Opinion: Impressions Of The New $10 Level For Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

For $10 you can now download and play a new level of “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.”

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.

side comment: Even LucasArts appears to acknowledge with the inclusion of new character skins that the Jedi Temple level isn’t worth the full $10.

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?

+++The Jedi Temple level is the first offering of what will be a season of game-expanding downloadable content issued for major 2008 video games over the next few months. Next up are new levels or modes for “Tomb Raider,” “Mirror’s Edge,” “Fallout 3,” “Fable II,” “Burnout Paradise” and “Grand Theft Auto IV“.+++

Credit: Stephen Totilo

News you can use – Force Unleashed DLC now available!!!!

Not long after LucasArts loosed Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on a galaxy not so far away, the publisher said it was already melding a fresh batch of downloadable content for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions. Included in the pack, according to LucasArts, would be an all-new level featuring the Secret Apprentice that augments the single-player campaign. Without much of a warning this week, LucasArts said that the content is now available.

The aforementioned new mission will be set in the Jedi Temple, former center of the vanquished order’s power, on the city-world Coruscant. Playing as Darth Vader’s understudy, players will explore the ruins for clues to his origins in general–and his father in particular. The download will also include nine new character skins, letting gamers play through the single-player campaign as a variety of Star Wars staples ranging from purple-lightsaber-wielding Mace Windu to the sinister Darth Maul.

Source: LucasArts

Xbox Live – Downloadable *NEW* Content for Force Unleashed!!

Two new downloadable bundles include new locations and skins

LucasArts has released some new downloadable content for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on Xbox LIVE. There are two bundles available right now: the Jedi Temple Mission Pack and Character Pack.

The Jedi Temple Mission Pack is priced at 800 MS Points, the equivalent of $10, and allows players to visit the architectural marvel of Coruscant’s Jedi Temple, which now lies in ruins. Our clean-shaven apprentice continues his search for information regarding his past…

The Character Pack is half-price at 400 MS Points but brings little more to the table than new player skins. You’ll be able to run around dressed as a Republic Trooper, Tatooine Luke, Ben Kenobi, Jedi Master Plo Koon, Count Dooku (I wanna see that, actually), Jango Fett, or C-3PO. Three new costumes for the Apprentice include the Utility Combat Suit, Animated-style, and Spirit.

PSN should be seeing the DLC at some point, though no date has been given. According to Shacknews, there is a PSN update scheduled by the 5th of December, which may contain the Force Unleashed content.

Source: Xbox & LucasArts