Redemption

It is always about redemption.  Whether it takes six episodes or just one fantastic game, it is always about redemption.  By green-lighting the huge multimedia project (game, book, comic) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, George Lucas maybe asking us Star Wars fans for redemption.  After all, he messed things up completely when he released Star Wars Episodes I, II and III. I finished The Force Unleased last night and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the story -- which was not penned by George Lucas, though from what I read Lucas had a good deal of say in what happened in the story. The gameplay was a bit of a mixed bag, so I am glad that the story was so strong that it carried the game along to the end.  There were some serious twists that came out of nowhere for me and the ending was very satisfying. The game's story was so engaging that my wife actually got into it.  "I knew he would do that!"  She exclaimed once.  "Of course that happened he is a Sith!"  She blurted out another time.  And this is from a woman who is by far not a Star Wars fan. For the story alone, I would recommend this game.  Be forewarned though, there are some very frustrating bits about the game. SPOILERS AHEAD This is your warning.  Do not read any further if you plan on playing the game. Going back to redemption:  There are a lot of plot points in the game that feel like Episode IV, V and IV plot points.  The story itself is one that follows the basic Darth Vader arc -- a guy that embraces the Dark Side, then figures out that things aren't what he wants them to be, sets out to fix things and eventually redeems himself.  This is not a bad thing, but it did feel oh-so-familiar. Lets start with the good stuff (outside of the story):

• The Force:  I loved how they amped up the Force powers for the game.  It just feels so visceral when shocking a Storm Trooper.  Force Repel has a rewarding "woosh".  And I just loved Force Gripping a Storm Trooper and throwing him down a canyon -- priceless.  All the Force powers just feel powerful and that is very cool.
• Make Your Own Character:  The experience and upgrade system of the game makes it very playable.  I can upgrade the powers that I want, I can upgrade my moves and I can upgrade my skills.  I love being able to build my own character as I progress through a game.  After finishing the game, I took my more powerful character and played the first level again.  Storm Troopers that took multiple slashes of my Lightsaber to kill the first time around were now butter to a hot knife.
• Special Moves:  There are some pretty wicked special moves that are activated with specific on-screen led button pushes.  I particularly like the one where I can cut an AT-ST in half.  Whoa, cool!
• The Graphics:  The graphics are pretty fantastic.  There are times when the graphics suck bad (the Wookie level felt really flat).  But, otherwise the graphics in the game are fantastic.
• The Sound:  This game sounds awesome, especially when played with a 5.1 surround setup.
• The Twists:  The twist where Vader takes his Lightsaber to Starkiller was quite shocking.
• The Rebel Alliance:  Showing how the Rebel Alliance was formed, especially showing how it was formed by Vader and the Emperor, was something I never would have thought up.  And after it was revealed, it's something that makes complete sense.
• The Length:  I played the game on Apprentice level (the easiest one) so that I could see the story.  It took me just shy of seven hours to finish.  This was with me half-heartedly looking for the extra stuff hidden throughout the levels.  Some may say this is a short game, but I think it is just right.  I am going to go through the game once again on the next difficulty level using my more powerful Starkiller -- I want to find more of the hidden stuff throughout the levels and see how powerful I can make Starkiller.  Maybe it is just me, but I don't like 40-hour games.
• The Cinematics:  The kinematics are very well-done.  What really helped them was the wide array of facial expressions that the characters achieved.
• The Cameos:  Obi-Wan and Darth Maul!  Holy crap!  Darth MAUL!  That was awesome being able to fight Darth Maul.

• The Camera:  The game camera and lock-on system sucked in wide open spaces (and there's a lot of them).  Trying to activate Force Grip on something usually doesn't work because the system doesn't know what to lock onto.  This is tres frustrating.
• The Jumping Puzzles:  Oh come on LucasArts.  Jumping puzzles are such a last century Tomb Raider gameplay mechanic.  The junk world was particularly bad with jumping puzzles.
• The Star Destroyer:  This sequence could have been one of the coolest video game sequences ever.  But, it fails because of multiple things.  First, the onscreen control guides are flawed.  The don't tell you the right thing to do most of the time and the way the controls look onscreen are different than what should actually be done.  Second, wave after wave of Tie Fighters gets old really quick.  To make matters worse, the stupid Star Destroyer moves back into its original position when you let go.  WTH?  There are no words for how much I hated this sequence and how sad it makes me feel that a potentially awesome sequence was completely ruined.
• Special Moves:  Ok, while the special moves are cool, there aren't enough of them.  What I mean is that in one long sequence, there are four Rancors to kill.  The ending special move on each one was exactly the same -- leading to my wife asking, "How come you keep using the same move on those things?"  There are also special moves for killing off Jedi and fighting Darth Vader and the Emperor.  The only issue here is that I had to concentrate on the lower part of the screen to see which button to push.  This distracted from watching the cool moves being done.
• The Moves:  There is a laundry list of moves that can be unleashed by Starkiller on normal enemies.  The problem is that they are usually a long string of button pushes that need to be memorized.  This means that the game is a lot of button mashing when there are many enemies on the screen.
• Extras:  There are not many extras outside of being able to play key cinematics, look at concept art, and watching some trailers.  I would love to see an online aspect to the game.  Maybe some trophies also.
• Load Times:  There are load times all over the place for The Force Unleashed -- including going in and out of menus from gameplay.  This would not be bad if not for the fact that The Force Unleashed installs itself on the hard drive:  An almost 3GB install.  The only time that the load times get frustrating is when you die.  It takes upwards of two to three minutes for the game to reload the level so that you can try again.
• Unbalanced Enemies:  I hate Purge Troopers.  Let me say it again:  I hate Purge Troopers.  Why?  Because these guys are seemingly more powerful than an AT-ST.  WTH?  Why?  The enemies in the game are very unbalanced at times and some of them (like the Purge Troopers) are illogically more powerful than they should be.