(2) If Force Unleashed wasn't set in the SW universe, would it have been a good game? Can a franchise tie-in be more than just a tie-in?
Here's where I lose my geek cred. I've never been a Star Wars fan, or Trek or anything relating to space. However, after playing the Force Unleashed demo I can see the appeal. It's mindless, insane fun. Friends have told me the draw of the game is the story so I'd say that without the license most people would point out the flaws, which I hear are a few. A tie-in continues or retells a famed story, it could be more but the stars haven't aligned often enough for it to disprove the "licensed games are crap" moniker.
This question is posed from the point of view that The Forced Unleashed WAS a good game, which I can't vouch for having only played the demo. But there are a number of licensed games that I feel can stand on their own, provided it brings solid gameplay and storytelling to the table that doesn't require the "source material" to support it. A great example is Starbreeze's The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay ... hey, wait a minute -- where's that ("totally not canceled, we promise!") next-gen remake?
In short, was Psi-Ops a good game? Ok, they're not exactly the same, but you get the idea. In the case of TFU, the joys in that game are so tied in to the franchise that I don't think the gameplay alone would be able to hold the title together without the tie-in. The highlights of TFU (the story, the cool locales, the force powers) lose a lot of their weight when you take the Star Wars out of the equation. Now, if the gameplay was as strong as God of War (or even Psi-Ops), for example, it'd be another story. Clearly it's not. It's a buggy game whose strengths heavily rely on Star Wars, and without it, the whole experience would crumble.
I unfortunately haven't picked Force Unleashed yet, but I do believe a huge part of the game's success is that it's supposed to fill in the gap between Episode III & IV. Look at the Star Wars: Clone Wars movie that came out a couple of weeks ago. I saw it at a midnight showing and it was horrible! Why did I watch it? Because it filled in more Star Wars gaps, although I regret watching it at midnight. I would have rather gotten a good night of sleep than watch that garbage.
If you specifically mean the Care Bears universe, the answer is "yes, of course." A game isn't necessarily just the sum of its gameplay, graphics and sound. Sometimes story is a key element. For all its flaws, Force Unleashed is notable for presenting a story as engaging as many already told in the fiction its based on. Surely that should be considered a credit to the game, rather than just a cover for sub-God-of-War gameplay design.
Wait, it was a good game to begin with? I mean honestly the story is what drove me to play through that game, otherwise I found the title pretty mediocre. I think the game is a perfect example of a tie-in that does its own thing in its universe, and benefits from it. Otherwise the game probably wouldn't have been noticed much. There are examples of games that are tie-ins, that simply stand above and beyond that category. The classic examples is Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay for the original Xbox. The game was simply a solid title, and could do well with or without the "Riddick" name attached.
I've not had a chance to play Force Unleashed so I can't really say whether it would've been good without being set in the Star Wars universe. I've heard people say that the story was the best part of the game. And a franchise tie in can be more than that. Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay for instance would've been an excellent game even if it wasn't a movie tie in.
Maybe? Depends on the game, who's making it and how long they have to deliver a finished product -- Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was a great movie-based game and GoldenEye 007 for N64, based on the 1995 film with the same name, was also a game that broke new boundaries.
Setting The Force Unleashed in the Star Wars universe has more to do with the game's sales potential than its quality.As for whether tie-ins can transcend their licensed IP origins, Knights of the Old Republic and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay are just two examples of how this can be achieved.
If The Force Unleashed didn't have the Star Wars franchise to lean on, I think we would have pawned it off as mediocre. That's just about what the game is, with some stand-out portions thrown in. It's definitely possible to have tie-ins that work, but they are extremely few and far between. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay was an excellent game, and it was tied into the books/movies surrounding the original film, Pitch Black. In that instance, the game tie-in actually worked out better than the subsequent films.
I think the storytelling and writing in TFU is excellent, independent of their association with the Star Wars universe. The gameplay certainly has its flaws but, relative to most other tie-ins, TFU is pretty phenomenal. Unlike most tie-ins, TFU is the anchor product; there was no movie launch to line up with, but satellite products launching around the game. One theory is that most tie-in games aren't very good because the development time for a good game is always less than the development time for most movies and something's got to give. No such limitations here.
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