f13.net

From Cyrrex:

I’m probably as incurable a Star Wars freak as can be found.  Does that mean I gobble up everything that LA puts out under this license?  Close, but not quite.  I was excited when I first heard this title was coming out, but I’ve learned to mix in a healthy dose of apprehension.  When I played the demo for the first time, I was “meh” about it.  A second run through the demo had me feeling a little better about things, as I was getting used to the controls.

Enter the game proper.  From the word go, I already like it better than my experience with the demo.  This really is a game where you are putting your force powers on display, so it is immensely helpful that you are familiar and comfortable with the controls.  You could snooze your way through this game with minimal effort, just going through the motions and executing the bare minimum of fancy attacks, but you’d be missing the point.  And the point is this:  when your actions become second nature and you learn to chain things together, the combat in this game can be awesome.  Jaw-droppingly amazing, sometimes.

Starkiller (the main protagonist) is, perhaps, the most bad ass force user we’ve ever seen.  He doesn’t choke stormtroopers.  He chokes them, infuses them with lightning and hurls them the length of a football field, where they then explode violently against a bulkhead, causing secondary explosions.  Over-the-top?  Yes, but pretty cool.  Saber fighting is not particularly deep, but it’s well animated and satisfying enough when combined properly with force usage.  The much talked about physics are fairly cool, but forget any talk you’ve heard about stormtroopers reacting in certain ways – they are far too busy dying and being flung off into the horizon for you to notices such subtleties.  Although, there was one random occurrence that made me smile – on a ship, I grab a crate and fling it at a trooper.  I miss, and the crate shatters a viewport, causing the atmosphere and the stormtrooper to be instantly sucked out of the window, followed by a bulkhead slamming down to seal the breach.  I’ve no doubt I would have been sucked out too, had I been close enough.  Really impressive.

Graphics are average – occasionally great, sometimes pretty bland.  The special effects are pretty sweet.  Sound is great, as usual with LA games.  I won’t go into anything about the story, because you’ll love it or hate it depending entirely on how much of a fanboy you are.  The level up systems appears to over up a good deal of variety.

This game is far from perfect, but it boils down to this:  do you want play as the baddest bad-ass dark jedi you’ve ever imagined?  Sure you do.

Rent it. 

Is there any aspect of an RPG to this, or is it simply an on the rails action shooter?

Is it anything like the Jedi Knight or Jedi Academy games (if you have played them)?

You earn experience for killing things or finding certain holocrons, and when you level, you get spheres.  You also get a sphere for completing one of the three submissions in each area.  There are combo spheres, force power spheres, and talent spheres.  Combos are the stuff like charging your saber with lightning for attacks, dashing in and blowing things away with a force push, etc.  Powers are pretty obvious, levelling them tends to up the scope and raw power of abilities.  For example, basic force lightning is just a quick burst of lightning, level it up a rank and you can do a larger continuous stream of lightning.  Talents affect your raw stats, like damage, defense, force power, recovery, etc. 

Like I mentioned, there's Jedi holocrons hidden across the level, so exploring gets you rewards.  Some give xp, and others unlock costumes and lightsaber crystals and such.  Finding all the holocrons in a level is usually one of the submissions, so that'll also help you level your character.  The other submissions tend to be along the lines of 'use so many force points', and the last is usually destruction related.  The destruction quests can be somewhat random, like destroy so many TIE fighters, to something tied in with the stage a little better, like destroying generators to a comm tower. 

The fighting is fun, and the things enemies can do will keep you switching around between using your lightsaber and various force powers.  Boss fights, and fights against the bigger enemies, involve QTE segments along with the normal combat, so if you hated God of War, you probably won't enjoy those parts at all. 

There are a lot of little touches that make the game fun to go through, like using the force to toss grenades back at people, or using force lightning on jawas.  It does seem to control a bit better than the demo, but that could be familiarity with the controls. 

Yeah, I had a whole section in my review about the controls, but it was getting too lengthy.  Much of my like of this game has to do with getting used to the controls.

