Definitely a step in the correct direction for LucasArts, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed represents what is both right and wrong with gaming today. It features a relatively unique style of play, as well as a sort of new perspective on the creation of the rebellion in Star Wars.

It fits into a 3rd-person fighting game in the vein of God of War or Devil May Cry, as far as you play one strong, powerful individual against hordes of hapless foes. That, however, is where the comparison ends, because, as awesome as Kratos was, he couldn’t pluck TIE Fighters out of space and drop them on stormtroopers.
You play as Galen Marek, the secret apprentice to Darth Vader code-named ‘Starkiller.’ Vader discovers him, a force-gifted young child, after hunting and killing his Jedi father during a gameplay sequence where you actually play as the Dark Lord, running around Kashyyk and force choking Wookies. After which Starkiller is trained in the dark side of the Force to kill Jedi, and eventually, according to Vader, overthrow the Emporer with him. Naturally, there’s betrayal, brutality, and confusing emotion (much like most other Star Wars offerings) throughout the story.
The story takes getting used to, as odd as that sounds. Most folks come into the game expecting Starkiller to be this incredibly stoic, merciless tough guy like Kratos, but he appears to have motivation and drive beyond selfishness and bloody-minded brutality. This might alienate some folks expecting otherwise, but the character does fit decently after one gets used to it. Occasionally the dialogue gets awkward with the new Star Wars trademark of forced humor, but the instances are pretty rare.

The gameplay works very well and the mechanics are fluid and intuitive. The Force powers you acquire throughout are as entertaining as they are brutal, and there really just isn’t anything like tapping a button to lift a fellow then hurl him into the stratosphere. Of course, some aspects make it really suck. Such as when the character gets knocked over by an opponent. The other people you’re fighting surround you while you loll on the ground counting the stars around your head and pummel you into a gooey paste. This especially happens in boss fights, and you will simply lose before you realize you’ve been knocked over.

A few design choices are not always the greatest, either. It seemed difficult to contemplate a scenario where pulling a Star Destroyer out of atmosphere into a planet would be anything but awesome, but Force Unleashed found a way to muck it up. Instead of just a cutscene, you enter a sort of ‘boss battle.’ Swarms of TIEs come at you, which you have to painstakingly destroy. Then you must use the thumbsticks to properly align the nose of the warship before entering a pull-down sequence. Then it sends another flock of TIEs. While you fight them, its nose tilts to the side again, and you have to re-align it before pulling again. You have to do this around four or five times, and it gets really frustrating.

Overall, however, in spite of bad design choices and other frustrating issues, Force Unleashed fits a niche very similar to Assassin’s Creed: it’s got its flaws and frustrations, but the overall experience is still very fun with plenty of unique things to make it worth a playthrough or two.

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Playstation 3

1. Prince of Persia

2. Call of Duty: World at War

3. Resistance 2

4. Fallout 3

5. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

6. Far Cry 2

7. Need for Speed: Undercover

8. James Bond 007: Quantum of Solace

9. Mirror’s Edge

10. Little Big Planet

Playstation 2

1. Call of Duty: World at War – Final Fronts

2. Need for Speed: Undercover

3. NHL 09

4. Guitar Hero: World Tour

5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

6. LEGO Batman

7. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009

8. Shaun White Snowboard

9. Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

10. Sonic Unleashed

Xbox 360

1. Gears of War 2

2. Prince of Persia

3. Fallout 3

4. Call of Duty: World at War

5. Left 4 Dead

6. Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

7. Far Cry 2

8. Fable II

9. Need for Speed: Undercover

10. Saints Row 2

Wii

1. Wii Music

2. Animal Crossing: City Folk

3. Shaun White Snowboard

4. NHL 2K9

5. Clone Wars: The Animated Series

6. Mario Party 8

7. Need for Speed: Undercover

8. Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party

9. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

10. Call of Duty: World at War

Source: Blockbuster

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Last July I managed to get my hands on a Nintendo Wii for my girlfriend’s birthday gift. We both love it, but I must confess that I got a little bored with it after a while-primarily because we played the same games over and over.

I can only bowl so many times…

Now, if you’ve read any other stuff in my blog, you know that I’m a ridiculous over-the-top Star Wars junkie. You can’t look in any direction in my office without encountering some sort of Star Wars toy
, book, comic, or statue.

So when I heard that LucasArts and Krome Studios were releasing the new Star Wars game, The Force Unleashed, for the Wii… well, let’s just say I got a tad bit excited.

I awaited its release in the same way that Ralphie yearned for that Red Rider B-B gun in “A Christmas
Story.” And my girlfriend, being the cool person that she is, noticed. In a surprise maneuver, she purchased not only the game, but also lightsaber attachments for the Wii controllers.

