Impressions: The Force Unleashed Demo
It was with great anticipation that I awaited the demo of The Force Unleashed to download over Xbox LIVE. After enjoying Knights of the Old Republic more than any of the three recent Star Wars movies, I was hoping for another Star Wars game to keep the legend alive. And though the demo is 99% combat, the story sequence to introduce it gave me chills as Vader delivered my instructions and sent me on my mission. (Even if the guy doing Vader's voice isn't quite as deep and rumbly as James Earl Jones...) The rest of the sound effects and music are dead-on accurate for Star Wars, and as expected, the graphics are stellar. That was never in question. The question is: How does it play?
Find out what I thought after the jump!
There's a tutorial included in the demo that only teaches you the force push, but since it's the power you'll use the most, it's good they give you some pointers. The first time I tried the demo, I was overwhelmed, but after doing the tutorial and getting the hang of tossing things around, it wasn't so bad. Aiming took some getting used to, but the second time around, I had very few problems destroying every Tie Fighter in the hangar. Fun!
Combat comes fast and furious, and as I was playing through on the easiest of the three difficulties offered, it didn't really offer too much of a challenge. Every enemy you kill gives of glowing green orbs of health you automatically absorb, so it's like one of my favorites, Legacy Of Kain, where replenishing your health is an incentive to kill everyone that crosses your path. Fun! Ripping apart bulkheads becomes second nature, and flinging debris at throngs of Stormtroopers is like a twisted kind of Star Wars bowling game. It can get a little frenetic here and there, but it never gets hard enough to be frustrating or overwhelming.
The only bit that got annoying was at the end where you face off against an AT-ST (God, I hate that I knew what it was called off the top of my head) and there are some quicktime button presses you have to match. I don't usually mind those, but here the buttons you have to press are kind of opposite of what you instinctively want to be doing at that moment. I don't want to jump, I want to swing my lightsaber! Oh, and speaking of lightsabers, that combat I'm still not sold on. Jumping has you flailing through the air swinging wildly above the heads of the enemy troops, and you seem to stay up there quite a long time. So I pretty much just threw things at the enemies, only going in for close combat when absolutely necessary. Hopefully in the full game, there's a nice lightsaber combat tutorial, and it'll feel more natural.
As with all good demos, it ends just when it was getting good, leaving you champing at the bit to play the full game. So far, the combat is wicked good fun, so if the storyline can live up to that (and from what I've heard so far, I'm hopeful), then I'm booking my ticket on the next Star Destroyer to a galaxy far, far away...
Wootini
Posted to Video Games on 22 August 2008
· Comments (10)
Other stuff like this: demo, impressions, star wars, the force unleashed, xbox live
The guy doing Vaders voice is CHAD Vader ^.^
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1623635/
I could not agree with you more. Graphics, Sound and play are top notch (PS3). Plus, how can you hear "yes my Master" and not have your lightsaber go off accidentally!
I was more than a little underwhelmed. They've been hyping this game up for 2-3 years, but I don't think it lives up to it.
I agree entirely that the story elements were excellent, and I'll definitely rent it just for the story. The fighting, however, feels dated and unimpressive. I don't really think of Heaveny Sword as raising the bar, but it clearly held the bar a lot higher than the fighting I found in the Force Unleashed demo. The controls felt cramped, the starting combos were very limited, and advancing on enemies seems to always been a choice between deciding to either dodge lasers clumsily or stand still and block.
On my third playthrough. I was regularly doing combos, (Square Square, Circle for instance is the force golf club swing), and force pushing boxes into groups of troopers...
Blew through that level with a vengeance, no game has made me feel like that big of a badass in a long time.
There's a sick satisfaction of tossing a storm trooper straight up into the air and then having the "long way down" bonus pop up 30 seconds later... or throwing them directly down into the pavement and seeing them bounce.
I played the demo 3 times. once testing out all the controls, one using only combat, and the third using only the force. shit. this game is better than i could have hoped for. when i got to bend the pier to make a tie fighter explode, when i got to throw a tie bomber into a crowd of storm troopers, and when I got to lift up a storm trooper holding up another storm trooper.... gosh... so good. i Haven't been excited to play a game in a while....
I really didnt care for the demo. If you slice someone with a lightsaber, wont it cut through their body? It shouldnt take 3-4 swings with a saber to take out a stormtrooper. Aslo, when you destroy a tie fighter (or any other ship), I dont want an explosion. I want bits and pcs. of these ships to go flying everywhere! Instead, they just sorta vanish into thin air. Whaaaa? Small little things like this should never be overloooked in games today. I say fix these issues and dont release the game until I am satisfied. Now go my son, and make my game complete.
Ok, how the hell do I trigger the special attacks against the AT-ST? Sometimes I have no problem getting them to come up, other times I keep attacking, the first one pops up, ignores my button pushing, and then nothing else happens.
*sigh* I remember when I used to like star wars quite a lot. Then George Lucas came along and made me HATE IT with every FIBRE OF MY BEING. Those prequel movies are garbage, and crap game after crap game continues to come out and I can't stand it anymore. The world is so over saturated with crappy star wars everything that I have truly come to hate star wars.
I think if everything that was released was quality, like the original movies were, things would be different. But it all sucks.
I have heard a lot of buzz about this game, people saying it will be different, but I just don't care anymore. To little to late.
The franchise is dead to me.
I just wish Lucas Arts would go back and make point and click adventure games again *sigh* those were the days.
Now if you'll excuse me I must go find my rubber chicken with the pulley in the middle.
It is bizarre and just sad how the lightsaber doesn't do what it should. I know they wanted to keep the dismemberment to a minimum so they get a teen rating, but they are alienating all the older fans that need to see limbs flying. It should be an update for the game. It is inexcusable that the lightsaber doesn't cut through bodies. No excuse for it. None. WTF?
I blame the censorship laws... I liked the Demo I thought it was great fun to play and I will definately buy the Game. However, I was a little disappointed that I didn't see a more realistic game, lightsabers should cut through everything, bodies, doors, but because they wanted a Teen rating Lucas arts decided to make a game that doesn't let you feel like you are acctually playing in the movie. If people didn't feel the need to protect young eyes from this stuff, well... I bet we would have a better game in our stores on Sept. 19th.