Growing up as a skinny nerd, one of my favorite things to do was to play Star Wars games. Back then, there were good titles: X-Wing(tm): Alliance(tm), Super Empire Strikes Back(tm), and Dark Forces(tm): Jedi Knight(tm). As the prequels got released, more titles were released of lesser quality: Star Wars(tm): Episode 1-Battle for Naboo(tm), Star Wars(tm): Masters of Teras Kasi(tm), and so on. All the recent press of Star Wars(tm): The Force Unleashed(tm) got me excited, so I downloaded the demo only to be disappointed. Sluggish controls, respawning enemies, and a fairly uncreative environment (an Imperial base) were enough to get me to cancel my preorder of the game.

To be fair, the demo did a few things right. An original score has enough of a John William's flair and the graphics and physics feel appropriately as they would long ago in a galaxy far, far, away. It did have a brief tutorial on how to Force Grab (tm) and Force Shove (tm) things at other objects, but other subtleties to the controls weren't explained. A 3 second loading screen of the 360 controller explaining the function of 20 buttons isn't enough to show someone the ropes in a demo. As I controlled the secret Jedi Apprentice through his mysterious mission, tossing Stormtroopers (tm) into TIE Fighters (tm), I realized I don't really give a shit about Star Wars anymore. I've played too many games exploring metallic bases, slicing up robots and enemies whilst solving simple environmental puzzles to open doors.

Maybe I drank too much of the hype Kool-Aid (tm), but I was expecting a demo of this game to truly knock my socks off and make me feel like a kid again. Guess it's time to reread one of the Timothy Zahn novels again.

Am I the only person with negative opinions from the demo or not? Anyone?