Force Unleashed First Impressions; Demo

Star Wars has been a big deal in a lot of geeks lives for the better part of 30 years; crossing media streams from Movies to cartoons to video games and beyond. Some of these installments haven't been so pretty – or were pretty with absolutely no substance.

The last 3 official movies have made the majority of us think; Why do you hate us so? Even the latest cartoon release in theaters made me cringe...So its nice to finally see a break from that trend. The video games of the same name have been back and forth from great, to terrible and back again. Which brings us to the long anticipated Force Unleashed.

I am personally wary of alternate story lines that take place during the movie time lines - anything involving Luke, or Vader, or any of the other big movie names tend to bother me. So, when I'd heard this was following Darth Vaders secret apprentice, I was a bit worried.

My fears, however, were (so far) unwarranted. The way the story seems to play out so far is very good, Vader has only been seen as a mission director and leaves you to do your slaughtering, and you're ordered to kill everything, confirming that you are, indeed, a secret.

As for the gameplay, it's been a while since I've seen a good action/adventure Star Wars game – and this one makes the wait well worth it. The controls are very fluid, and the attacks are interesting and there is some variety in killing enemies; playing with your food, as it were. For instance; it is possible to hang an enemy in the air and decide whether or not you want to A)Throw your lightsaber at them, B)Force lightening them, or C) throw them into a wall (which leaves a nice dent I might add.)

Running, jumping, and exploring your own wreckage is something that always makes a game interesting to me. Destroying environments, breaking droids, and running around like a moron is a lot of fun this time around – I'm wondering what the full version will let me find when I break stuff, or how many achievements I get for denting the walls.

With the destructible environments, there are plenty of things to force grab and throw around. Bowling for soldiers has been entertaining me for the last 20 minutes, and I can see myself doing it for hours on end. You can even bowl for soldiers with other soldiers, doubling your pleasure – or something like that.

Many other attacks have been implemented in the game, ground slams from mid-air, force push to break open enemy lines and doors alike, and lightsaber deflection brings me closer to the Star Wars realm that I'd almost left behind because of this guy;


He really, truely doesn't light up my life...

As for the opening sequence; doesn't it seem like a really bad idea to knight someone using a lightsaber – I mean, aren't they supposed to be pretty toasty and burny?