Force Unleashed Could Have Been a Wookie “Superhero” Game…

Before eventually settling on the concept for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the game’s developers toyed with several other game ideas, including an “over-the-top” Wookie “superhero” game that was rejected by George Lucas himself.

In an interview published in the June 2010 issue of GamePro, LucasArts veterans Haden Blackman and Julio Torres recalled the time when, in early 2005, the team was tasked with creating an ambitious new Star Wars franchise that would be driven by a new videogame.

“At one point we were kicking around an idea where you were playing a Wookie,” recalled Blackman, who said the design was inspired by Hulk: Ultimate Destruction.

“It was going to be a big open world, and you’d be running around, and you’d be able to grab the heads of AT-STs and throw them at stormtroopers,” said Blackman. “It was a very over the top-style superhero game.”

According to Blackman, the idea was rejected by George Lucas himself, who said that the new game franchise needed to focus on character interaction and dialog.

“He just looked at me and said, ‘I just spent the last half hour talking to you about the importance of characters talking to each other, and you pitch me a game idea where the main character can’t talk?” said Blackman.

Earlier today, LucasArts announced that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II will be available October 26.

‘Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II’ arriving October 26

How appropriate this news lands on Star Wars Day: LucasArts says it will release action game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II on October 26, according to an update on the game’s official Facebook page.

The game is a follow-up to 2008′s Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which chronicles the secret apprentice of Darth Vader between the events of the Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope films.

The first Force Unleashed title went on to become one of the year’s most successful games for LucasArts. When the sequel was announced last December, the publisher revealed the first game had sold nearly 7 million copies worldwide.

- Rumor – : Star Wars Battlefront III ‘not currently’ at Pandemic

Despite the rumor to the contrary, it appears that Star Wars: Battlefront III is not in development at Pandemic, the studio responsible for the first two games. Just last week an employee from Rebellion — where Battlefront III development moved after its initial stint at Free Radical — reportedly stated that development had shifted to Pandemic. According to Mathew Everett, community manager at Pandemic, the game “is not currently” with the studio. He added that only LucasArts would know the fate of the title at this point.

Depending on your point of view, this news is either a terrible blow or a tremendous relief (unless you’re just middlin’, of course). Given the popularity of the most recent Star Wars title, The Force Unleashed, we imagine Battlefront III will find a home somewhere. Here’s hoping Jabba is finally playable.

Force Unleashed: Fun but flawed

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.

Zombieville USA, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed get free, lite versions in the AppStore

Two popular iPhone games, Zombieville USA and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, got the free, lite versions in the AppStore. And while we see this as a good thing — now when every iPhone/iPod Touch user will be able to try these games out before spending some money — I must say I was disappointed with both titles. The problem is that both demo versions are super short. It takes about 5 minutes to complete the Star Wars demo level and even less for the Zombieville USA. However, I must be fair to add that both games seem quite entertaining and that I’ll probably push the button and acquire full versions. Still, even though we’re talking about “lite” versions, I did expect to see something that could be played for at least 15 minutes. This way it’s kinda ridiculous. Sure the idea is to make money and push free version downloaders into buying full-blown apps, but folks – give us just a little bit more (like 2 more levels) and we’ll love you even more. People who don’t want to buy your games, won’t buy them even if you provided 3 free levels, and showing some respect to the regular folks, which I believe are a majority of iPhone users, could be certainly beneficial in the long run.

Here’s a link to the free Zombieville USA version and here’s the link to free Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

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