Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Comments by Johnny Minkley

Comparing this game with DMC and NG series like rubberducko does, even GoW series does not make it look very good, I have to say. I have done the first three missions and the game is simply not designed tightly enough to be in the same class. The level design is not very inspired, the physics are excelent but their application is not just inconsistent but also quite sloppy. You can force push and force grip a lot of stuff but not always the stuff you actually want to push or grip. The enemy AI, Euphoria engine or not, is nowhere near the AI you'd find in any of the abovementioned games. The bossfights are really more about tricks than skills (although they have lovely cinematc camera angles) and the overreliance on QTEs defnitely breaks what little consistent gameplay quality you have there. I know GoW used to do it all the time, but there it was designed so that it is an addition to an otherwise very solid figting mechanic. Not so here, I'm afraid, QTEs replace your fighting skills, rather than complement them.

So it is broad in its approach to force powers, but rarely deep: there are many things you can do, many of them spectacular, but few of them matter and you can usually just go through the game not caring about any of it, just slashing and force pushing your way through.

My biggest gripe with it is of course the combat system that is simply not responsive or tight enough to be mentioned in the same sentence as DMC and NG (and, yes, GoW). Yes, there are combos in there, but the recovery time for many of the animations (such as standing up when being knocked to the ground) is so long, without an obvious way to cancel moves into other moves, that you actually end up just spamming the simplest of moves because anything more complex than that is sabotaged by the game that will not allow you to be more creative. Hence you are forced to button mash, but even that really slowly. I am by no means a top tier combat game veteran, but SWTFU simply feels slow and clunky in this respect. Comparing it to Ninja Gaiden II - because both games have instances where you fight many enemies - just shows that it is at least a class below. So far I have seen nothing in this game that could even hint that it could be near the NGII's infamous staircase battle.

After reading the educated review, I thought 7 was very much appropriate. Bravo. Eurogamer.

@Gearskin
And how can you consider the "downward spiral" of a franchise that has banked INSANE amounts of money for more than 20 years?

You obviously assume financial lucrativeness equals creative quality. I question that assumption.

Unless you were slightly retarded?

That's always a good approach to discussion.

Star Wars > You. George Lucas > You.

Yes, but even moreso, George Lucas > Star Wars consumers and thus you, because he still succeeds in suckering you out of your money on the basis of three or four admittedly excellent movies he made a long time ago...

Its a trend to make single player games way too easy

Hmmm... ok so it's a game you have to try and play rather than get through as quickly as possible? Normally, I like to get my £39.99 worth out of the games I buy so it sounds like a game I'll have to pick up. Just like Assassin's Creed... which I love.

This game looks and plays like a ps2 game in high res. Tearing and framerate drops all over. Boring level design and controls. imo

I REALLY thought by now, with the state of physics engines, next gen rendering and processor power, we'd see :

- locational object/env modification by a lightsaber : instead of a downward slice at a droid which always 'cuts' in a predefined way, any saber hit to it deofrms it at that angle, essentially a more dynamic interatcion.

- the ability to cut through walls, doors, etc : the arg here being you wouldnt be able to steer players down the game plot, however, if the devs were smart enough, make enough "expodable" pipes, wires, things in the way that would immediately kill you.

- stupid, pre-programmed button combos to defeat bosses : the whole AT-ST fight in the demo was laughable, they should have let you be able to cut the legs off, take chunks out, etc. Againg the arg being you'd not be able to control the player's path but if you made it more realistic, like loads of baddies you simply can't just "stand still" or stand and block, it would make the option of getting close enough to the walker more of a challenge.

I suppose they are just moans really. But by now I would have hoped for a bit more interaction of the saber with objects. :(

Oh, and items/baddies simply not just "vanishing" -- I really dislike that now in games.

I'm the person who bought the PSP copy. I suppose there will be another one sold, which will then be "backed up" and conveniently made available for "free appraisal of the complete product" for people who enjoy their "homebrew" PSPs ...sigh.