And now my arms hurt-in a good way. This game does not disappoint.

The story is quite intriguing and slides comfortably into the Star Wars continuity. You play Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. In a gambit to overthrow the Emperor, you are sent on training missions to not only gain strength in the Dark Side of the Force, but also to destroy the few rogue Jedi left alive after Order 66 wiped them out at the end of the Clone Wars. On the way you travel all across the Star Wars universe and battle many different creatures and machines-including a Star Destroyer. And, as with all morality plays, you come to a crossroads and have to decide between turning to the side of light or brandishing the powers of evil.

While the Wii doesn’t sport the same graphics quality as the Playstation 3 and the X-Box 360, the innovative gameplay makes for quite an immersive experience.

Though movement of the player (i.e. running, walking, and turning) are controlled via the thumb stick on the Wii nunchuck, the rest of the game is almost all physical. You control your lightsaber like… well, a lightsaber. You swing the controller, the lightsaber acts accordingly.

Want to slam bad guys against a wall? Simply push forward with your arm; the nunchuck transmits this movement to the Wii and enemies go flying-as well as crates, broken glass, explosives, and whatever else is in your path. Want to shoot lightning? Simply hit a button.

The sheer delight of destruction reigns supreme in this game. Things blow up-a lot of things. Glass shards fly everywhere. Huge metal beams get ripped from walls (and hopefully thrown to pummel bad guys). Electricity arcs between destroyed computer conduits. It’s quite impressive.

There are three physics engines employed by the game:

The Havok Engine: Controls the movement of objects.

The Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) Engine: Regulates which substances an object is made of (i.e. metal, rock, plant, glass, etc.).

The Euphoria Engine: Ascertains how enemies interact with the environment. This is particularly interesting in that it means that no enemy will act the same way twice. Their actions are contingent on the destruction you choose to wreak around them.

One of the downsides of the Wii is that it is not graphically advanced enough to utilize all of these engines to their greatest effect. But that’s where the unique control systems of the Wii come to play-as well as a bonus.

A mode exclusive to the Wii is the Two-player Duel. Wanna open up a can of whoop-ass on a buddy? This is a pretty good way to do it without really coming to fisticuffs.

This mode is made even more fun if you have a lightsaber atttachment for your Wii controller.

In my case, the “lightsabers” are actually Wii Glo Swords from Nintendo. Apparently LucasArts is developing a lightsaber attachment of their own that will be more true to the designs seen in the films-but a release date has yet to be announced.

The Wii controller clicks into a slot on the sword. While a bit top-heavy, due to the location of the three AA batteries needed to power the LED illuminated “blade,” they still add another level of immersion to the gaming experience. Thanks to the tiny speaker in the Wii controller, they sound real as well. The controller also vibrates in sync with the actions performed on screen.

Plus they also look way-cool if you’re drunk and messing around with your camera:

One complaint I have about The Force Unleashed experience is the in-game camera. Perspective is everything when you’re in a lightsaber duel and it simply maneuvers too slow; this can result in your character being attacked without you knowing what’s happening. The Wii controls take a bit of practice to get used to; it would help if you could always see what was going on.

It would be nice if this game somehow integrated with the Wii Fit to incorporate balance into the mix. Or if Nintendo and the various software companies could come up with another controller that you put in your pocket that would emulate walking and running. That way you could truly get a workout
.

But ya know… This is one of the more entertaining experiences I’ve had while destroying evil minions of the Galactic Empire.

May the Force Be With You. Or is it… May the Wii Be With You? Either way, you’re in for something special.

Source: Inventor Spot

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It was, as “The Force Unleashed” project lead, Haden Blackman, said in October, highly destructive. It distinguishes itself from the original levels of “Force Unleashed” by the amount of breakable, toss-able, and combustible stuff which your Jedi-on-steroids can crunch, crash and crush.

The new DLC level is set in the Jedi Temple on the plant of Coruscant during a moment wedged between levels of the original “Force Unleashed” game. The playable protagonist, the Dark Apprentice, has come to the Jedi Temple to learn his past. Mostly, though, he spends his time violently deactivating droids and killing stormtroopers with hurricane intensity.

Blackman had stated that it wasn’t old content kept from the paying consumers of the disc-based game. The new level was created after the completion of that disc-based game, so he assured that it would benefit from his development team’s experience on the core project.

A key learning was that the original game was balanced in a way that unintentionally encouraged players to neglect using all of their Force powers except lightning and primarily fight with a lightsaber combos. This new Jedi Temple returns the Force powers — primarily the ability to lift object and hurl them — to the lead weapon in the player’s arsenal. There are not many rooms in the Jedi Temple, but those that the player enters are full of large statues, explosive vases and massive models of planetary systems begging to be turned into bowling boulders. There is lots of stuff to check.

