Random Video Game Series Review - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

So we finish up a week of Star Wars things by looking at one of the few projects that is now considered part of the Legends timeline and has since been abandoned. Now many of us who played Jedi Fallen Order loved the idea of going on a journey to become a true Jedi Knight. But what some of us do not know or have forgotten about (because you know that happens) was a time when we got a similar sort of journey game but from the other side of the Force. That became known as The Force Unleashed which explored the idea of having unlimited and powerful Force powers from the Dark Side and it became a huge hit. Two video games were made and those were accompanied by several books by Dark Horse Comics and Del Rey Books as well as toys by LEGO and Hasbro. So let's take a trip down memory lane and see how this one played out:

The Force Unleashed

Set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, Darth Vader (voiced by Matt Sloan who voices him when James Earl Jones cannot) continues his quest to hunt down and kill Jedi who survived the Jedi Purge and finds himself on the Wookie planet of Kashyyyk. There he finds and fights Jedi Knight Kento Marek (voiced by Tom Kane) until he finds a child which he senses has a great deal of Force power. With this fresh in his mind, Vader kills Kento Marek and a group of Imperial solders in order to keep this child a secret. Years then pass and this child who was once known as Galen Marek (voiced by Sam Witwer) has been given the name Starkiller and with his training nearing completion, Vader sends him out to hunt down Jedi while also killing anyone from both sides of the war in order to keep his apprentice a secret from his own master. But as time goes on, Galen learns that Vader may not be as sincere as he thought. As with most hack and slash games, The Force Unleashed gives players the chance to use a wide array of powerful Force powers as well as a lightsaber with the developers hoping that every button press would lead to a great deal of power being used as well as combos too. With every battle fought and artifact found, gamers receive experience points to help Starkiller become the best Sith Apprentice he can be. Of course people can run and gun in the game, but from my own personal experience, you would get more of a kick from a more strategic and stealthy approach to the situations presented in the game. As the game came out on a wide amount of devices, of course there will be some differences. For example, the Wii version makes use of the motion controls to make you feel like using a real lightsaber. Whereas the DS makes use of the touch screen to execute attacks. I have played the Wii, PC and mobile versions of the game and all three of them have varying degrees of differences. The Wii version for example also has an extended version of the story not seen on the other platforms where Starkiller goes to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant a few times (though part of that later ended up as DLC for other platforms). Then on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC versions, there is a DLC that expands on the Dark Side ending in which Starkiller goes to find and kill original trilogy characters like Luke Skywalker. Overall, it's a pretty good game. Not a perfect one by any means, but it does what it says on the cover and gives people the chance to really use the Force to the best of its ability. 8/10


II

Following from the first game's Light Side ending, Darth Vader (once again voiced by Matt Sloan) oversees a cloning facility that is making and training clones of his once former apprentice presumably in an attempt to create the perfect apprentice. One clone in particular seems to have a lot of rage towards Vader from what happened in the last game and sets out to find out who he is while gathering allies in an attempt at revenge on Vader for some kind of betrayal from the last game. So while the first game was released on loads of platforms, this second game was released on the main platforms at the time of its release with only Apple devices getting the mobile version of the game. Gameplay is largely the same as with the first game, but Starkiller (once again voiced by Sam Witwer) can now wield dual lightsabers and can use Force Rage and the fan favourite Mind Trick too along with the rest of the powers and combat skills from the first game. Like the first game, the Wii version has a slightly extended story which includes a portion in which Starkiller goes to Dagobah and the Force Rage is an exclusive Force power to that version of the game too. In addition, that version also has a multiplayer mode and something that leads into what is known as "bullet time". Whereas the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC versions have skins for each of the Force powers and due to the hardware capability compared to the Wii, gamers can use the Force to destroy the game's environment. Finally, the DS version contains the same Force powers as the other versions, but has been designed for short gaming sessions which may be because of that platform being mobile. Now unlike the first game where I played all versions albeit on three different platforms, I only played the PS3 and PC versions of this game and while writing this, I learned that the Wii version was in face the most complete version of the game while the HD versions of the game felt too rushed. I see where people are coming from there as I felt when playing the game twice, all the Force powers were there. But there was no or lack of real progression into having those powers. Nevertheless, the story is ok at best and the graphics are good too. Glad that unlike the PC version of the last game, this one takes more advantage of what is on offer in terms of hardware. So yeah a good sequel, but not a perfect one. 7/10

Now unfortunately, the second game's ending was left on a cliffhanger which due to Disney's buyout of LucasFilm and the establishment of a canon timeline, was left unresolved. But there have been some good to come out of it. Despite now being part of the Legends timeline, Starkiller along with Vader and Yoda went on to appear as guest third party characters in Soul Calibur IV. Starkiller's voice actor Sam Witwer has also been utilized a lot in Star Wars since the games, most notably being the voice of Darth Maul in various projects including some animated shows and Solo. Plus both games are still both available digitally on Steam and other platforms. We also learnt before the release of the first sequel trilogy film that the third game would have been an open world game where Starkiller and Vader team up to fight a great threat that Palpatine unleashes onto them. But for what we got, we got two decent games that live up to expectations and gave us the experience of being a Sith Lord with a great amount of Force power. And both games do expand upon the respective Dark Side endings which leads into some original trilogy characters getting killed off and even saw Leia as a Jedi too. 8/10