Strange Angel Review's Force Unleashed

I had A LOT of fun with this game. Okay I'm a little wonky due to my pain meds so bear with me as I review this.

The Force Unleashed takes place between Episode 3 and 4 of the movie series. You begin the game as Darth Vader on the Wookie home planet of Kashiik (sp?) While the Empire is busy fighting the Wookie's and taking over the planet, Vader is there on his own mission. To find and kill a surviving Jedi in hiding. Now the fact you begin the game playing as Darth Vader with crazy Force Powers has the same allure as Prototype in that you get a taste of true power before really beginning the game. So this introduction mission serves as a great way to psyche you up for the game.

Anyway the introduction Mission where you play as Vader is very easy considering... you're VADER! Have fun with it and experiment with creative ways to kill Wookies. They stand no chance against you. Once you work your way through the level with little effort you have your first boss fight with the aforementioned Jedi Vader is there to kill. This is by far the easiest boss fight in the game, because you are after all VADER! Once you defeat the Jedi you are introduced to a cutscene, where Vader is about to kill the Jedi then a little boy mysteriously snatches Vader's lightsaber from him. Turns out this little boy is The Jedi's son. Vader senses great power in him yadayadayada. Vader kills dad, then kills Imperial forces that discover the boy to keep him secret.

Enter the game. You play as Vader's secret apprentice, the little boy he found in the introduction mission. It's a linear game not sandbox, but it does make you feel like a real badass Sith assassin during the first few missions. On top of that the game at any time allows you to replay previous missions, which is a great way to grind. You do gain levels through the game, and as you do you gain the ability to upgrade your talents. I spent a lot of the game grinding like crazy because I wanted to be godlike, and godlike I was! By the end of the game I had everything maxed out and opted for the evil ending.

Nevertheless you can hardly call it an evil ending. The story is indeed smeared with the horrid writing of George Lucas. While the first few missions are a blast playing this powerful assassin, hunting down and killing Jedi. Later you wind up turning good for no apparent reason. The games story really forces this on you too. Even in the "evil ending" you're still good! WTH?! So like Prototype the game really drops the ball with the storyline. However unlike Prototype it's a linear beat'em up. And the ways to beat up enemies is really unique with the force powers. I mean you could likely get through the game in a rush by using one button or combo, or force power. But the fighting doesn't really get old for me because there's just so many ways to kill your opponents. I try to be creatively sadistic. It's an easy game but it's fun if you mix things up constantly.

The gameplay is great, but the camera gets on my nerves, especially when I want to force grab something. I have often found the camera targeting the wrong thing. So I'll be looking to grab a bunch of rebels but for whatever reason the camera targets a box on the side of me, and I wind up picking that up instead. Overall the game is fun, but it's appeal will not last forever. Once you beat it and max out all your stats it's kind of like. Okay cool, now I'm done.

There is a new expansion coming out that does pique my interest though. It focuses on the Darkside, and you do get to play as an assassin once again. Actually in the new expansion it looks like you get to hunt Obi-wan, and even Luke Skywalker, which seems like a blast. Also it's coming for the PC I hear. I will give this a go no doubt. However while the game is fun the story breaks the immersion. I just want to be a scary assassin, why does my character have to go all fluffy on me?

Hopefully the new expansion will bring me back to the awesomeness of the first few levels. Anyway if I were to rate this game,

8.5/10

It's fun make no mistake but it will not hold you too long, especially later on when the terrible Lucas writing really sets in. Once you beat it chances are you'll put it down. I don't plan to play again until the PC Darkside expansion dealy comes out. I'll buy it for PC as opposed to getting DLC for my Xbox version of the game because I got the game for free with store credit. It was $20.00 but I bought it on store credit. Not to mention you can mod PC games, and the game does have costumes and such. Like you can wear your Sith Robes and feel awesome, or you can play as NPC's. But all the NPC costumes are lame! I mean I want to play as Shaak'Ti but no instead there's just basically like a million Storm Trooper costumes that's it. With the PC and mods you can likely wind up playing as whoever you want. So that may be fun.

Thanks for the heads up Strange Angel.

I initially played Dark Forces 2 way back in the 90's on my 486 computer. Back then it was a revolutionary game which allowed you to choose to play as an evil or good Jedi.

This innovative feature gave the game much more replay-ability because you could play the game from different perspectives, both of which had different cut scenes.

Since then I have played almost all of the Star Wars games, so far Kotor 2 has been a favourite.


The novelty of playing Darth Vader does sound exciting although from your review it does seem short lived.

Being forced to win the game as a good jedi does not sound very exciting and it seems like Lucas Arts are going backwards.


The Star Wars Old Republic (swtor) game is due to be released soon and from the hype it looks like the game is set to blow World of Warcraft and other MMORPG titles off the shelf.

I assume Lucas Arts are devoting most of their budget toward Swtor and I imagine the game will be more enjoyable and less restrictive than its current counterparts.


Time will tell but Swtor looks like its going to be next years big online title.

Yeahhh I played Jedi Academy along time ago, and that was really fun! I played a Twi'lek as they are like my favorite race, and got a few mods for it... Well the one I remember most vividly was the slicing opponents to pieces with your lightsaber. Which makes sense all things considers since it shouldn't take multiple hits from a lightsaber just to have a stormtrooper fall over and die. No you should slice and dice the cannon fodder!

I also loved dual wielding sabers in that game too. Also yes at the end when you choose between Light and Dark. When you choose dark you really go dark! Killing that annoying guy, then dicing through Jedi and Sith alike in the last level. Only to have the game end with you standing on a battleship with minions as a Sith Lord.

Y'see that's what I was kind of expecting from this game's "evil ending" but instead...



The new MMO looks fun, and actually this game has kind of gotten me into Starwars. While I swore off WoW, I may give SWG a try. I tried the free trial of the game, and it really looks cool. Plus I get to play a Sith Twi'lek! Yay! Plus lots of cool clothing and such it seems. I'm still a total newbie in SWG, so I'm really going to have a hard time at first I suspect. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it. I'm going to see if it's in the PC games section at Gamestop today, as yes I have to get lab work. I've been really sick lately. So I'll be out anyway.

I wonder does anyone here have any experience with SWG? I could really use some help when I start that game.

Jedi Academy was a very nice game indeed. I think it revolutionized the combat with light sabers, and if they made a Star Wars game that combined the combat from Force Unleashed, and Jedi Academy...I would very much like to try it out.

But getting into the lore of Force Unleashed. The game itself is actually the "centerpiece" of a multimedia project entitled...what else? "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed". And was another plot filler of the empty parts in the Star Wars Trilogy. Reading the novel and comics give you a far better view on the story, but here's something if you're interested....

If you want the FULL story of the Force Unleashed in a (pretty long) summary, read this article on the Protagonist of Force Unleashed, The Apprentice. WARNING: Spoilers are in multitude. And the link itself contains the Apprentice's real name. (Which is why it's in a spoiler.)


The true importance of the Force Unleashed is that it shows how the start of the Rebellion came, and also shows the first wedge that came in between Palpatine and Vader. (the ending) To which some time after, Vader really did take on a secret apprentice.


It was a really good game. But I VERY much liked Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, The Sith Lords far better. While they didn't give much into the combat aspects, they had a great storyline, great RPG elements, and gave you full control of if you were ;eaning towards the Dark Side or the Light Side.