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bearpillowmonster · 2 years

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The Force Unleashed Review

I actually had this game for Wii but I didn't make it very far, I think what ended up happening was that I sold it for my PS2 (I sold a lot for that dang thing) but I thought it had a very interesting story with neat characters that always stuck out in my head. I mentioned this before but I even named by frog "Nion" because Kento Marek (Starkiller's father) was originally Kento Nion (it was changed between the book and game and stuff, last minute decision)

But I bought the Ultimate Sith Edition on Steam for 2-3$. Here's what I have to say about it:

Well the title abbreviates to TFU which is…something, FU2 I suppose, lmao.

From Wii to PC. I really enjoyed the controls on Wii, it made me feel like "One hand is light, one hand is dark". I wasn't sure that I liked the skill tree idea when I was a kid but after playing more games proper with that incorporated, I think it's fine because it shows you just how much more powerful Vader is at the beginning versus how Starkiller is. From a distance it looks like a beat 'em up/hack and slash but I found a lot to it, the force powers alone made this journey worth it, the amount of things you can manipulate is pretty stunning.

I don't remember how it was for the Wii, but for this PC version specifically, sometimes the game would freeze, audio would glitch or the loading could take a while. Makes me wish they still had support for this game.

One of the turn offs for me is the health bars above enemies heads, I know it doesn't bother most people but any game that incorporates that just seems fake to me, I even mentioned how I turned it off in Neo: Twewy. It's not healthbars that I don't like, it's that there are so many of them at one time and directly above their heads.

STORY. We know about the Jedi who escaped Order 66, who gets killed and his son gets found by Vader and taken under his wing. Or at least, I think everybody knows at least that. But I feel it's so much more. Sam Witwer, who also voices Maul now btw, does a great job. He reminds me a lot of Anakin, showing how much his training shines through. But the idea of Vader using him in secret as his personal lackey is pretty cool too, even away from the Emperor. Palpy wouldn't let Vader really go after these Jedi, I assume because the Emperor had his own plans for them so he sent someone to do it in secret.

Starkiller's design alone gives me a lot of information, he has what looks like a restraining bolt on his left, his heart. Which makes him seem cold but also just a puppet to Vader. Nothing more than a droid. A slave. So the slave becomes the slavemaster…maybe I shouldn't talk about that. But like I said, we get to see Starkiller basically live out this life that Vader couldn't, and that just so happens to include love, softening him. You see, one of the main characteristics about Anakin is that he's a good pilot but Starkiller here doesn't get that joy, he has Juno Eclipse fly for him, his personal chauffeur. I could see Vader depriving SK, I mean he gave him the name Starkiller, didn't he? He knows killing, that's it, yet they made him a cool character despite those restraints.

I've always considered this canon above any of the other games and wanted it to make an appearance in mainline Star Wars material or at least the idea of it. I mentioned with Obi-Wan Kenobi that it just always seems like there's another Jedi who escaped Order 66, which at the time this came out wasn't a problem, but the idea of Starkiller hunting them for a living as if there's an endless supply is…questionable. But I also mentioned that I thought Kenobi would've done better as a game and in a game context, this idea works really well. This was also the original bridge between 3 and 4 so this pioneered a lot of the ideas Star Wars has built since then. And even the lost masters have interesting bits to their story despite just being boss battles. Kasdan Paratus for example is overwhelmed with grief of Order 66 and has a makeshift Jedi Council room made of scrap where he made mannequins of the Masters. That's deep for someone who has only a few lines of dialogue.

As far as cosmetics and spectacles, it obviously has some really good setpieces, this is where that scene of bringing down the Star Destroyer came from. The complaint I have about that one in particular is that the scene requires you to fight off waves of TIEs as well and I'm fine with QTEs but the way that specific one was done was kind of shoddy. Each world you visit is unique and very fitting like George had a specific hand in it. Remember that really colorful plant area that Aayla Secura was killed in Order 66? You visit that planet! Felucia. And to top it off, you get a new costume every time. You want to change the color of your lightsaber? You can do that if you find the collectibles.

What, that wasn't enough?

Then aside from the costumes you gain for each mission, you also get skins for different characters throughout the series. I beat Darth Vader with the Ben Kenobi skin from Episode IV and a black lightsaber (I don't think the darksaber officially existed yet). I played a level as a Clone Wars animated style Starkiller. I beat up Luke Skywalker with a Sith C-3PO and Old Ben with a Luke from RoTJ. It's letting me live my fantasies and I think that if it wasn't for gameplay falling a bit short in a few aspects, this would be my favorite Star Wars game but for now it'll just have to settle for second to Lego Star Wars.

I'll probably leave the sequel to the novelization. Yeah, believe it or not, there are novelizations of these two games and comic books that add a little more depth, especially in the case of #2. There's a bit more elaboration to them to which I think would only strengthen the story. One boss in particular just sort of happens in this game and they only briefly explain it afterwards but it kind of comes from out of the blue, a novelization would only expand on this already great game. Even the DLCs that came with the Ultimate Sith Edition are good. I may have only paid around $3 for this but this is worth more than full price to me.

#star wars #video game #game #review #the force unleashed #tfu #sw

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