10 Things Parents Need to Know About Force Unleashed
Posted on September 12th, 2008 by
Packed with spoilers – sorry, nature of the article – WhatTheyPlay has my massive 10 Things Parents Should Know About Star Wars: The Force Unleashed from LucasArts. There are spoilers and more spoilers here, but if you’re the parent of a tween or younger and you want to know if you oughta graduate from Lego Star Wars to this let me say … read the article. There are spoilers, but it’s also packed with great info and I worked hard on it. My 7′ tall asthmatic daddy would be proud! How’s the game itself? Can’t say until Monday. I owe my soul to the NDA.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:08 am
There is also a PSP version which looks to be a pared down version of the big boys (X360 and PSP) but with some additions of its’ own.
Nice article … looking forward to this, though I hope at some point they get back to producing Star Wars games that are a bit more than ‘cotton candy’ …
September 12th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Not sure what you mean. This is basically JK, JK2, JKA territory – I have … criticisms for the game … but none of them revolve around the fact that it isn’t on a PC.
I’m really hungry for a new X-Wing game. Rogue Squadron was always way too much of a compromise for me.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Just stuff from hands-on previews and feedback from the demo:
“Fans of the wonderful Jedi Knight series, however, may be a little disappointed to hear that the team has no intention of recreating that game’s crowning glory. “It’s not a duelling simulator,” the producer says firmly. The game is designed to be easy to use; its core attacks are context sensitive, and the team focused on the key idea of the player doing something cool-looking and relevant whenever they pressed a button.”
“the game is reportedly short enough to play through in two or three decent sessions, no 25-hour epics here.”
Battles that are won by simulated DDR (i.e. match the keypress) are *not* in the JK tradition, but are the hallmark of console-centric action games. This game seems much more in the ‘Episode III’ console game tradition and not the JK tradition.
I guess we shall see …
September 12th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I finished reading the novel of The Force Unleashed yesterday (wanted to finish it before the game comes out). The story feels a lot more like a lead up to IV: A New Hope than a bridge between III and IV. And for me that wasn’t a bad thing. Unfortunately the book mainly read like a videogame (walkthrough level, use force powers, fight boss), but of the 319 pages about 90 of them contained a really fun story.
Any Star Wars should enjoy the twists and nods The Force Unleashed makes. I wasn’t really looking forward to the game, but after the novel I’m interested to see how the story and action plays out on the screen.
My fear while reading it was that the exciting boss battles were reduced down to quick-time-events to provide the “dramatic touch” or really just to force a player to finish the fight one way.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Well, it is modern in that there are no health packs – you get health from killing people – and the biggest bad guys require God of War style match the button stuff. This only happens at the end of duels, or when a Rancor is almost dead. You can totally kill most creatures without the DDR stuff.
The saber combat is based on rhythm. Which makes sense but doesn’t recreate the pretty awesome dueling aspects from JK1-JKA. You can’t have “THE LADDER” here. But mastering the timing and mixing in the Force powers creatively IS key to the game and makes the boss battles more fun. (And you don’t end up with the JK-style jousting found online). Until you get to the God of War stuff just prior to the giant-thing’s death (or Force throwdown) and that felt fine to me because of the showstopping stuff they have you doing during the match the button moments.
The combat isn’t original or inspired really, but it isn’t quick-time based, DDR based really, and you can fight a bunch of different ways. You’ll even get different XP if you do – more Force points for mixing your powers well. I tended toward a zap it, slash it, repeat style but had to change that tactic frequently versus different bosses.
I haven’t read the books or comics and I don’t plan too. I’ve never been much for derivative ancillary licensed stuff for any property really.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
“I haven’t read the books or comics and I don’t plan too. I’ve never been much for derivative ancillary licensed stuff for any property really.”
I guess I let me geeky librarian, star wars nerd shine through. Whoops.
Glad it isn’t filled with QTE. I’m curious to see how the PS2 lack of physics/huge install base does in terms of sales. Madden on the PS2 still held it’s own according to the NPDs. I’ve talked with PSP owners who are excited for the game… granted we (PSP owners) are excited for any game right now.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
“granted we (PSP owners) are excited for any game right now.”
Yes indeed … quite the drought! Of course, also next week is Yggdra Union, a strategy-RPG game from the end of the GBA life that has been reportedly given very nice treatment in the port!
September 12th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Let your geek-librarian flag fly Paul!
I’m sure there is greatness in those books because god knows it’s hard to publish sci-fi at all these days. Lets just ammend that “derivative ancillary licensed stuff” by saying, more accurately, it isn’t my vice. I have lots of other guilty pleasures.
But yeah, your knowing that I don’t read the other stuff probably makes my comment about this being a bridge between rather than being what you called it.
Did the books do ANYTHING with the 15 odd years Galen spends being raised/trained by Vader? Because, frankly, there’s the story here by cracky! This guy was raised by Luke’s father!! Since I end up liking Galen better than I do Luke by the end of the game, does that mean Aunt Buru and Owen sucked as parents? Or is it a case of the loyal badass adopted son versus the young whiney son?
Those are the stories I’d like to read about! 😉
September 12th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Unfortunately, the book doesn’t do anything with those times. It only references them in terms of lines like, “Vader trained me,” “warped me” or “never taught me those sides.” I agree that it would be an interesting story. I was hopeful that the tutorial level of the game would actually be like that after reading that you start as Vader finding Galen. The book starts with the Apprentice getting sent off by Vader to hunt down Kota. The reader doesn’t learn of his history until 3/4 of the way through when the Apprentice has a vision.
By that time I was emotionally invested enough in the character to care about his past. But it doesn’t go into nearly as much detail as it could. You get in his head and Juno’s head, but nothing more. On it surface, it made for a decent narrative for an action game. But it didn’t reach the level of being too compelling. I enjoyed the story, but wished for more.
My comment about the “bridge” between III and IV wasn’t directed at your post, I’ve read it many places. I expected more of a connection than I got with Blackmen’s story. But it does connect nicely with A New Hope.
I actually agree with you about Galen vs. Luke. Galen makes for a more interesting character because of his past and the conflicts (no more details for spoilers sake) he goes through. Luke is a clean cut good guy, that doesn’t have much internal turmoil.
Thanks for the conversation. It will be interesting to hear more opinions next week once people (myself included) have the chance to play through the story.
Gamerdad, which system did you play if on?
September 12th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Xbox 360, but I’m taking the Wii one through same paces this weekend.
September 12th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Good luck and enjoy. I’m curious about the motion controls versus the souped up physics.