bit-tech Shopping: LucasArts Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Rating: 8

Time with product:

Strengths: Star wars univers

Weaknesses: Not much challenge

Summary: This game is great for all Star wars fans. Graphics simply look great & sounds is pretty good too. You play as Darth Vader in one of the earlier levels & it feels great! Later you play as his apprentice & there are some cool moves that you can use to destroy your enemies. One thing to note is that some moves do not work all that well on the stronger opponents. But still, boss battles are fun & you never feel bored in the game. Length of the game may be a bit short for paying full price admission. But still it is worth a rental or a buy if found at a cheap price. Overall I would recommend it

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Day

Strengths: fun game for the most part, great graphics

Weaknesses: game is fairly short, about 10 hours worth of play

Summary: Opening level puts you in control of Darth Vader, giving you a good idea of the force powers you will have. First level has you fighting wookies, while AT-ATs are down below. Tie fighters are flying around. Very cool!The game play is good overall, but repetitive after a while.The cutscenes are really not really well developed though and could have been much better. Despite the shortcomings, you can tell alot of hardwork came out of this game, and if you are even a moderate star wars fan you will have a blast while the game lasts. The force powers are very fun, especially throwing around stormtroopers! The graphics and animation are EXCELLENT too.

Rating: 8

Time with product:

Strengths: Fun next-gen romp through Star Wars universe that takes place in a fascinating time period (between Eps. III and IV).

Weaknesses: All these great powers but some enemies are immune, game is fairly short too.

Summary: The latest Star Wars video game Star Wars The Force Unleashed takes place between Star Wars Episodes III and IV. You play the role of Darth Vader's secret apprentice, which gives you license to attack any and all forces you encounter (as you are fighting rebels and Jedi but also keeping your identity secret from the Emperor and thus must dispose of imperial troops too). The game starts off with an awesome romp as a fully-powered Darth Vader attacking some helpless Wookies. But in the first real level you start as the apprentice and for a while it seems like you have limitless power as you can use all sorts of attacks against the rebel fighters and stormtroopers you encounter early on. You can use your light saber of course, but you can also lift and throw them with the force, or crush them with other objects. You also learn about force lightning fairly early on. The game has some impressive enemy AI. For example, a stormtrooper that you are lifting in the air will try to grab on to anything he can. If you lift him to the ceiling of a corridor and let go, he may hang on to a beam and dangle there helplessly, legs kicking. It is a great deal of fun simply to play around with the force powers early on in the game and see how many different ways you can dispatch enemies. As you fight more enemies and explore the levels (and find hidden Jedi holocrons) you will level up your character making him even more powerful. You can choose to spend the experience you earn in many different ways to match your favored style of fighting. Unfortunately, later in the game the way the challenge is increased is by having enemies that are immune to various elements of your force powers. So while you become even more powerful later in the game, you will find those powers useless in many encounters. This makes those fights somewhat drawn out and boring as you have to find the one weakness and pound on it continually with some lesser ability. The graphics are pretty good, though not stunning, and while there are a great variety of environments none of them stand out in particular. The game is an enjoyable, though somewhat short, romp through the Star Wars universe that explores a fascinating period of time in the Star Wars chronology (what Darth Vader did during all that time Luke was growing up) and for fans of the movies it is probably a must-play experience.