So I rented The Force Unleashed a few days ago and beat probably an hour ago. I have come to think that it is a special kind of game that despite some lousy gameplay mechanics and design choices, the story makes up for the crap and creates a better over all package. Another game I feel that falls into this category is Lost Odyssey, just to give you some perspective.
Lets bring up some examples of stupid game design. First of all, the camera, BOY DOES IT SUCK. I haven't heard anyone praise it, so I'll guess everyone agrees with that. And added to the stupid camera, you have a stupid targeting system. Bad camera + bad targeting system = baaaad times. More issues arise in the boss fights, a lot of them are so trial and error until you find out the one set of moves that will work. Boss fights usually included me yelling swears and waking up my roommate. Especially in the last few fights with Vader and the Emperor.
More issues arise in the use of the Force. It goes from "I AM THE MOST POWERFUL FUCKING JEDI/SITH LOOK AT ME PULL DOWN THIS MOTHERFUCKING
STAR DESTROYER" to "I can't pick up that Storm Trooper... WHY THE HELL NOT?!" I mean, really there are some parts of the game where you are by far the strongest thing EVER, stronger than Yoda, Vader, Emperor, Obi Wan EVERYONE. Could Yoda pull down a Star Destroyer? Hell no, that midget could barely hold a chunk of metal from crushing Anakin and Obi Wan. Then some upgraded Storm Trooper defies all logic and brushes off the force like a bit of dandruff. Makes NOOOOOO SENSE.
Though you can call those crappy screw ups a...
disturbance in the force (had to) I still stay the story is the saving grace. I'm not gonna go into the "Well you see you play as Vader's secret apprentice" because quite honestly, everyone knows that already. The things that I found amazing about the game is just how much it actually tied the two trilogies together. Starkiller being the creator of the Rebel Alliance? Darth Vader actually being the reason the Alliance was created? Holy crap. Vader's betrayal before the last level was just amazing because it jetted him to a high point of "which side is he really on?" Of course he helped the Emperor and said that he had just been using Starkiller, but did he really NOT intend Starkiller to rise up? Just thinking about little things like that makes the game's story awesome.
From what I've seen it's a common thought that this game's story would be a better fit for a movie than the "first" three are. It has action, LOTS of action, betrayal, drama, romance, and tons of fan service. For me the story completely made up for all the short comings of the game itself. Different people will definitely take different things away from the game. If they're not a Star Wars fan it will be an average action game, but if they are a Star Wars fan they could take away one of the best stories to be featured in the main time line (Episode I-VI)
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I agree with the comment on the story being a good movie. Of course, I thought the recent animated clone wars movie would have made an awesome replacement for Episode 2 (minus the gay hutt character).
After beating the game, I went back and read some reviews. I don't understand the problems people have with the camera. It was in the right place where I needed it 99% of the time. Occasionally on a tight corridor it might get out of hand, but using spacial reasoning (read: my brain) I knew where the guy was off camera. Force targeting ended up being a bit of a mess since there was so much stuff to throw around. It took me less than 3 minutes to pull down the star destroyer on the first try so I can't sympathize or empathize with the folks that took an hour to get the job done.
The story is by far the best thing about the game. Especially the multiple endings. But I agree that the force was too inconsistent. I realize it would get old if u just ran through the game and everything died at the mere sight of u but cmon. Pull down a star destroyer and then u cant pick up a royal guard?
I also agree that this game would have made a better (and really good) movie. Unfortunately, the gameplay fucked it up for me; in the end i didnt even play through it, i just watched parts of it while my flatmate played (although i did a couple of things, since i tend to be better at using a controller; i figured out how to pull down that fucking star destroyer, one of the worst designed sequences ive ever suffered through).
I also just couldnt get over how inconsistent the game was both with the movies, and ITSELF, for f's sake. I was just dumbfounded when some sparks killed me in seconds, while the super-heated plasma fired by my enemies weapons did shit all.
Overall the gameplay made the game hard on EASY, and im guessing they did very little outside testing if they missed that.
It really doesnt help that everything this game is bad /terrible at, the jedi knight games did well (and mostly vice versa, ironically). I was hoping for improvement, not regression.
Yeah, totally agree that the story more than made up for the short-comings of the control scheme. And I didn't have very many problems with the camera, except for when it fixed during boss fights and I couldn't see the whole arena.
Speaking of boss fights, those were some of the cheapest fucking fights I've ever had the pleasure to fight through. And bringing down the star destroyer was a pain in the ass due to it not telling you where you needed to bring the ship too after a certain point. Took me thirty/forty five gotdang minutes.
So, yeah, definitely a rental, worth at least one play through. Also, the first room in the last level was bullshit. Just saying.
The first room of the last level WAS bullshit... that is until I found out god damn near everyone skipped it by using force repulse on the floor that you go through.