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REVIEW
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Star Wars is one of the most successful, and bittersweet entertainment franchises in existence. It’s hard to think of a medium that Star Wars has NOT penetrated. Gamewise, there are so many Star Wars titles that I can’t even remember them all. One of my favourites was Jedi Academy (PC), specifically with the Force Mod III module loaded, allowing you to play Jedi and Sith of various classes, utilize different types of lightsabers and subscribe to a number of different saber-wielding styles.

While the game was fun, the control scheme was flawed. You’d utilize the ASDW keys to move, of course and Force powers were assigned to F keys. Of course, to direct your Force powers, you were required to target them using the mouse, which shifter your whole point of view when you moved it. Not too shabby, until you work the saber into the equation. To swing your saber, you were required to move the mouse back and forth. See the problem here?

Enter the Wii.

From the outset, Star Wars fans were drooling at the prospect of swinging the Wii-Mote around, mimicking a light saber. After long last, Force Unleashed was going to deliver an immersive Force experience.

I’ll tell you straight up (those of you especially who have been hiding under a rock) that this game does not allow you the 1:1 motion that you’ve been dreaming about. The Wii-Mote is just the key to combos using gestures. Is this a bad thing? I don’t think so. I’ll get back to this in a bit.

Force Unleashed takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It’s the story of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, Galen Marek, who Vader assigns the evil task of hunting down the last of the Jedi. The game puts you in control of the Apprentice, allowing you to experience what it’s like to be a Sith.

The story is simply awesome, and the cutscenes (even on the “graphically challenged” Wii version) are top notch. The voice acting is good, better than most Star Wars games. The sound effects just add to the mix, offering an intoxicating sci-fi dream come true.

I know a lot of people out there would much rather drop the money on the XB360 or the PS3 versions rather than the Wii one, but I would recommend against such thinking. The Wii version, while not as “pretty”, offers a more immersive experience (Lightsabre controlled by Wii-Mote, force and mobility controlled by Nunchuk), more levels and a duel mode that allows you to fight your friends in the same room. My only problem with the game is the ever-shifting camera. For the most part, it follows the action well. But every once in a while it moves to a very awkward spot.

A big beef that a lot of people have with the game is the control scheme (which I previously hinted at). Instead of real time movement of the lightsaber matched to the Wii-Mote’s motion, there is a simple combo system. Swing the Wii-Mote once along an axis and you will see your character do the same motion on the screen. That’s as close asyou will get to 1:1. The fancy-shmancyness starts when you start swinging in patterns, causing your on-screen counterpart to use pre-made “katas”. The up side is that this allows newbies the ability to do massive damage. The down side is that the combos are hard to stop once you begin. This really isn’t a problem considering how many cannon fodder you will face.

The boss battles are also interesting. During the battles you will have to follow on-screen prompts to move either the Wii-Mote or the Nunchuk in a particular way. When you successfully follow the prompts you will be treated to some pretty cool cinematics and some extra damage dealt to your opponents.

There is no doubt that the single player campaign is pretty short. It took me about 6 hours to finish it (I spent significant time hunting for hidden goodies along the way), but it still feels like a good game.

The multiplayer portion is good. There are 27 possible characters to play (unlocking required to get them all), but the sabers are limited to single blades only (yes, even for Darth Maul). While fighting, you can use the Force to wield the environment as a weapon. As you give and receive damage (and use the Force), your Force powers will eventually become “unleashed.” This will allow you, for a brief time, unlimited Force ability. Also, in some levels, there will be different parts of the environment that you can utilize in Unleashed mode.

With two endings, a plethora of unlockables and the duel mode, the Wii version is certainly more fun than the other versions. I would heartily recommend it.

Posted in Awesome, Reviews, Wii |