I've played both both JK and JA extensively, but only on PC.  It is hard to compare them with this.  JK and JA will give you much more life in terms of MP and replay value, I think, but this game will give you more  :grin: moments.  Some of the stuff is just crazy cool.  I they ported this to PC and managed to get the controls translated smoothly, it would annihilate those games in single player.  Multiplayer would lose some luster, though, because I can't imagine they'd still include all the over-the-top force stuff.

The QTE bits haven't bugged me much, so far.  They usually only come at the finish of the boss fight, so it isn't like you don't have to actually fight.  Also, some of the actual sequences are pretty cool to watch.

I played this for ~4 hours yesterday. It's quite fun though short. I'm already over halfway through the game. Still, things like cannonballing (an actual combo I found) a stormtrooper into his buddies to rack up bonus points never gets old.

The story is actually pretty decent too though it feels like they needed an extra cutscene or two to show why a few things happened. I will say the story is better than the prequels but not quite Empire Strkes Back. In some ways it feels like Starkiller is the prototype Luke as far as Vader's actions go.

Well, this is technically considered "A" level canon, I think.  I'd also been hoping for more cutscene action, but never fear:  there is an entire novel you can buy to flesh out the story  :awesome_for_real:

Written by R.A Salvatore ?

No.  Sean Williams, I want to say.  You have a thing for Salvatore?

HE'S THE GREATEST!

Dancing lightsabers of death!

This game is the quintessential The Dark Side Will Fuck You Up experience.

Finished this last night.  Overall a pretty quick game, though it was fun.  Mostly.  The boss encounter for the next to last stage was a major pain in the ass.  Pretty much ignore the on screen cues for what to do when you get to the Force using part. 

I got this yesterday, but due to WAR I didnt play it much. Logged about 45 minutes before I went to bed, so far its really fun. I got past the tutorial level, and the first level that was the demo.

I am really like the "blow shit up" factor, even though it seems a bit over the top sometimes. I think I could sneeze and knock buildings down. But its still awesome.

Yeah, the UNLIMITED POWER aspect can get a bit cheesy, but the way they handle it is pretty nifty.  Like, the quick dash surrounds you in a blur of the force.  I noticed last night that the bubble will destroy/knock around some of the flimsier scenery.  And really, crumpling an AT-ST like a soda can is just awesome to watch. 

I'd like to see them do a KOTOR era game now.  That way, they'd have a bit more freedom with things. 

Had to emphasize this. It took me a good 20-30 minutes to figure out why it wasn't working. To flesh out his tip: Despite the sticks being even, the background will stay red. Just move the right stick up until it goes yellow even if the cue says to move the stick down.

I have beaten it now twice, and in my opinion it plays very much like Jedi Outcast in that there are puzzles and plenty of lightsaber/force power action. The puzzles however aren't anywhere near as "difficult" as Jedi Outcast's was or even Dark Forces. In fact they are dumbed down by the key parts of the landscape that you have to interact with being "glowy".  Unlike Jedi Outcast you really don't have to wait that long at all for force powers to regenerate.  Regeneration is super quick.  Also Boss fights are handled a bit differently.  The endings are a combination of buttons which launch ingame cinematics.

This game plays like a movie.  It plays like a bridge between the prequals and A New Hope.  You see the Empire becoming more like the Empire and you also see the story behind the birth of the Rebellion.  Is this game fun, damn straight it is.  I don't regret my purchase at all, for me it lived up to the hype.  Is the script that great, no not really.  It suffers from the same grade A cheese that ruined the prequals.  This is not to say that there wasn't really good ideas behind it.   I was thoroughly entertained simply by the irony of the actions of Darth Vader and the Emperor.  I am hoping we will see more games like this one complete with ingame cinematics.

In my opinion this was the absolute worst part of the game.  Yes it was cool seeing the Star Destroyer go down, but it was also cheesy as all hell.  It also made no sense.  Ships hundreds of years earlier in the canon had the ability to vaporize that compound.  I am not sure what the explanation is, but this part was so rediculous to me that it was an immersion killer.

I think I've about reached the halfway point or so now (yeah, I'm slow...too much entertainment in September).  The game continues to impress for the most part.  I don't know what collective dope the general reviewing community is smoking.  It isn't a "great" game, but I think it's better than the reviews it has been getting.  This game stomps most games getting 7s out of 10s, or whatever. 

