Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
With Darth Vader as your employer you’d expect this to be a rough ride. And it is. All fun though on Nintendo DS, Wii, PSP and Xbox 360.
Before we get started on this, we want to clear up a very important issue close to our hearts. We imagine we weren’t the only ones hoping for full-on light sabre battles in the Wii version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – the Wii remote held aloft, light sabre fizzing in front of us as we duelled against Vader. Would’ve been a dream come true for every child of the 70s. Sadly not to be, and the reason for this is that it’s technically too damn difficult. Also that LucasArts needs all three versions of the game to be broadly similar in structure. Hence we get no first-person Light Sabre action. Bummer. But forget about it, there’s plenty more to get thrilled about.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed pans out pretty much as you’d expect across the three different versions. On Xbox 360 the lush high-definition visuals allow Darth Vader’s march against Jedi forces on the Wookie planet Kashyyyk to have maximum impact. Wookie footsoldiers are lifted into the air and tossed into gigantic trees, the bark shattering under impact. Darth’s solution to a hefty fortress gate is to summon a huge Force blast to bring it down as though it were made of matchsticks. These scenes are movie-like in presentation, and make you remember why so many people cannot shake their love of this universe.
On Nintendo Wii the Wii remote / nunchuck combo is used extensively to enhance the gameplay, although we’d say the visuals hold up pretty well to the Xbox 360 version during industrial theme levels. Special effects such as lightning spewing from the fingers of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice are spectacular. Swinging the Wii remote around to swordfight is fun, and the occasional clash of sabres leads to a nunchuck mini-game in which you must position the controller as indicated on screen then push in the direction of arrows to overpower your opponent. Like we said earlier, we really wanted the one-on-one duel mode to be first person, but we accept Producer Dan Wasson’s excuses.
The PSP version does an admirable job of keeping pace with the Wii in terms of visuals, its main selling point is ad-hoc multiplayer using the inbuilt Wi-Fi. PSP owners are also treated to exclusive Historic Missions lifted from the six movies – Skywalker versus Vader for example.
Finally a brief run through of how the DS version copes with both the dramatisation and intense action element of the Force Unleashed. The solution to what would otherwise be a very complex control scheme using several buttons has been very cleanly simplified as rows of ‘tiles’ on the DS’ touch screen. Every move has an illustrated tile that you simply scrub to execute. The ability to scrub across two or three tiles in quick succession enables some impressive combination moves while you use your thumb on the d-pad or buttons (depends if you’re a ‘lefty’ or ‘righty’) to move your character around. Works a treat.
With George Lucas himself apparently overseeing the new storyline, taking place between Episodes III and IV, The Force Unleashed carries maximum credibility for the die-hard fans. Also this is the first series of games from LucasArts to feature its ‘Euphoria’ technology, leading to unpredictable outcomes of most situations depending on the player’s actions combined with uncanny enemy AI.
All versions of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed are due for release on 19 September in the UK.
