Reviews// Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

During the training/establishing level, we see Darth Vader throwing his lightsabre around like a magical frisbee/boomerang of death. He casts it out and it spins around in an arc, slicing through everything it touches before returning to his grip. Galen does not have this skill to begin with, so you'll have to practise more traditional swordsmanship.

As you would expect, there are combos that increase the killing power of your deadly laser-sword, but they are more a matter of timing than of elaborate button sequences. As you rampage through the game, you'll achieve level ups. These award you with a number of coloured tokens which you can use to increase your capabilities in areas such as your weapons skills, or your Force abilities. You'll need to apply these power-ups wisely to give you the skills you need to progress.

As you progress, you experience some wonderfully varied levels, with Vader sending you hither and thither around the galaxy as his little beholden running dog assassin. In these levels, you get to meet members of interesting new cultures and kill them, to travel to interesting new worlds and destroy them. Clearly, bigger fans of the Star Wars universe will be able to name all of these species - and possibly individual characters from many of them. Me, I just relish the opportunity to cast them off a walkway into the bowels of the ship below.

The Force Unleashed is a marvellously liberating game, allowing you to walk freely (though always directed to the ultimate goal) through extensive levels brandishing awesome powers. Indeed, it's wonderfully dark for a franchise that has always projected an incredibly clear-cut, good-versus-bad morality.

I've yet to finish the game, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be some sort of volte face on Galen's part - the clues are there in the earlier levels. It is almost inevitable that later on he'll realise that callously killing everyone he meets in a random fashion is bad and that kittens and flowers are nice. I imagine that there will be some kind of teenage spat where he'll tell Darth that he's not his real dad, and that he hates him for not letting him borrow the Death Star on Saturday night. Words will be spoken, vows will be broken, lightsabres will be brandished, Starkiller may discover that Carrie Fisher is his step sister.

One thing's for sure, I'm not putting this joypad down until I find out.

[b]SPOnG Score: 89%
The graphics aren't amazing, and there's nothing really new from a gameplay perspective. But Force Unleashed puts you on the flipside of the Jedi experience and it's a fantastically fun place to be. Wielding this much power so effortlessly is addictive and the game is beautifully designed and ultimately playable.[/b]