Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360) - 3rd Person Action/Adventure/RPG
One thing I feel I should make very clear is that i had lots of fun with this game, and while it was a great change of pace from the general garbage some game companies keep spewing, it still suffers from MAJOR flaws.
Before i get into that, however... let's talk about the good stuff.
All in all the gameplay is good, the controls don't suck, and the game is short enough it doesn't get repetitive. THE CAMERA IS THE RIGHT THUMBSTICK. THANK GOD, THANK GOD. Unlike the baby-roasting, seal-clubbing, mullet-wearing crackwhores who made Too Human, LucasArts realizes the importance of this essentially INDUSTRY STANDARD feature.
Easily this game's best feature is your ability to use the Force in a evil and brutal way (sometimes hilarious way) to dispatch the seemingly neverending river of enemies headed in your direction. Some of the most fun abilities are:
1. This move where you grip your hapless target, hoist him in the air, and then unleash a force push to send him sailing through the air.
2. After lifting your target up, you charge him with force lightning and then can hurl him in any direction to cause heavy damage to anything he hits or lands near.
3. Grabbing an enemy, lifting him up, and impaling him with your lightsaber. Normally you just set him down after doing so, but it's bigger lolz to throw him straight up, lightsaber and all, and watch as he sails off into orbit somewhere around Yavin IV.
4. Any of the force push combo attak with your saber. Spin around in a blaze of death, then hit all those near you with a huge throwing blast. Awesome.
5. Generally abusing your enemy. Push him into walls, shock them, grab them, drop them, throw them into each other, throw them into laser walls, or my personal favorite: grab an enemy, and move them over a deep chasm, release the grip button and watch them slowly fall to their doom.
6. On the first level after playing as Darth Vader, you will be in a TIE fighter factory. They will moblize the fighters against you and they will fly around the room shooting you. For minimal amusement, grip one of the loose metal bars lining the side of the catwalk, and pull them down and out into the TIE fighter's flight path, and laugh at their pathetic attmepts to dodge.
There are several types of enemies you could classify as "mini-bosses", such as the chicken walkers (FINE, AT-STs), the Rancors, and the Imperial guards who carry long, staff like lightsabers. I mention them here because they provide a sense of how small you actually are; that is to say, instead of chucking around Stormtroopers, a Rancor is breathing down your neck, and you better deal with it, because to him you're lunch. Deafeating them isn't all that much different , they basically have more health and require a fast-paced on-screen butto combo to defeat. The only mini-boss that is really dangerous is the green skinned rancor, he runs faster than the others, and will bum rush you from out of nowhere, and proceed to kick your pathetic, whimpering ass, in a corner, as you ask yourself why a damn Rancor can move like a cheetah.
Much in the same vein as the mini-bosses are the, you guessed it, the BOSSES. These long, generally epic battles involve you piting yourself against other masters of the Force until one emerges victorious. Once you've overtaken your opponent, you can begin to exectue another (different and longer) onscreen combo to finish them off. Generally these finishing moves are very stylized and very awesome, but can get frustrating if you don't get the combo right. (OK, A, then B, then A again, now X, *presses wrong button and watches our hero get nailed by a heavy flying object*... FUCK! SHIT! Well, you see how it goes.)
Another great element of Force Unleashed is its seamless storyline, and the perfect integration of it into the rest of the Star Wars story. The voice acting for Vader isn't perfect, but then again, if you get anyone but James Earl Jones, its a failure. The story is rather gripping though, and will keep you entertained.
A less important, but still awesome feature in Force Unleashed is the two best costumes available in the game - The Sith Assassin armor, and the Sith robe. The Sith assassin armor has claws (yes, CLAWS) on the hands, because, you know, a lightsaber doesn't always kill them dead enough. The Sith robe just looks badass, an if you combine it with a red lightsaber, you just look downright sinister.
On to the bad stuff, and there is definitely a lot of it.
This game is buggy as fuck.
Seriously.
Did they even fucking test the junkyard level? It makes no sense sometimes as to where you should go in a level, much less trying not to get lost in junkyard land. It's almost as if they had a real testing team for the other levels, but for the junkyard levels, they brought in a bunch of retarded howler monkeys and let them jump around on keyboards, flinging their poo everywhere, and the real testing team got drunk out of their minds and just laughed at the monkeys. The next day when they should have really tested the levels, they said "fuck it" and moved on.
There are more places to get stuck in the junkyard levels than i can count, some items that let you grip them, let you grip them but won't move, and sometimes a enemy will spawn under you, clip into you, and lock you in place. Then there is the part o the first junkyard level which i can only describe as "The Giant Cavern of Raging Dick." In this cavern you will find edge clipping GALORE, enemies who will easily combo you and throw you down a hole to instant death, and edges of the level which require a college degree to scale. This part of the level is awful, and stands out like a sore thumb among the otherwise well done levels.
Sometime when you jump and hit a staircase at a odd angle, it will stop you and hold you there until you hit jump again. Annoying, and again a sloppy mistake.
Another thing in this game that sucks is the level near the end where you must pull a Star Destroyer out of orbit (?!) and crash it down on your enemies. Now, this sounds cool and all, but cut to 1hr., 30 mins later, where I've died six times, almost stranged Poke for no fault of his own, and have terrified Poke's roommate with my anguished screams of rage. Let me explain. As you pull this Star Destroyer out of orbit, TIE fighters are running a train on you, and because of the annoying "cinematic" camera angle, you have to psychically know when to grab the fighters and throw them too so they dont kill you. Once you've mastered this newfound psychic ability (URGH) you have to still do it well, and you will die often when you mess up. Also, this brings up an entirely seperate issue. If i can bring down a Star Destroyer, the only thing larger being the Death Star, why in the HELL can't i lift and throw an AT-ST? That aside, the part with the Star Destroyer is very, very terrible.
The final boss battle with Vader (if you so choose, muahaha) is MIND-NUMBINGLY, BRAIN-CRUSHINGLY hard. Now don't get me wrong, i like a good, rough boss battle like any good gamer, but this boss battle isn't good, it's just rough. To be more specific, it's just Vader giving it to you roughly from behind. It's so hard that at one point Poke was asking me if i needed to take a break i was so frustrated. Vader is one tough customer, and he takes tons of damage and is faster than you. Really. One time i stunned him, and before i could hit him again, he had already dashed at me, and knocked my ass flat. It gets pretty ridiculous, but if you keep your cool, you hould come out alright.
Don't let my rant discourage you, this game is very much worth your $60 and is great fun. It's just far from perfect.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed gets 6 out of 10 win-sabers.
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