We have no great love for the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but we’ll always revere these films for one thing: showing us the Jedi knights in all their glory as they cut loose like Force-fueled dynamos. Thanks to modern visual effects, we could finally see these warriors move, leap, and hurl lightning with the godlike power we always knew they had.
Seeing Force Unleashed in action, you get the same sort of feeling. The original Xbox’s Jedi Knight games were terrific fun — giving you evolving Force powers and letting you gradually master them — but looking at what’s possible on the Xbox 360, you can see just how limited you really were as both Kyle Katarn (Jedi Knight II) and his apprentice, Jaden Korr (Jedi Academy).
Take, for example, the first level LucasArts showed us, set in a TIE-fighter factory. Your Jedi character — a secret apprentice of Darth Vader, trained by the Sith Lord himself — is hunting General Kota, a Jedi who’s been plotting against the Empire. (Force Unleashed takes place between Episodes III and IV, so the Imperial regime is in full effect.) Even in this early stage of the game, where you’re learning your powers, you’re a serious badass. As you battle Kota’s men — and Stormtroopers, too, since your orders are to leave no witnesses — you can fling them around with ridiculous ease. But that’s just the start. We watched our character (who the developers referred to only as The Apprentice) Force Push enormous canisters into the hapless soldiers…and then pull a TIE fighter off a rack and throw that at the poor guys!
Better yet, the new tech powering Force Unleashed adds remarkable realism to the Jedi-rific action. Thanks to the Euphoria character-animation engine, enemies flail about as they fly through the air, and will even try to grab onto nearby objects to halt their trajectory. Meanwhile, the use of DMM (digital molecular matter) — an acronym LucasArts used constantly during our demo — enables materials in the game environment to have different strength and flexibility. So when our Jedi was outside, being approached by a TIE fighter, he was able to Force-grab a large metal beam and bend it toward the Imperial craft (which would have exploded, we’re told, if not for a sudden collision bug — but such is the stuff of early game demos).
As in the Jedi Knight games, however, you’ll have more than just Force Push, Pull, and Grip at your command. We saw other powers at play during a mission set on Raxus Prime, a junkyard-of-a-planet that’s home to a reclusive Jedi. He’s guarded by an army of teleporting Force-animated droids, giving you the galaxy’s best excuse to go wild with your own abilities, which include Force Lightning, an explosive variation called Lightning Bomb, and Repulse, a sort of omni-directional Force Push. Some of these abilities come from combining Force powers; when you do mix powers, you earn XP with which you can buy additional powers, such as Saber Throw.
We saw more of this power-mixing on Felucia, a fungus world shown briefly in Episode III. As our Jedi anti-hero was attacked by camouflaged Felucians, he slashed furiously with his saber, displaying a greater variety of moves — and a more impressive jumping ability — than we remember in the Jedi Knight games. For his coup de grace, he used Force Grip to hold an enemy in place while blasting him with a wicked burst of Force Lightning. Though it wasn’t part of our demo, we’re told that Felucia features a Rancor; and judging from the screen above, you’ll do more to this monster than try to trap it under a giant door. (Sorry, Luke.) The world is also home to Shaak Ti, a female Jedi seen briefly in Episodes II and III — and who’s almost certainly an adversary here.
Indeed, everything we saw of Force Unleashed suggested a broad story with deep, compelling ties to the Star Wars universe. You’ll even have a love interest in the form of Juno Eclipse, an Imperial pilot who shuttles you around between missions. Redemption, says LucasArts, is a central theme in your character’s story; will Juno help you in that process, or stand in your way? We’re eager to find out — almost as eager as we are to hurl TIE fighters and fling Force Lightning like a true Jedi unleashed.
MagnetixSQL
September 15, 2008 at 5:21pm
Just saw review on xplay only got 2 out 5. I hope that is not the case...I got it coming via gamefly this week.
M6645
April 07, 2008 at 6:03pm
I just saw a video on the video player about this game on the different things on the different systems. How come it did not talk about the 360 version
XPlayer
April 02, 2008 at 4:46am
I'm so pumped up for this game, while Episode III was the best and only good prequel, it doesn't hinder the fact that with events from both of the trilogy's and universe combined, along with unsurpassed gameplay, this should be a guaranteed hit!
Ice01dead
March 16, 2008 at 11:17pm
I am a huge Star Wars fan and have been dying for some kind of large Star Wars event to happen. Since 2005 lucasarts have been in the dark as well as lucasfilm, but with Forces Unleashed and the epic return of the Clone Wars in a feature film it has been revived and I have a feeling this is only the begining. Nice job Lucas!
Korig
March 16, 2008 at 10:27pm
for the record the prequel star wars movies are fucking epic. you wont see a sith lord killing children in the other movies. and there's no staff action or actual good sith lords like tyrannus. fav sw movies are V and III
NateyPoo546
March 16, 2008 at 9:49am
The engine that this game uses is insane! The amount of destructibility is more than I've ever seen in a game so far, other than the mediocre Stranglehold game. But, not only does the game have awesome destruction, the game also looks f**king amazing. This is how all Star Wars games need to be, the lightsaber is cool and all, but it is truly all about the force, and this game is putting pretty much all of the focus on the force, thus its name "The Force Unleashed." I also like the AI on this game. The way the enemies grab hold of anything that is near them for dear life when they are being launched around by the force is both hysterical and innovative. Man, I can't wait for this game!
KFHOMICRON
March 16, 2008 at 8:54am
wow looks pretty good, too bad i'm not enough of a star wars nerd to actually get excited about it. Give me GTA IV instead please. Star Wars is over, its dead, as soon as lukas arts relizes it, the better.
Cherub23
March 14, 2008 at 5:18pm
Even though it seems like just another shredding of the original movies and their characters I am really looking forward to this new installment. I have owned every other Star Wars game to this point and I am going to go all the way with this one. My only concern is with the force being so amped up. I mean there is a point where power ends isn't there? Darth Vader was supposed to be the chosen one and the strongest in the force EVER. So how can his apprentice do all this crazy awesome stuff if Vader as we have seen can't do it himself. All I'm saying to Lucas arts is please don't mess up the story for the sake of wowing an audience, I love the games where power is given in a lesser way and you must make the best of what you have. Less is sometimes more. Either way I can't wait.
