The Force: Unleashed Review

The Force: Unleashed is the latest game from Lucas Arts and takes place between Episodes III and IV. The game uses the Euphoria Engine along with the standard Havok Physics. The game sets you in the shoes of Darth Vader's secret apprentice and has you traipsing across the galaxy in standard 3rd player action fare, despite all the hype of unleashed force powers, the euphoria engine and other techie buzz words.

Gameplay: 7/10

Pros: The story is definitely interesting especially for star wars fans. The game starts out with a bang and the force powers are increbily entertaining to use and toy around with in the first 2-3 stages...

Cons: The game gets less fun and more frustrating as you move along. Enemies become cheap, and immune to your nifty force powers or are just too overwhelming to use the entertaining force grip. Leveling up doesn't really unlock anything new...combat gets repetitive.

Graphics: 7/10

Pros: The graphics are definitely AAA and the levels are all gorgeous. Using real actors to motion-cap adds authenticity.

Cons: The enemy animations are fantastic but oftentimes at a distance and wasted. Act 2 has you retread all the same planets from Act 1, as a result enemies are reused and it all just gets repetitive.

Sound/Music: 9/10

Pros: The Star Wars scoring and sound fx as always are excellent. The voicework is definitely above par for a video game and just as good as one of the canonical star wars movies.

Cons: I'm pretty sure they got some impressionists for Princess Leia and Vader...just not the same.

Lasting Appeal: 5/10

Pros: The Story is definitely worth seeing through to the end.

Cons: No real replay value, no multiplayer or noteworthy modes other than the single player campaign.

Average: 72.50%

Tilt: -0.50%

This is an absolutely perfect game to rent, beat and throw away. The gameplay is very fun in the first few hours and after that the story is worth suffering through the repetition and cheapness in the final levels. I guess if you are a huge star wars fan this warrants a purchase, but otherwise this game just has no legs other than its story. It would have benefited from a lot more RPG character leveling and more force abilities.

Verdict: 72%