Details Title:
Platform:
Release Date:
Genre:
Pros:
Cons:Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Wii
16 September 2008 (US)
17 September 2008 (AUS)
19 September 2008 (EU)
9 October 2008 (JP)
Action
Great use of the wii controls for Force Powers
Controls can be frustrating for lightsaber attacks, graphically disappointing, story not covered fully compared to PS3 and Xbox360 versions
Review There have been plenty of Star Wars games for many years, but very few actually try to connect themselves directly to the movies. Off the top of my head, I can think of Shadows of the Empire, which took place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In the case of the Force Unleashed, it acts as a connection between the Original and Prequel trilogies and attempts to address some of the unanswered questions that were not resolved by the end of Revenge of the Sith, but played through the perspective of a new character - Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller.
Graphically, I found this game to be realy disappointing, even for the Wii's standards. Even though the hardware is only slighthly more powerful than its predecessor, the developers clearly did not attempt to fully utilise the Wii's hardware capabilities. In the end, it simply looked like I was playing a PS2 game. Some of the stages look really nice such as Bespin and Kashyykk, but other elements just felt really cartoon-like, especially the Super Star Destroyer "Executor" and Starkiller's starship "Rogue Shadow".
Fortunately, the audio is not as disappointing. The game's soundtrack is comprised of all those familiar tracks that have been played throughout the six Star Wars films, and considering that the movies have a pretty good soundtrack, I find it very difficult for the developers to get it wrong. In terms of voice acting, most of the original characters sound very similar to their movie counterparts, though Darth Vader's voice actor certainly isn't James Earl Jones material, but it's sufficient for this game. Voices for the new characters I felt sounded just right - Starkiller sounds calm most of the time, and Juno Eclispe has the standard Imperial accent.
Aside from the very end of the final stage, the gameplay is very linear. You have a map that tells you where to go, and you kill enemies along the way. Even with the wide variety of Force powers at your displosal, and the variety of enemies, it's just the same thing over and over. Boss battles offer a change thankfully, but because you don't have a limited number of lifes (i.e. you will respawn after you die), the challenge of beating the boss is gone. Although it tries to compensate the "infinite lives" feature by having the boss regain some life every time you die, it will still be the same outcome in the end, only that it is just going to take longer.
Control-wise, it has its ups and downs. The wii nunchuk is used for your Force powers, which I felt was spot on, and didn't have that much trouble at all. However, the same cannot be said for the wii remote, which is used for your lightsaber attacks. The lightsaber can be swung in four different directions, depending on how you swing the wii remote (up, down, left, right). But in the heat of battle, the game just doesn't seem to pick up on this in a timely manner, and you will end up waggling it left to right just to kill the groups of enemies.
Force Unleashed offers some other interesting little features, some are purely cosmetic changes, others are ability enhancers. You have the ability to customise your lightsaber by finding crystals and hilts scattered throughout the game, and you can also obtain combat crystals which enhance either your lightsaber skills or Force powers. You can also obtain concept art that is also scattered throughout the levels, and some of them contain passwords that allow you to unlock cheats, or extra character skins for the game or for the two player duel mode.
Speaking of duel mode, the Wii version of Force Unleashed is only one that has a two player feature. You can select a number of characters, each with differing statistics and battle it out on various stages.The major sore point for this game is a lack of difficulty levels. I found the game to be incredibly easy as it was, and the "infinite lives" feature really did not help either. I would have preferred to have the option to go for a harder difficulty and have limited lives instead. As a result of this, I managed to finish this within three days, though I could have finished it in less time if I was not working during the day.
When compared against the Xbox 360 and Playsation 3 versions of this game, the Wii version comes out second best. While the controls feel more appropriate compared to the Xbox 360 and Playsation 3 versions, everything else is generally bad given the lack of any real difficulty or interesting level design. I would only recommend this as a rental at best, and that if you really want a better gaming experience with Force Unleashed, I would suggest getting your hands on either the Xbox 360 or Playsation 3 versions of the game.