I dig it for the most part, but then I'm a hardcore fanboy. That said, there are a few annoyances about it. The biggest being that they've fallen into the typical Lucasarts pattern of "harder shit = more content".

The pulling the Star Destroyer out of the sky bit was a bit hokey, but I liked it anyway. (The goddamn interrupting TIE fighters notwithstanding).

This game is very fun, except for odd frustrating moments (the second boss, the one on robotic legs was an absolute arse to beat). I look forward to finishing it.

It reminds me of Legacy of Kain games a lot, in the sense that the game isn't incredibly deep, it just provides masses of gratuitous action at exactly the right pace.

I'm a little suprised at the reviews myself. The game has flaws, but I'm glad I bought it, even if for just the story. It's not nearly as easy as the demo leads you to think, some of the boss fights I ended up turning the difficulty down after too many tries. I dunno, I just think it has several really good qualities - the cool factor of just letting loose and obliterating squads of Stormtroopers, the hidden treasures on the levels for those of us that like to explore every corner, and most of all - a really good story. It had some cheese moments sure, but come on folks - this is Star Wars.

It is short and doesnt have a huge replay factor though, so I'd call it a manditory Rental.

I'm replaying it now on the wii and the story is slightly different, (A couple of different locales and cutscenes) but the thrust of the story is the same, plus there's the added value of duel mode to keep the missus occupied sometimes too.

I'm also replaying through the 360/PS3 version again too, this time, fully powered up with all the gear, powers and know-how gained from playing through the first time. All the frustrating stuff in the boss fights is virtually non-existent now. It may get old fast, but we'll see how it goes.

Smashy fun.  I'm impressed with the destructability of the environment, but I still want more.  The controls aren't the tightest I've ever had, but they aren't the worst either.  I'm looking forward to the second playthrough.

I cannot overstate the entertainment I get from choking a jawa, electrocuting him then hurling him into another enemy.  Throwing TIE fighters at stormtroopers is also hot.  Blasting doors open never gets old.  I don't really give a shit about whatever story there is supposed to be.

Force grip a stormtrooper, electrocute him, then impale him with your saber and then throw the corpse at his buddies on a bridge with force blast.

Teh. Win.

I have somehow missed out on the "impale with saber" bit.  Will try tonight!  :awesome_for_real:

Luke Skywalker was originally named Luke Starkiller.

'Sith Punting' jawas is nearly worth the price of admission.

There's some really good stuff in the game, countered with some really really awful.  I played it all the way through on Sith Lord, got all the holos and stuff.  It does feel incomplete and rushed, though.  The button pressing cut scenes really hurt the game, IMHO.  Rather than watching the cinematic, I found myself ignoring it to make sure i got the button sequence right.

hologrinding = lolgrinding

 :awesome_for_real:

I ground many lols from this.

And many Bothans died to bring you this post.  :drill:

Flamethrower dudes suck :/

The environments are really awesome though, I'm finding the game environment more immersive than many others I've played recently.

So here I've been defending this game.. finished it once, thought I'd play around with some of the extras. So I look up the cheat codes and what do I discover? There are something like 30 different skins you can play the game with... on the PS2 and the wii. If you have the PS3 or 360, you get about four.

What the fuck is all that about?

Paid DLC to be added?

Hm, the demo was pretty entertaining other than the stupid QTE at the AT-ST. I wasn't expecting it and spent a long time throwing barrels at the thing. I may have to consider getting this, it will give me something else to play when I'm on living room  kittenwatch duty.

Well, here's a thought for you to chew on then:  it is an LA game, based on the Star Wars license, hyped like hell and a sorta disappointing demo.  And yet just about everyone in this thread has pretty good things to say about it overall.  Did anyone really expect that?  Probably not.  That's as good a testimonial as you're likely to get.  It is a DO RENT game at the very least. 

This is definately a game that's very easy to pick up and put down if you need. I'm about 80% done and really enjoying it.

I ended up getting Lego Batman instead (I'm such a sucker for those games, recycled gameplay or no) but this is still on my list.