Anyway.

So far so good. I'd say 7/10 is a fair review score, remembering that this means you'll be having more fun than not when you play this game. Nice use of the PSP control system and well presented.

I'm impressed enough to want the PS3 version too.

1Dgaf: Wouldn't it have been better to mark the game 6/10, but include in the review 'Star Wars fans can add an extra point on for the story'?

+1 to what he said, as the review really reads like a 6/10 throughout.

on a side note i hereby demand to give Johnny Minkley more games to review as his style of writing is so enjoyable to read.

@TurdBreaker

I sympathise a bit about your comments but I can also see reasons why not to include some of those points as features.

Regarding cutting through doors and walls - the emphasis is on the Force powers in this game. As such you use your force powers to open the majority of the doors.THis part is a no-brainer really. As for cutting through walls I don't see any point if there is going to be a mechanic in place to stop your from doing it. They may as well keep what they have done. "Realistic" or not.

Defeating bosses isn't simply a button combo. The end portion is, but there is a fair amount of effort involved before hand to reduce their health/energy down. Sure it would be cool to be able to cut them down in any way you wish instead of the predetermined animated sequence but it would take up even more processing power.

My guess is that the euphoria engine running the AI/animation coupled with the physics engine leaves very little room for complex graphical details. Personally I'm happy with the game as it is, even if it does get a bit repetetive after a while.

I still enjoy spinning multiple daisy-chained enemies around like toys though!

Personally I think the game is an 8. I too thought the demo was mediocre but the full game is much better. I only bought it after one of the podcasts I watch (totally rad show) seemed to think it was a big deal.

Im not dissapointed.

Forget the demo. Forget this review. The game is great!

Hmmm... Reading the review, I'd say this is one game that definitely benefits of the Wii's motion controls. I've played the Wii version with a friend of mine in the weekend, and passing the controllers to each other, we basically had 5,5 hours of non-stop fun before we realized it was the middle of the night already and decided to call it a day (night?).

The game becomes a lot more interesting with the 2 Wii controllers, with your right hand (Wiimote) controlling your lightsaber and your left hand (Nunchuk) controlling the Force. It's incredibly satisfying to Force Push with a real push, Force Grip with a real grip (Z button), Force Slam with a slamming motion and such... Force Lightning with the C button feels right too, like you're just grasping the power within your hand. Oh, and you can slam two enemies/objects into each other by just gripping one with the Nunchuk/Z and then waving the Wiimote toward your other hand, suddenly controlling the Force with both hands.

We've had a few instances when the control scheme didn't work exactly like expected (mostly with the Wii locking on to other things than we expected), but for the most part the controls worked very, very well. After about 15-30 minutes of practice I found the controls to work so intuitive that I didn't have to think how to use them anymore. As a result, play was never just buttonbashing for me. It was always thinking of a move to use and instantly doing it.
A bunch of stormtroopers running my way? A quick push of my hand for a Force Push knocks most of them down so I can concentrate on the rest. Grab one by "grabbing" the Z button, then throw flick another into it from the side with the Wiimote. Getting jumped from behind? Quickly gripping C for Force Lightning buys you some time to get a bit of distance. Or just jump and slam the Wiimote down to slam your lightsaber into the ground for a shockwave, to get out of it if you're surrounded.

The comboes work just as intuïtively. Want to charge up an enemy with lightning and then throw it back creating a small explosion where he lands? Use Lightning and push with your hand for Force Push. Hit a 2 part lightsaber/Wiimote combo and you can follow up with a quick push of your hand to knock the enemy down. For as far as we got, it seemed your basic moves can be linked into each other for comboes which makes the controls feel very natural, at least for the comboes we bought.

The quicktime events are a let down tough. You just have to wave either the Nunchuk or the Wiimote when you're prompted to do so, in any direction, which isn't really that much fun to do.

