Star Wars: Force Unleashed Demo

Metacritic's First Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Reviews: Ouch!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and other platforms is LucasArts' most ambitious gaming project to-date. Taking over four years from concept to completion and enduring multiple delays, the long-awaited game is the first next-gen development effort by the small studio, and the first to utilize multiple new technologies and the direct input of Industrial Light and Magic.

Taking all this into consideration it comes as a bit of a surprise to see what print media is saying about the game. With four reviews in the can, Force Unleashed has only mustered a meta score of 6.8, with individual publication scores ranging from a mediocre 7.5 all the way down to a pathetic 56.

Official Xbox Magazine offers the highest score of 7.5 and has the following to offer.


With its non-branching storyline and no multiplayer, Force Unleashed is certainly less ambitious than the classic "Jedi Knight" games - and ultimately, its design makes it feel more videogame-y and less of an all-engrossing Star Wars experience than Xbox entries like "Jedi Knight II" or "Jedi Academy." But when the game is on, it's on.
Games and GamePro magazine each scored Force Unleashed a 70, citing hack-and-slash gameplay is redundant but there is fun to have.

At the bottom of the barrel is Electronic Gaming Monthly's 56 and one simple yet powerful quote, "An ambitious--yet ultimately dissatisfying--effort." For comparison, EGM is saying Force Unleashed is no better than The Incredible Hulk per Metacritic's scores. Ouch!

We've been playing the full retail version of The Force Unleashed for a few days now and will have our own review up once the embargo lifts on September 15. Until then, you may want to ratchet down those ultimate Star Wars game expectations a few notches.
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http://www.thehdroom.com/news/Metacritics_First_Star_Wars_The_Force_Unleashed_Reviews_Ouch/3421
 
Hmmm I could kinda tell after watching the gameplay video it wasn't going to be the great Star Wars game I thought it was originally.

You can't have a mindless hack-n-slash fest with a lightsaber. The Jedi Knight series got it down perfectly; skill while using a combination of the force and lightsaber styles.

But yeah, its a rent for me :(
 
A typical example of the modern gaming era:

1.Developer has cool idea
2.Developer spends ages trying to crowbar the idea into their game as much as possible
3.Publisher spends huge sums of money advertising this 'cool' feature
4.Game is released
5.Developer realizes they forgot to work on the game play.
6.Profit!
 
Streeteh said:
A typical example of the modern gaming era:

1.Developer has cool idea
2.Developer spends ages trying to crowbar the idea into their game as much as possible
3.Publisher spends huge sums of money advertising this 'cool' feature
4.Game is released
5.Developer realizes they forgot to work on the game play.
6.Profit!
Click to expand...

So high hopes for Killzone 2 and Alan Wake then :D


rp2000
 
Thought the demo was shocking. I've really been looking forward to this, but not followed the hype etc. The saber feels.. well... useless, it seems to focus the whole game on lifting and throwing things - which is just far to awkward to use!! The force shock thing is way underpowered and no fun. Force push is quite nice opening doors etc... but that's a "by the way" rather than feature. You never feel like part of the environment - there are just blocks added randomly for you to throw. Some of the nice effects where you can pull blocks out the wall were nice, but ultimately redundant as you never actually needed to. The graphics are pretty poor too. :(

Overall, what a waste of time. Glad they released a demo though, because this was on my must have list - now on my avoid at all costs list :(
 
Am i the only person who enjoyed this demo?

I kind of like the whole devil may cry style of hack people then hack some more :D plus the ability to use some force powers makes it great in my eyes.

My only complaint with it would be that it could get very repetitive very quickly if the levels and bosses are not mixed up so they very different if that makes sense....

I'm still not too sure whether to get the full game though :confused:
 
I liked the demo but I agree there wasn't a whole lot of substance to it. I'm hoping that the fact you level up and can specialise, etc will make it bigger than the demo suggests.

I've pre-ordered it so chances are one of you will be able to get a cheaper copy sooner rather than later :p
 
This feels like it'll be a spiritual successor to the original Jedi Knight in terms of story and for that reason alone I'm very excited. People moaning about the saber effectiveness need to stop comparing it to Outcast & Academy, granted they're the only things you have to compare it to but you have to remember this is a separate game that boasts force powers over (or at the expense of) saber combat.

I don't see how else they could have done the saber combat if I'm honest, they either have storm troopers that take 3 hits to kill or they have 3 times as many storm troopers that take 1 hit to kill. At least by making them take 3 hits it makes me use and enjoy the combo system, in addition to getting creative with the force powers.

Also someone further up mentioned that force lightning was underpowered; I very much doubt they're going to show the full extent of the force powers in the demo. I wouldn't be at all surprised if your force lightning damage (amongst other things) progressively increases throughout the game.
 
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The only reason I would consider the game now would be for the story. Afterall its what makes Star Wars so amazing. So who knows, I might wait until it lowers in price, or we might get a miracle and they release it on PC.
 
Every Star Wars book has to be approved by GL before it can be published.
It must also not conflict with anything in any other book.
 
SiD the Turtle said:
Really? Star Wars canon is a bit odd. I though only the movies are canon, but official books, games etc are some kind of 'extra-canon'.
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All the media I've seen on this suggests either directly or indirectly that it's canon.

Interestingly though, wookipedia (:D) states that there are some non-canon character appearances, where as others are canon. I'm not sure what their source is for that though.
 
Wiggis said:
Every Star Wars book has to be approved by GL before it can be published.
It must also not conflict with anything in any other book.
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The books are approved by people Lucas pays on his behalf to monitor the stories. Only big decisions like say killing off a main character are run past for Lucas approval.

Luke is the only character Lucas is refusing to be allowed to be killed in the novels.
 
I've done some more reading on this this afternoon. Lucas was heavily involved with the story, suggesting characters, telling the devs how to use them etc etc. I've also found lots of references to him having said it's G canon, but no direct quote.
 
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