for gameplay, TFU has tried to make an effort at having one.

So I can see why lines start being drawn to more narrative heavy genres.

 

[Tsuki Tanaka]

In the end, force unleashed is a game I could only recommend renting since you'll finish it in a day or two anyway. But now that one high-profile game has been released, let's hope mirror's edge and Fable 2 don't let us down. We're counting on you Molyneux!

Note: constructive criticism appreciated, Thanks for reading.

Very good review. I hate to say it, but I actually spent money on this game, sigh....

Such a disappointment.

As far as Mirror's Edge, you'll probably be happy to know that I did manage to get a chance to test it, and, let me tell you, it is DAMN good. Very well done, very refreshing. Very enjoyable. DEFINITELY look forward to it.

 

[ThaBenMan]

Pretty good review. I'm really enjoying TFU myself. I was expecting God of War meets Star Wars, and that's pretty much what it is. And I rather like quick-time events. You argue that you wish you could do those sorts of things yourself with the normal controls, but I think that usually it would just turn out half-assed and sloppy. The QTE's have a great cinematic quality to them that I enjoy.