The Frustration Unleashed

Soooooo, I'm kind of frustrated.

The first trailer for The Force Unleashed 2 was just released not long ago. I watched it and really enjoyed it. It was full of gratuitous lightsaber usage, gratuitous force power usage and gratuitous jedi...ing. It looked amazing, and showed the force, well, unleashed. I mean, the apprentice vaporized the unfortunate Stormtroopers that stood near the radius of his force explosion. That's awesome! Star Wars is awesome! Anticipation and all that! And then it set in.

I recalled the trailers for the first Force Unleashed. I recalled how awesome they were, with a whole Star Destroyer being pulled out of the sky by the sheer will of the apprentice. I recalled the anticipation, and the short Euphoria engine demos that promised revolution. And I recalled the QTEs that transformed what were supposed to be awesome, cinematic, and immersive moments of ultimate force unleash. The disappointment. The repetition. The average game that came in place of these great pre-rendered works of art. It's something that has plagued video games as a whole for a long time. Killzone 2, Final Fantasy both fell prey to this. They weren't bad games, by any means, but they both went through some controversy in the same regard as TFU2.



The Force Unleashed, however, is one of the main offenders. After a couple of hours of gameplay, it became tiresome, and the weight of broken promises pulled the whole thing down. Pre-rendered cutscenes have their place, and they are good to introduce and breakout with a game, but when they are followed up by an undeniably lesser product, things fall apart, fast.

I love The Force Unleashed's trailers for what they are, but as a means of showing off what the game was to be bringing us in the future, I was just left disappointed. And when I see all the anticipation in the comments on this latest trailer, I'm just reminded of the same cycle occurring upon the first game's release. Anticipation, more anticipation, and then disappointment.

So developers, get real with what you're promising. If your game is going to be riddled with QTEs, repetitive fighting systems, and limiting environments, don't show me what you simply can't deliver. So as much as I love the new trailer, I won't be viewing it as a in any way related to, or indicative of the product it is intended to advertise. What place do you feel pre-rendered scenes have in video games? And what do you think about their use, specifically in The Force Unleashed?