[Munkey Boy]

What do you make of the latest Star Wars game then? Worth a go? Please vote in our poll once you've played enough of the game to judge it, and leave some comments in the thread.

[Boon72]

got it last thursday and havent put it down since, im on my 2nd go round buildin up my power

[kempik]

Hello,

Average.. Star wars fan here as well , to much hype like Halo 3, felt let down to be honest thank the force for Fable 2 and GOW 2

Don't get me wrong there are aspects of the game that are good such as the graphics and attention to detail and achievements are pretty easy obtain. Also for mindless hack and slash its ok (except no decapitation).

No decapitation (yeah I must be messed up), star destroyer level is evil and the problem with this level has been noted elsewhere. I also experienced random game crashes but this could be a combination of issues.. You only go to something like 4 planets twice therefore similar map, gets pretty boring.

It's clear there are people loving this game but just was not for me, perhaps I put up on a pedestal, but yeah for me another Halo 3 all hype and no real bang.

May The Force Be With You

[JustinJ004]

I thinks it's very good!

[UKBOY]

To make up for the shortness of many of the level, it gives me the impression that the developers wanted to use all of the old tricks to make it more difficult to progress/finish the game.

Poor camera angles and viewing perspective on some levels making it difficult to know exactly which direction your characters force powers would go toward.

In some levels such as where you use a room in a hangar to shelter from the massed firepower of gunners and larger enemies you can be hiding behind a door and because of the way the camera revolves you can end up trying to peek around the door and the camera swings and blocks your view, forcing you to move away from the cover, just to be able to see properly.

Massing of characters at level "chokepoints" means that certainly when your character has low force levels you are required to fight most if not all of the enemy to be able to progress:once your character has been "levelled up" you can run past sections of levels and only lose a small amount of health and open doors/pull levers etc so perversely in some parts the game becomes far too easy.

Seemed to me that some levels also have invisble walls in them ?.When trying to ascend the tie fighter wings to get to a Holocron, lost count of the number of times I tried to double jump and then ended up falling back down to the floor level to start again.

Star Destroyer level must have seemed like a good idea to someone, but in practice its horrendously frustrating, especially when, you get hit by a blast from a tie fighter, your character then gets pushed/slides to the far right side of the platform and becomes stuck and unable to return to the middle part to attack the remaining tie fighters and the Destroyer.

Darth Vader and Emperor boss battles are also done from such a distance away that until you get to the finisher button sequences, theres little fun to be had.

Through a combination of the above, I can honestly say that this game has been the most frustrating I can remember playing on this generation of consoles:that said, it made me so mad at times that I wanted to finish it, simply to stick two fingers up at it, before I return it under the retailers 10 day exchange policy, so if nothing else it killed a fair few hours.

There were a few fun parts.

Its always nice to play a game related to/in the Star Wars universe.

Using different force powers like lightning or throws can be fun, how far can you throw a character or how many massed soldiers can you kill with a combined/sustained attack of force lightning etc.

Throwing stormtroopers around the place was fun for a while, as was trying to take down a Rancor, but as is often the case, many enemies have a point where they will stop coming toward you so you can pick off some from a distance with little or no risk to yourself.

I would have liked a bit more variation in enemy character models:seemed strange to me that Rodians were much more difficult to finish than stormtroopers.

Back to the old tricks:Snipers :-

To make some areas much much more difficult, snipers are places in high up, often very difficult to get to or see areas, who pick you off with their "locking" lasers whilst you are going toe to toe with a purge droid or an at-st.

One of the other frustrating issues is with the lock on objects or characters where the game can often lock you onto an item next to the one that you are trying to lock onto.

Also, at times, things that are very close can often be very difficult (or impossible) to get a lock onto, sometimes meaning you either have to rotate your character, or even move away from and turn back toward just to get a lock.

Without the Star Wars licence I think this game would have received lower review scores than it did so hopefully more effort will be put into the inevitable follow up.

[oasismark]

All i can say is..... WOW!

What an awful game they have made!

I rented this and have just had to turn if off after about 3 hours of play, its just so badly put together.

Visuals and sound are superb, cos its star wars, levels look amazing, but take away the star wars sound. images etc, its an awful psone game.

