Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo Review
Get an Early Preview of Jedi Action Now on Xbox Live and PSN
Aug 21, 2008
Lucasarts has done the impossible. They’ve actually made a Star Wars game in which using a lightsaber is the least of the fun things to do.
The excellent demo for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed hit Xbox Live and Playstation Network today and avid Star Wars gamers who had their appetites whetted by the Clone Wars movie have been downloading it relentlessly.
The Mission: Jedi Assassination
The demo is the first part of a Jedi assassination mission. Players control The Apprentice, Vader’s nameless protégé on a secret mission to track down and kill one of the few surviving Jedi masters within an Imperial base. Vader wishes to keep The Apprentice’s existence a secret, so he orders him to kill everyone in the base, Rebel and Imperial alike.
The game plays like a hybrid of Xbox/PS2 action game Psi-Ops and the PC/Xbox Star Wars game Jedi Academy. Players use an assortment of force powers including force lightning, force push, and the amazing force grip along with the Jedi’s traditional lightsaber.
Force Grip
Force grip is the highlight of gameplay. By holding down the right trigger, players can lift and manipulate most of the objects in the environment. Releasing the trigger while pushing the analog stick in any direction sends the object flying. Using force grip, players can lift stormtroopers and rebel soldiers and send them hurtling into their comrades or nonchalantly hold them over a bottomless chasm and let go.
Exploding barrels or heavy containers can be hurled into enemy troops, resulting in bonus experience points for creative kills. There seems to be no limit to the objects that The Apprentice can lift. During a fight inside a hangar bay, players can lift TIE fighters from their rails and hurl them at stormtroopers and rebel soldiers.
Force grip can be used in many other creative ways, as well. In one part of the demo, TIE fighters are streaking by the walkway taking potshots at The Apprentice. Observant players will notice a bulkhead that can be bent out of position and into the path of the oncoming fighters. Apply force grip to the bulkhead and the next TIE fighter ends up a pile of smoking debris.
Slice an AT-ST in Half
The demo ends with the player confronting an AT-ST walker and several stormtroopers. After dispatching the troopers, the player enters into a timed button pressing mini game (a la God of War) and finishes off the walker by slicing it in half with one long lightsaber stroke.
If the rest of the game is anywhere near as fun as this single partial level, Lucasarts could have a massive hit on their hands. The myriad creative uses of force powers and destructible environment set pieces combine to create an inspired new take on the Jedi action game. As much fun as it is to drop, crush, and toss enemies with force grip, players may find themselves not using their lightsabers at all.
The Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo is now available on Xbox Live and Playstation Network. The full game hits stores on September 16.
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