Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

As the title of this review might suggest, this game has some minor glitches, but ends up coming through for a mostly enjoyable experience. Some of the flaws did leave me rather frustrated at times. The biggest of these being when your player is knocked down or in a large group of enemies. While it is common in most action games to take hits while already down, this can be especially annoying in this game. You'll get knocked down, take hits, and as soon as you start to get up, knocked back down again. There were points when I was playing that I would go from full to half life in a single knock down. This leads right into the other half of this problem. While there is quite a bit of fun to be had in charging into a group of enemies to blast away, most of the time you'll leave with a feeling of cheapness. The targeting is very fidgety, so if you're not directly in front of a specific enemy, you may not attack your intended target. The biggest feeling of cheapness comes in the form of dodging/escaping enemy fire. The enemies never miss. It's that simple. I would say at least 80% of the time, regardless of timing or direction of avoidance maneuvers, you'll still get hit. Outside of these few flaws mentioned, the game is outstandingly fun. Wielding the force felt intuitive and responsive. Most objects within each environment can be interacted with as well. There is plenty to explore, and you actually use your abilities to find secrets and upgrades. The story of the game is decent; not groundbreaking, but serves its purpose. The sounds are excellent, from the voice acting, to the level music, to the sounds of lightsabers clashing. Also the game allows for a fair amount of customization in building up your character, to fit your individual play style. All in all, this game delivers on the fun, with a few flaws here and there.

Ok so maybe it's not really a pig with lipstick, but let's be honest, the main thing this game has going for it is the "wrapper". If it had the same controls, graphics and game play without the Star Wars dressing this would be just another hack and slash/platform game that may or may not gain a following. So if you don't care about either of those, you should probably stop reading and find something else to play. If you're into Star Wars but not platform games, it's worth a rental or download the demo from PSN, maybe it will click, maybe it won't but it is Star Wars ;) If you like both of these things then this is obviously for you, so stop reading and rent it already.

If you are still reading I guess it is only fair to tell you more about the game. The layout and controls are pretty much your standard hack and slash, adventure, platform style game. The powers and the combos are fairly straight forward and with the leveling system you can expand on them and customize your character based on which ones you like best. The story has been ok so far, since it is an official release I can only assume it is "canon". Personally though I hate when stories like this are wedged into the existing story line. In my opinion it would have been better to change it a bit and set it before or after the events of the movies.

Unfortunately since it is a platform game that also means it has some of the deficiencies of the genre. There is a "lock-on" feature but locking on to the right thing can be difficult at times. Also, getting the character to face in the right direction (in combat and out) can be problematic too. Some of that is probably just me though as I'm not a huge fan of this genre. Finally, what to do next and how to do it are not always obvious.

Bottom line, it's a Star Wars wrapped platform game so how you feel about those should dictate whether or you spend time playing it. It didn't click for me, but maybe it will for you.