If any of you have a Wii at home, I'd very much recommend checking out the Wii version. I must note the graphics are very bad when compared to some of the Xbox 360 footage I've seen, but the gameplay is probably a lot more satisfying. =)

One point I would disagree with: Felucia is my favourite planet from the movies (a shame we only saw it for like 10 seconds in Episode III) and it is easily the most alien, fascinating and imaginative world in the whole franchise.
The score though, is fair at first (I loved the demo, have yet to get the full game from my brothers once he's through), but does not fit the review. Weird.

However, the fact that the game managed to draw you in a second time probably saysmore about it than the whole rest of the review.

Against all my standards of not enjoying a demo I bought the SWTFU last weekend! Hey it couldn’t be worse than Mercenaries 2!

SWTFU is a very short game as I finished it the same day of purchase, it has moments of confusion where you are left wondering what to do and might get a bit stuck. QTE events in general I hate and always use God of War as a benchmark and they don’t match, in fact childsplay and unimaginative in comparison.

Everywhere Mercernaires 2 failed SWTFU succeeded in much as the graphics were clean, the effects were balanced, the sound effects and speech were appropriate and most important of all the FMV where watchable. Of which I found the story of this game to be absouloutly fantastic.

To all those asking questions about replay value I can say this, that as you power up yourself in an RPG sort of way, you won’t be maxed out by the time you finish the game. But playing the game again allows you to retain your Force from your last game. So I can see myself playing the title at least twice before sending to the bargain bin!

I thought this was a very credible, even handed review.

But I want to raise two key points.

Firstly, how is that Mario, a shortass plumber with a big tache, has been capable of avoiding death by falling over the edge of a cliff since the late 90s, while a Jedi Knight/ Sith Lord happily falls to his doom mid-combo on numerous occasions?

And secondly, and this is my real point, I want to raise the subject of 'delusions of grandeur', which perfectly sums up the game. Yes, the physics are impressive, no, the gameplay can be awful - but fundamentally, this is because it is a very linear, very basic game that has not an ounce of originality or intelligence. The only difference between now and games from 1982 is the graphics. FU typifies this in a very obvious way.

I've been playing both the PSP and PS3 versions since launch and I'm hugely impressed by both. I think the physics and AI make a massive difference to the experience. However, if you don't really enjoy 3rd person platformers, or think lineararity and traditional gameplay are not as important as innovation then they're going to be wasted on you. Personally I believe that if it ain't broke don't fix it. Nothing wrong with linear games, especially a story driven one like this. There's far too much emphasis on phrases like "open world" and "sandbox" to my mind.

One thing I have noticed is the differences between the two versions. Obviously the technology accounts for a great deal but it's also obvious that the PSP version has been developed with a great deal of consideration and skill. It's also better structured, with you having a "downtime" on the planetary missions and an "uptime" on your ship where you can go about your Jedi/Sith upgrades.

Finally, the story. If anyone can play this game without a tingle of excitement and surprised joy then they're obviously too young or too cynical to appreciate the magic of Star Wars in it's first run. When George Lucas said this game will make you think differently about the whole origonal trilogy he wasn't merely blowing smoke. Awesome.

This is a truly terrible game saved by a few force-gimmicks. 7/10 has corporate cockstroking written all over it.

I completely agree with the above.. It's buggy, the controls unresponsive, the camera flimsey as hell, and the gameplay is really, really poor, especially compared to other actiongames, like eg. DMC or Ninja Gaiden. And the guy's a Jedi, but he can't avoid attacks worth a damn. He can't do much more than roll around, IF you make use of the z-targetting, which incidentally is dangerous as hell, cause it's as flimsey as the camera. I expected acrobatics alá Castlevania: Lament of Innocence, but got Street Fighter 1987. The only thing the guy got going for him is infinite retries (yes, I played it on hard). Sad...

It's worth at most a 5/10, only because it has lightsabres and can be cool at times. Wait, no, actually, it deserves even less just for being Star Wars and this shoddy mess of a game.