My gripes...

Why can a powerful jedi knight and Darth Vaders aprentice, be killed by a robot with a stick?

Why are the loading times so long between levels? GTA can render a huge metropolis without loading, if you get killed within 10 seconds of a level, it takes a full 15 secong loads to get going again!!!

All this talk and demonstrations about DMM!!! why is it only used to open doors, or bend big planks into walk ways?
It may have well just said 'press X to open door'

Why does it always show you what to do?
Juno ' Hmm how are you gonna get inside the ship?'
Cut to a shot of a glowing door with a huge handle on it.

Why button presses on the boss battles?
I think there was some good cenematic fight sequences, in the game, but i didnt see them cos i was watching for which button i should press????

Why stop the game to level up? talk about killing the atmosphere, just auto level up if your gonna do it, long loading times again spoil it.

So you can move things by the power of your mind, you can shoot lightning out your fingers, you can bend metal with a thought, so why cant you move your feet while blocking or using the force??
A 1 year old can walk, can a jedi not master the most basic of human movement now?


Awful camera, it should aim at what your looking at to assist with using the force powers. most of the time i was aiming off screen at where i thought enemies were.

They shouldn't have levels where you can just fall off a walkway and die, your suppose to be all powerful, it kills the illusion your a powerful jedi.

This game was suppose to be about 'kicking someones ass with the force' but oh be carful you dont fall of the walkway my jedi master!

Absolute rubbish smothered in STAR WARS TM to trick you into buying it.

Im just so glad i rented it, and can send it back


Who the hell gave this a 10/10 outstanding score????

[JustinJ004]

Both the 10/10 and 1/10 are a complete joke well done to however did that!

[Goooner]

Can I vote below average for the Star Wars stuff and below average for the game itself?

Sorry, that should have read above average for the SW flavouring

[Mattk84]

my kids have played the demo and it strikes me that what completely ruins the game is the thing thats meant to be its selling point i.e. the use of the force.

imho it is used far too much and should only be available as short bursts. i have to say that it doesnt surprise me that it has met with a lukewarm response as the hype machine had gone into overdrive and confucious he say beware the game with too much hype!

[Rasczak]

Well just completed The Force Unleashed

Not that impressed I'm afraid. From a gameplay perspective I found the enemy AI to be woefully poor (sometime they just stand there doing nothing), the lightsaber utterly inadequate (it's about as effective as a candy stick), the mini-boss battles (AT-ST, Rancors etc) were just boring by the numbers affairs and end of level bosses were somwhat dull and frustrating. And what was going on with the camera? Was it programmed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Many times during fights you simply can't see youself and/or the enemy.

I thought the Force powers were okay though. Indeed alot of fun could be had out of them. But some were a little random - Force Grip for example was hard to use effectively in a busy multi-enemy fight. Long range attacks, particularly to deal with snipers, were difficult.

Level design was naff. Notwithstanding the limited number of locations - a major problem in itself - I died more times from falling off an (off screen) ledge. Do Jedi/Sith normally plummet to their deaths? And whilst we are on the subject I thought some of the enemies were far to powerful given they were fighting a Jedi. They should have had more, but weaker, enemies IMHO.

Initially hiding these fairly fundamental flaws is a fairly neat gloss. There are lots of little things that will appeal to fans - the droids drifting around, playing Darth Vader, the blast doors that raise when a window is smashed etc etc. But this is superficial gloss and the easiest way to see that is to compare this game to the Jedi Knight series that appeared on the PC (and presumably consoles) last generation. Those games played well with a good mix of force power, lightsabers and traditional Star Wars combat. Compare The Force Unleashed to any of that series and it becomes blantantly obvious how shallow the new game is.

I would rate this game 4 / 10 - Below Average.

[shagaboopon]

Originally Posted by oasismark

All i can say is..... WOW!

What an awful game they have made!

I rented this and have just had to turn if off after about 3 hours of play, its just so badly put together.

Visuals and sound are superb, cos its star wars, levels look amazing, but take away the star wars sound. images etc, its an awful psone game.

My gripes...

Why can a powerful jedi knight and Darth Vaders aprentice, be killed by a robot with a stick?