So you enter the Temple. You fight a lot. You tear up the scenery a lot. There are a few puzzles, more than were in the entire original game. It’s good fun. But reminders of unfixed “Force Unleashed” flaws do surface.

The camera can still frustrate. And the use of the Force to do seemingly simple things — like lifting a heavy door from a doorway so you can get through it without being shot to death — don’t always work without some extra fiddling of the controller.

The level takes a full hour to play the first time (on the second difficulty level, at least) because it can get hard. There are a lot of enemies to fight and at least one tough restart checkpoint. Unfortunately, this bonus adventure ends abruptly, clipping its own little story. It’s strange, because the original game so superbly and completely delivered its own tale.

Your hero is slightly different in the DLC. Players get a new outfit for the Dark Apprentice in this level. Despite Blackman telling me that the developers would force players to re-spec their character from scratch, you do seem to be playing with the character whose powers you upgraded in the core game. You’re given added Force points to spend on upgrades you may not have bought yet, but there are no new powers.

For their $10 players will also receive some extra skins for their character, allowing cosmetic switches to several characters, including Samuel Jackson Jedi Mace Windu.

Is the “Jedi Temple” worth the money? The value of downloadable content is hard to judge. Do you calculate based on the time it takes to play it? By the graphics? By the worth of experiencing a development team’s first learnings from making the game they had just completed? By the pleasure of there being something new to play of a game you beat two months ago?

DLC Screenshot (1)

Credit: Stephen Totilo

DLC Screenshot (2)

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Wii Screenshot

In Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels, you become immersed in a plot by the Separatist forces to kidnap Jabba the Hutt’s son. Attempting to avoid any image of the events leading to Jabba actually having a son, you play as Obi-Wan, Anakin and Anakin’s young Padawn Ahsoka Tano while battling against the likes of General Greivous, Count Dooku and — yes, another secret apprentice — Asajj Ventress.

I’m thinking someone at LucasArts decided everyone in the known universe needed an apprentice. Next they’ll all get magic rings.

Lightsaber Duels is a lighthearted and well-produced game that provides some fun to casual gamers, but it falls far short of delivering on the potential of a Star Wars-based fight game.

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels – Pros and Cons

Pros

* The campaign mode takes you through the story with some nice cut scenes.
* Occasional lightsaber clashes with the enemy provide the opportunity to exchange witty quips
* The best two-out-of-three matches provide their own mini-cut scenes and you sometimes move from one battlefield to another
* A very kid-friendly and family-oriented fight game

Cons

* The controls can be quite unwieldy and unresponsive at times
* Lacks the strategy and challenge found in other fight games

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels – Gameplay

The gameplay of Lightsaber Duels is relatively simple to master. You have five basic lightsaber attacks executed by moving the Wii remote left, right, up, down or straight ahead. You can block by hitting the B button, jump or roll by hitting the A button, and move with the thumbstick on the nunchuk. You can also execute force powers with the nunchuk similar to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, though much more simplified.

In addition to multiplayer matchups and single player fights, you can also play through a campaign mode that takes you through the story of Lightsaber Duels or play in a challenge mode where you are asked to achieve certain goals like defeating Obi-Won without using the force.

Lightsaber Duels Review – Falling Short of Expectations

The ideal audience for Lightsaber Duels is not the person who has played through every version of Virtua Fighter and who couldn’t wait to get their hands on Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.

If you are really into fight games, you will be sorely disappointed with the game.

It’s also not for the person waiting to see a sword fighting game that really makes great use of the Wii’s controls, or a game with high challenge level.

True fight game fans will quickly become frustrated with unresponsive controls and tactics that pretty much just boil down to spamming combo after combo while largely ignoring all force powers other than force strike.

Lightsaber Duels Review – A Teen-sized Fight Game

But Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels is not without merit. Aimed squarely at the teen market, the game can be a great choice for the pre-teen and the early-teen.

The mini-games in the lightsaber clashes, for example, might frustrate the hardcore fight game enthusiast, with the sometimes-unresponsive controls being a major annoyance, but a younger audience might well be too entranced with the witty banter to acknowledge the mini-game’s sore points.

And somewhere between the cut scenes, light-hearted dialogue and lightsaber clashes, there’s something a little magical going on for the Star Wars fan — it’s just unfortunate that the magic cannot overcome the game’s deficits for the rest of us.

Verdict:

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels Review

More of a family game than a true fighting game, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels can be split between its intended audience, which it does a fair job of pleasing, and those who anticipated it delivering some cool lightsaber-fightng action, who will be sorely disappointed in the game. As such, I’ve split the difference between the 80 I would give it for the early and pre-teen and the 64 I would give it for anyone else.

Wii Box Image

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