Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

I rented Star Wars: The Force Unleashed last week and played through it during the week and weekend. Yeah, I know. I'm doubly a nerd for not only playing a game, but one based on Star Wars. It was a lot of fun though. I couldn't help comparing it to other Star Wars gaming experiences I have had, specifically SW: Knights of the Old Republic¹. With the experience and that comparison in mind, some observations (both good and bad) about the game:

-The gameplay is incredibly linear. Yes, there is a story and a reason for each planet you go to and what you have to do there, but as far as choices you are as limited as if it were Super Mario Brothers. It's a straight progression from A to B to C (or Kashyyyk to Raxus Prime to the Death Star as the case may be). Actually, in Super Mario Brothers, you could actually choose to warp to specific worlds, so I guess it's even more limited in choices of it's progression. Yes, the game has multiple endings, but they literally branch from who you decide to fight in the game's final scene.

-Along the same lines, I found myself wishing that I could change more about my character. Yes, he has different costumes (more on that later) and you can customize his lightsaber (again, more later) but there was no real effect from any of the changes. Going back to KOTOR, everything you did had an impact on the character, weapons, armor, even decisions you made meant differences in powers and how people react to you. I guess what I'm saying is that I would have preferred more of a RPG feel and less simple hack and slash.

-However, one of the biggest problems I always had with KOTOR (to the point that I have used fan-made patches in the past to change this) was that for a game where you are a Jedi, too much time is spent becoming a Jedi and not getting to handle a lightsaber. Force Unleashed has no such problem. From the very first mission, you are a full fledged Jedi (ok, Sith) wielding a lightsaber. Your power grows over time, improving some powers and allowing you to learn new ones, but you can start off doing all sorts of fun force-related things.

-In fact, not only do you start off with force powers, the first mission of the game is somewhat of a prologue where you take the role of Darth Vader². You slash and choke your way through an army of Wookies (and all the Stormtroopers, too, if you feel like it) and hunt down a rogue Jedi.

-The story is entertaining, and to be quite honest, on average better than Episodes I-III.⁴

-The graphics on the Wii version of the game are not as good as the 360 or PS3 version, but using the motion control is a lot of fun. Want to slash someone with a lightsaber? Just slash left or right with the wiimote. Same for up and down or even a lunge to stab your opponent. Shove the nunchuck forward and you use the force to push things in front of you (enemies, debris, whatever) and send them flying. You can even hold someone in the air and throw your lightsaber to impale them.

-Controlling which target you choose, however, is not so easy. There is a targeting system, but it only works sporadically and even then it doesn't work well.

-The game itself is fairly simple, but when it comes to boss fights it's much easier to just have the cheat codes on.

-Since you can collect various color crystals for your saber and costumes for your character to wear, hours of fun can be had by giving your character a purple lightsaber and putting him in the Mace Windu costume then killing enemies while screaming Samuel L. Jackson type things. 

The game was a lot of fun, but the replay value is only so-so and I'm glad that I rented rather than buying. Have any of the rest of you played this?

¹KOTOR is my favorite Star Wars game, and is one that I have played over and over and even reinstalled in the past few months to play again. The closest after that would have to be TIE Fighter, which I enjoyed despite never loving or being particularly good at other flight simulators.

²As an interesting note, the voice of Darth Vader is provided throughout the game by Matt Sloan who is probably best known for being one of the creators of (and providing the voice for) Chad Vader.³

³You've seen Chad Vader, right? If not, go watch it or at least episode 1 and then come back and finish this post later.

⁴They did make one of the bosses a Gungan, so it was almost like they were giving players the chance to kill Jar Jar Binks.