Those skins are mostly because of the wiis duel mode. And since the development for both the PS2 and the wii version were farmed out to the same development house... well, you do the math.

Wii multiplayer is fun, but completly unbalanced. All the characters have differing stats "Force" "saber" "speed" "power" etc.

My daugher plays Aayla Secura who has a maxed-out Force bar.  She lightnings the shit out of us and there's naught we can do.  Damn kids and their min/maxing lightning whoring.  :grin:

force rush up in her face and sith strike the shit out of her.

I can't get that one to fire off.  That's like 2 sabers and a force push, right?   The Wii has a horribly cumbersome use of hand-waving to get shit done.  Feel like I'm going to throw out my damn elbow because I have to punch my fist so often and fast to get off Force pushs.  The "breakout"/AOE pushback move is even worse, since you have to hold 2 buttons and slam both hands down to trigger it.  I usually wind-up waving my saber ineptly and force pushing something random instead.

I didn't think there was a game+ type thing? Or are you just level selecting within your beaten game?

If you choose "Continue Game", it starts you off with the Apprentice's first mission. Only you're fully kitted out.

As for the force rush, I think it's push forward twice on the control stick.

I meant the Sith Strike.  S'ok because I learned the subtleties of the saber and now I pwn face. It really DOES matter if you shake it up/down or side-to-side. Nifty.  :heart:

Slash-Slash-Slash-LIGHTING SMASH was my favourite.

I'm a big fan of dash, saber, lift, lightning, CANNONBALL.  Works on those damned flamethrower troopers.

I wish they had flamethrower troopers on Endor, RotJ would have been far more metal.

I like Grip, Saber Throw (and impale), Electrocute, Toss and wait for saber to come back.  Just because it is awesome.

I'm a huge Cannonball whore.

I should go max out saber throw, with just one point it seemed wholly ineffective compared to other one-point skills.

Saber throw is highly useful for those pesky ledge-sitters.

Ledge sitters get force gripped and thrown behind me.  Choked if they're the last man standing.

Force grip/ Push is far too effective on the masses of low-end troops, even those flame fuckers.

The game controls like shit. I've never seen a more unresponsive action game. For all my force powers, the handling is very, very slow. Maybe I don't "get" the game, but when I click Guard while I'm getting up from being knocked down and do not guard when I stand up, having to physically take my finger off the button and reapply, giving my enemy enough time to kill me, that's a problem.

It's also impossible to accurately target your Grip powers in this game, especially in boss fights with multiple opponents.

I want to 1000 this game on Xbox360 so I don't have to fucking play it anymore. At least it restarts you at check points with full health, even in boss fights.

Man, it's so not fair to talk about controls in third person action games after playing Demon's Souls. And you know it.

To be fair, I haven't played Demon's Souls and even I am aware that the controls in The Force Unleashed are crap.

Force Unleashed was distinctively unpolished, but I don't seem to have the control issues beyond the usual half-assed third-person variety.  The biggest irritant for me was the shit framerate.

There's a skill that increases the speed at which your force powers charge. At 3/3 points they're more or less instant. Your character is intentionally clunky at the start, but gets better as you progress.

I'm replaying this and enjoying it. It's not a perfect game, but it's fun in a mindless and not-too-difficult kind of way. Also when you max out most of your skills you become a more-or-less unstoppable avatar of doom, and slapping stormtroopers around ad-infinitium is cheap entertainment.

There's no way any of this can be canonical given the sheer power and variety of storm troopers. Anti-Force Shields? REALLY?

With all the movies already made, George doesn't much care anymore, as long as nothing contradicts the fillms too badly..

Anyway, /nerd on anti-force troopers would have probably been technology developed for the period between Ep3 and 4 when Vader and the boys are hunting down all the Jedi, and therefore no longer needed by the time the OT rolls around /nerd off

Besides, George lost the plot and any care long ago for the finer details of his universe.


In a making of Star Wars books I have, the pointless and convoluted story was explained (with people quoting Lucas) based around him naming the droid in one of his scripts, but not actually knowing that the R4 droids look different to R2s. After that, one of his underlings had to write up the silly background (sorry, extra depth) so it didn't contradict everything else.