Why are the loading times so long between levels? GTA can render a huge metropolis without loading, if you get killed within 10 seconds of a level, it takes a full 15 secong loads to get going again!!!

All this talk and demonstrations about DMM!!! why is it only used to open doors, or bend big planks into walk ways?
It may have well just said 'press X to open door'

Why does it always show you what to do?
Juno ' Hmm how are you gonna get inside the ship?'
Cut to a shot of a glowing door with a huge handle on it.

Why button presses on the boss battles?
I think there was some good cenematic fight sequences, in the game, but i didnt see them cos i was watching for which button i should press????

Why stop the game to level up? talk about killing the atmosphere, just auto level up if your gonna do it, long loading times again spoil it.

So you can move things by the power of your mind, you can shoot lightning out your fingers, you can bend metal with a thought, so why cant you move your feet while blocking or using the force??
A 1 year old can walk, can a jedi not master the most basic of human movement now?


Awful camera, it should aim at what your looking at to assist with using the force powers. most of the time i was aiming off screen at where i thought enemies were.

They shouldn't have levels where you can just fall off a walkway and die, your suppose to be all powerful, it kills the illusion your a powerful jedi.

This game was suppose to be about 'kicking someones ass with the force' but oh be carful you dont fall of the walkway my jedi master!

Absolute rubbish smothered in STAR WARS TM to trick you into buying it.

Im just so glad i rented it, and can send it back


Who the hell gave this a 10/10 outstanding score????

Cheers m8, I'll rent this sometime and skip buying it, the faults you mentioned are niggles that would annoy me although probably not ruin the entire experience, at least in my case.

[Tetlee]

Originally Posted by JustinJ004

Both the 10/10 and 1/10 are a complete joke well done to however did that!

The votes are there to be used and it's all personal opinion, at least oasismark took the time to explain why he hated the game enough(reply #6) to give it 1/10 which is always appreciated.

[oasismark]

Originally Posted by Tetlee

The votes are there to be used and it's all personal opinion, at least oasismark took the time to explain why he hated the game enough(reply #6) to give it 1/10 which is always appreciated.

Ok maybe a 1/10 was harsh, it looks good and sounds really good, but gameplay wise its 10 years old. I mean really, falling of a walkway kills you!

If i could change the vote i'd put maybe a 2 or 3, but thats just for graphics and sound, and i'm a star wars fan.

Its a real shame cos i was interested in the story, but no way could i have completed the game, even on easy, just way too frustrating.

[Rasczak]

Originally Posted by oasismark

Ok maybe a 1/10 was harsh, it looks good and sounds really good, but gameplay wise its 10 years old. I mean really, falling of a walkway kills you!

If i could change the vote i'd put maybe a 2 or 3, but thats just for graphics and sound, and i'm a star wars fan.

I actually entirely agreed with your comments - I rated it a little higher - but your sentiments were spot on. A real let down.

[JustinJ004]

Originally Posted by Tetlee

The votes are there to be used and it's all personal opinion, at least oasismark took the time to explain why he hated the game enough(reply #6) to give it 1/10 which is always appreciated.

I didn't look at who posted the scores so didn't know oasismark was one of them (no hard feelings mate we are in the Fifa 09 together after all ). But after re-reading his comments (some of which I agree with), they seem a bit inconsistent with what I would expect from a 1/10 review, ie the game has no value at all. I also get the impression that he has invested a fair bit of time to the game, something I don't really understand for a game that he found to have no value imho. Of course he and everyone else is entitled to score the game as they please, but I see no other objective reviews in that score range so I assumed them spoilers.

Finally I fail to see why my not writing a full explanation for my score means my comments are any less valid than anyone else's, but maybe I'm missing something? I will be sure to think twice before I make any more comments on a forum in future.

Rant over!

Edit: When I said re-reading his comments I actually went and read the comments above lol. Now after reading Mark's post I completely understand why he gave the game 1/10 even if I don't agree with him. So please excuse me while I get rid of this egg on my face!

[shagaboopon]

Originally Posted by oasismark

Ok maybe a 1/10 was harsh, it looks good and sounds really good, but gameplay wise its 10 years old. I mean really, falling of a walkway kills you!

If i could change the vote i'd put maybe a 2 or 3, but thats just for graphics and sound, and i'm a star wars fan.

