by Chris Buffa on Friday, August 22, 2008
LucasArts dropped the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo onto the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and after Force Pushing Stormtroopers and blowing up TIE Fighters, we've come to the conclusion that Darth Vader is the greatest boss ever. Seriously, what other employer sends his protege on a mission where the only goal is to kill Jedi scum and anyone that stands in his way? It's a sweet gig, and we liked the demo so much that we played through it several times. Too bad it's so short.
Before diving into the action, a cutscene explains some of the game's back story. Apparently, Vader murdered the Apprentice's family and took him under his corrupted wing. From there, the Dark Lord of the Sith trained him to become a ruthless killing machine. But there's still much good in the apprentice, and you'll see this during Vader's mission briefing. The apprentice jumps at the chance to go kill Jedi Rahm Kota, but hesitates when Vader instructs him to slaughter every one else, both rebels and imperials alike.
The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice! The Dark Lord of the Sith himself has trained you to use a lightsaber and unleash the power of the Force, but now your destiny is your own. Will you join Vader as the next great Sith, or will you choose to defend peace and justice as a noble Jedi Knight? The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Lucas Arts
The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice! The Dark Lord of the Sith himself has trained you to use a lightsaber and unleash the power of the Force, but now your destiny is your own. Will you join Vader as the next great Sith, or will you choose to defend peace and justice as a noble Jedi Knight? The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Lucas Arts
The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice! The Dark Lord of the Sith himself has trained you to use a lightsaber and unleash the power of the Force, but now your destiny is your own. Will you join Vader as the next great Sith, or will you choose to defend peace and justice as a noble Jedi Knight? The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Lucas Arts
The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice! The Dark Lord of the Sith himself has trained you to use a lightsaber and unleash the power of the Force, but now your destiny is your own. Will you join Vader as the next great Sith, or will you choose to defend peace and justice as a noble Jedi Knight? The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Lucas Arts
The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice! The Dark Lord of the Sith himself has trained you to use a lightsaber and unleash the power of the Force, but now your destiny is your own. Will you join Vader as the next great Sith, or will you choose to defend peace and justice as a noble Jedi Knight? The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Lucas Arts
The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice! The Dark Lord of the Sith himself has trained you to use a lightsaber and unleash the power of the Force, but now your destiny is your own. Will you join Vader as the next great Sith, or will you choose to defend peace and justice as a noble Jedi Knight? The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Lucas Arts
The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice! The Dark Lord of the Sith himself has trained you to use a lightsaber and unleash the power of the Force, but now your destiny is your own. Will you join Vader as the next great Sith, or will you choose to defend peace and justice as a noble Jedi Knight? The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Lucas Arts
The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice! The Dark Lord of the Sith himself has trained you to use a lightsaber and unleash the power of the Force, but now your destiny is your own. Will you join Vader as the next great Sith, or will you choose to defend peace and justice as a noble Jedi Knight? The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Lucas Arts
The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice! The Dark Lord of the Sith himself has trained you to use a lightsaber and unleash the power of the Force, but now your destiny is your own. Will you join Vader as the next great Sith, or will you choose to defend peace and justice as a noble Jedi Knight? The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Lucas Arts
The Star Wars saga continues in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice! The Dark Lord of the Sith himself has trained you to use a lightsaber and unleash the power of the Force, but now your destiny is your own. Will you join Vader as the next great Sith, or will you choose to defend peace and justice as a noble Jedi Knight? The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
Lucas Arts
After agreeing to Vader's wishes, the Apprentice gets into this cool looking ship, the Rogue Shadow, and arrives at his destination. Thankfully, there are no enemies in the first few minutes of play, and we used this opportunity to learn the user friendly controls.
First, we wanted to use his lightsaber, and that's done by pressing the X button (Square on PS3). Hitting it repeatedly produces a punishing combo, and experimenting with the Xbox 360 controller (X,X,B for a Saber Sling, X,Y,Y for a Sith Slash and Right Trigger, X for Impale) had us giddy at the thought of terrorizing our victims. In fact, the game sends a few harmless droids the Apprentice's way for practice, and we made short work of an R2 unit and others, reducing them to hunks of scrap metal.
By now, we decided it was time to "unleash" the Force, and much like the lightsaber, performing moves is easy. Hitting Y (Triangle on the PS3 controller) zaps his foes with Force Lightning, while pressing B (Square on PS3) causes him to Force Push, which comes in handy for opening doors, where the direction of this extreme power causes metal to bend in very impressive ways. In addition, he eventually levels up and earns a much more powerful Force Push that enables him to send people and objects flying hundreds of feet through the air.
In addition, the Apprentice automatically targets objects and we experimented lifting things with Force Grip and enemies up by pressing and holding the right trigger. Once we had them in our clutches, we moved them around with the left analog stick and then quickly moved that stick in a direction to toss them against a wall, but we're especially fond of throwing large objects through windows, which compromised the ship and forced it to seal them off before everything got sucked into space.
After learning the controls, we entered a huge hangar full of TIE Fighters. For kicks, we lifted a piece of equipment and chucked it at one of the ships, causing it to explode. We also snagged a power-up that increased our damage. From there, we surveyed the area and saw that a small battle had broken out between Stormtroopers and rebels; a great opportunity to insert Vader's Apprentice into the mix. We jumped (double jump by pressing A twice, X for PS3) into the action and immediately started killing, slicing through rebels, throwing them across the hangar and stabbing them while they were down. At first, it seemed like the Stormtroopers didn't know what to make of him, but they quickly learned that although the Apprentice was carrying a red lightsaber, he wasn't on their side.
Having wiped out the opposition, we proceeded to open a door using Force Grip and then the right analog stick to unlock it. Then we ran down a hallway and continued our assault before entering a much larger hangar, a place where TIE Fighters screamed past and more baddies sought to make our mission difficult. With plenty of explosive canisters in place, we took great joy from lifting them into the air and then sending them (with love) to our foes. We jumped across gaps, pushed enemies off ledges and narrowly avoided death from a TIE Fighter that crashed into one of the platforms. Then it was time to battle an AT-ST (as seen in the Battle of Endor in Return of the JEDI). Although several stories tall, we made short work of it by temporarily incapacitating it with Force Lightning, double jumping and getting in as many lightsaber slashes as possible. Once weakened (and disposed of the pesky Stormtroopers surrounding it), we played a short Quick Time Event where we pressed buttons in a sequence and then watched as the apprentice cut the vehicle up the middle and into two equal pieces. That's was it. Demo over. See you September 16.
Although short, The Force Unleashed demo gave us a great look at what should be an amazing video game. Not only does it look great, with plenty of character and environmental detail, but the effects (glass breaking, explosions, Force powers) are equally attractive. Even the audio shines, with impressive voice acting, lightsaber slashing sounds and an original score mixed with familiar John Williams music.
For a long time, we questioned whether LucasArts could make a great Star Wars game, and if this demo is any indication, The Force Unleashed is on track to be an enjoyable romp through George Lucas' universe. We love the Apprentice, can't wait to play as Vader and think that the game will have Star Wars fanatics swooning. If you haven't already, download the impressive demo and reserve your copy. It'll be worth it.
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