But could it FLYYYY??!

Srsly, I could even deal with Jar-Jar, but the flying R2 is what pushed me over the edge. Also, plucky kid Annie, but hey.

God that trilogy sucked balls.

Wait, what? You can't handle "That robot had little rockets on it when it's intended duty involved manuvering on the outside of a spaceship, but did not have those rockets twenty years later when it was a diplomat's pet!" but can deal with god damned Jar-Jar?

OK, finished the game.

Yeah. Light-side Jedi are pussies and stupid. "You'll be back to where you started!" "AND THE FUCKING EMPEROR WILL BE DEAD, BILLIONS OF LIVES WILL BE SAVED, AND WE CAN UNDO THE DAMAGE THESE SITH FUCKS HAVE DONE IN THE LAST 15 YEARS, KODA!" Jesus christ it's like they can't think for themselves and that the Force dictates all their actions instead of them. Jedi as puppets of a higher power. Might as well start calling it The Force^tm.

All this stuff being canon is shit shit shit-ity SHIT.  :ye_gods:

Only cool thing about being a Jedi is the powers and the saber. ONLY THING.

What and odd thing to say.  Even just having something like Mind Trick would be basically the most amazing thing ever.  Of course, the stuff I'd do with it would probably technically be of the dark side.

I subscribe to the Jedi School of Katarn. Using Force Lightning as a Light Side Jedi ain't hurt nobody but the bad guys.

I found the text version of The Force Unleashed at the library and decided to read it. Awful stuff but finding out the origin of the Rebel logo was kinda cool.

I finally 1000'd this game and can safely put it into the DO NOT FUCKING WANT TO SEE EVER AGAIN pile.

On a side note, once you avoid the ass-tastic parts of the system, the highest difficulty setting becomes nothing special. You'll still die frustrating deaths but at that point you're numb to the pain.

I'm playing through this on medium at the moment, but I'm finding the most painful part of the game (besides the sub-par controls) are the occasional holocrons that require a jump-jump-dash, yet still seem out of range.

Specifically the one in the Sarlaac chamber, and the one where the catwalks radiate out, down the lift at the junk planet factory thing.

 :mob:

Figured it out. got to tack a force dash blast to the end of the leap and dash.  :uhrr:

That Star Destroyer bit is  :ye_gods:

It's all worth it to use a jawa as a grenade to kill other jawas.

Any way to play through the other difficulty levels fully kitted up? Or do you have to start from scratch?

Seems the only way to get the achievements for the harder difficulty levels is to start them up and not change them during play, but hitting "continue" from my existing finished game just plays through again on that difficulty. And fuck levelling up from zip again, along with starting from 0 holocrons...

 :uhrr:

On a similar note, with the DLC (which I haven't purchased) you have o "start new game" to play the coruscant temple.. but "start new game" again means "start new jedi wth nothing"...

Yes. This could be a good contender for one of the worst set pieces in any game ever.

You spoke too soon. The Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith Edition (http://www.endsights.com/2009/07/25/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-gets-new-dlc-ultimate-sith-edition/)

Almost makes me wish more developers had the balls to say "Fuck the canon!" This was their only option if they wanted to "continue" the story, anyway.

Indeed, this is a fucking rad idea.

Just a shame that LA have taken a typical "milk the SW fans for all we can get" attitude to the game and it's DLC. In that it's overall pretty poor value for money, and now it looks like they're trying to make the Hoth stage disc-only, so the big SW fans have to buy the game again to get the whole thing...

Yeah, that really puts me off.  They *can* release it as DLC, but won't because they'll get a few sales of the new edition out of it. 

Makes me wonder... which would sell more?  The $10 DLC sold to everyone interested, or the new $40?? version sold to a lot less people. 

They sold something like 6 million of the original box, way beyond all expectations, so perhaps they figure to repeat that?  I'm betting they'll move tons of boxes again. 

More interestingly, though...how many people even bother with DLC?  As a rule, I don't.  Not for any particular reason, I just don't.  It makes me wonder what the statistics say about that sort of thing.