Its a real shame cos i was interested in the story, but no way could i have completed the game, even on easy, just way too frustrating.

Originally Posted by Rasczak

I actually entirely agreed with your comments - I rated it a little higher - but your sentiments were spot on. A real let down.

Originally Posted by JustinJ004

I didn't look at who posted the scores so didn't know oasismark was one of them (no hard feelings mate we are in the Fifa 09 together after all ). But after re-reading his comments (some of which I agree with), they seem a bit inconsistent with what I would expect from a 1/10 review, ie the game has no value at all. I also get the impression that he has invested a fair bit of time to the game, something I don't really understand for a game that he found to have no value imho. Of course he and everyone else is entitled to score the game as they please, but I see no other objective reviews in that score range so I assumed them spoilers.

Finally I fail to see why my not writing a full explanation for my score means my comments are any less valid than anyone else's, but maybe I'm missing something? I will be sure to think twice before I make any more comments on a forum in future.

Rant over!

Edit: When I said re-reading his comments I actually went and read the comments above lol. Now after reading Mark's post I completely understand why he gave the game 1/10 even if I don't agree with him. So please excuse me while I get rid of this egg on my face!

After the multi page off topic discussion I started in the Halo 3 reviews I didn't want to start the whole crazy low votes discussion again but I have no problems with very low votes if the poster explains why. As mark has said, his votes was harsh but at the same time having read his review fully and taken in how obviously frustrated he'd been wit the game I didn't have much of an issue with his 1/10.

Justin, we all end up with egg on our faces in forums, its an unwritten rule.

[DrinksInBars]

personally i scored the game as bad, it did look good, but the mechanincs were flawed, deeply. the controls were haphazard at best and it seemed like they increased the difficulty by making things attack you from off screen, or make everything able to block you.

as said before the button pressing cut scenes were annoying as they distracted from the game and didnt really add to it. the force powers were at times quite useless, i mean force grip only really worked against certain baddies yet i could pull a star ship out of the sky???? this game really could have been great if they had spent some time balancing it, and improving the camera. the clunky controls meant that a lot fo the time you were flailing about waiting for them to work, and not enjoying the game.

the most redeeming feature was the story line, but even that was pretty predictable in places, while the lead character was totally thick witted as all lucas charaters are.

3 for graphics and sound
1 for a drunk kota

= 4.

[Tetlee]

Originally Posted by JustinJ004

Finally I fail to see why my not writing a full explanation for my score means my comments are any less valid than anyone else's, but maybe I'm missing something? I will be sure to think twice before I make any more comments on a forum in future.

Think you got the wrong end of the stick there, I was just responding to your comments about the 1/10 vote being a joke, I wasn't meaning anything against voting without commenting in general(your vote is as valid as anyone elses ).

1/10 votes tend to be cast by fanboy poll spoilers the majority of the time where as in this case the vote was at least backed up with reasons for the low blow which for me makes it fair enough.

[inzaman]

I put above average as i am currently enjoying it but am finding a few flaws, the force targetting is shocking and has resulted in me going from trying to complete on the harder setting to now trying to complete on the middle setting; i just cannot seem to get the hang of this.

Priot to playing i was really hoping it would play more like Ninja Gaiden but set in the Star Wars Universe, but it is not, and as previously stated the Light Saber just seems so underpowered . The Star Wars Univers is still great though its just a shame that the game for me just has not lived up to what i believe it could have been.

[stealther]

I am quite enjoying this game it does have its faults and I agree the accidental falling of ledges should no happen to Jedi's.
I love the force powers and there are a lot more combos to unlock then I imagined plus I enjoy the various different ways I can kill with the force.
I am currently really frustrated with a jedi that just wont die!
As a star wars fan though I will see it through to the end.

[denn71]

Cool game, had my douts at first, but when you get your force powers and diff light sabers the game seems to open up, i found it was a bit buggy in places but then again lucas art games always are even from the early days, i'd give this a 8/10 but thats only because its based on star wars..

[Thekop]

I enjoyed this game a lot but it was a little short .. I understand some of the frustrating elements that's already been raised, but over all I think it deserves an 8 out of 10, with its lovely graphics, sound and nice set pieces ... My favorite Star Wars games are still the Battle Front series.

I do recommend a rental if you're unsure about this game though ..

[FutureShark]

This game is quite good fun, and as a lifelong star wars nut I am quite enjoying it. However I have just reached the fabled star destroyer bit which does feel liek it wasn't designed by a game designer.

In fact I believe this games says a lot about the state of Lucasarts at the moment. Compared to most games that are out at the moment, this one does seem liek it was programmed by amatuers. The story and the art design are very high, but the actual technical level of the game is poor;poor level design, poor AI and extremely glitchy.

Could have been a masterpiece, but it seems that Lucasarts ran out of time. I guess the marketing boys pushed them to recycle levels and not playtest properly (star destroyer level - marketing boys made it a focus, unfortunately ignoring it's flaws) ro make sure it came out on the same day as the book, figures, other merchandise.

How on earth could they have the idea of pulling down a star destroyer with the force, and then make it one of the least fun experiences in modern videogaming?

[Rasczak]

Originally Posted by FutureShark

How on earth could they have the idea of pulling down a star destroyer with the force, and then make it one of the least fun experiences in modern videogaming?

It wasn't that bad! Once you found out about ignoring the third set of prompts it was quite a straight-forward sequence IMHO. And at least it injected a degree of scale sorely missing in the rest of the game.

Pull it out of the sky!

[inzaman]

Originally Posted by FutureShark

This game is quite good fun, and as a lifelong star wars nut I am quite enjoying it. However I have just reached the fabled star destroyer bit which does feel liek it wasn't designed by a game designer.

In fact I believe this games says a lot about the state of Lucasarts at the moment. Compared to most games that are out at the moment, this one does seem liek it was programmed by amatuers. The story and the art design are very high, but the actual technical level of the game is poor;poor level design, poor AI and extremely glitchy.

Could have been a masterpiece, but it seems that Lucasarts ran out of time. I guess the marketing boys pushed them to recycle levels and not playtest properly (star destroyer level - marketing boys made it a focus, unfortunately ignoring it's flaws) ro make sure it came out on the same day as the book, figures, other merchandise.

How on earth could they have the idea of pulling down a star destroyer with the force, and then make it one of the least fun experiences in modern videogaming?

I too didnt mind this part once i had learnt how to deal with the Tie Fighters, i just wish the cut sequence after was better - more like the original advert and it had a better build up. As you say though maybe it was rushed, i too think this game could have been a classic if they had spent a bit longer developing and testing it.

[scaz]

Have to agree with some of the comments above. I gave this game an average score because like me in the bedroom, it was all over too quickly!!!
If multiplayer had been included it could have been really good.

[Shanks Kop]

Being a big Star Wars fan this game has some good ideas, but really not worth the initial outlay, the game is over too quickly and the good ideas soon run out.

5/10

[SavageDonkey]

Eye candy of the highest order, but not much substance. A good game all the same but leaves you wondering why it didn't fulfill it's potential.

[formatc]

I am a Star Wars fan, I have been ever since I watched Episode 4 when it was first shown in cinemas in 1977. Needless to say I have always looked forward to the Star Wars games and have always expected great things. So why I am always disappointed? Perhaps they don't give me that same feeling of awe I felt when I saw A New Hope for the first time. Force Unleashed was OK but still I wait for the Star Wars game to put me right into the film. Perhaps Infinity Ward or Epic Games should have a crack at this franchise?

[Billy Goodgun]

I marked this "below average". I have posted my thoughts more fully in the main "play and help" thread, but basically I found the game buggy and extremely frustrating to play. Sometimes it was frustrating because I died, but as often as not it was because the game simply didn't respond to the commands I was inputting.

I quite enjoyed the story, although it was slow to get going.

My gripes are, in no particular order:

1. Bad camera
2. Terrible targeting system (targets things without the blue cursor, sometimes does nothing instead, can't switch targets)
3. Boring and sometimes difficult boss fights
4. Uneven difficulty
5. Sluggish and unresponsive combat
6. Poor platforming
7. Unforgiving checkpoints
8. Lack of proper counter-attack moves
9. Everything can block your standard lightsaber attacks from about level 2 onwards