by aC

Created on: October 30, 2008   Last Updated: March 21, 2012

Playing as Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller (Yes, I know, couldn't they pick a better name for the hero?), you have the power of the Force at your disposal! And the Force "unleashes" in ways never seen before in any other console games! The game's timeline takes place between Episode III and IV of George Lucas' saga and the storyline is quite well written I must say which is a rarity amongst action-adventure platform games.

The Good:

(1) Power of the Force - You have basically 4 types of Force powers at your disposal in this game - Force Push, Force Lightning, Force Shield and Force Grab. The powers mentioned here are quite self-explanatory by their names but I must give special mention to Force Grab. Upon selecting a target to Grab (and these targets can be objects or enemies like stormtroopers), holding down RT will lift up your target and you can spin them all around the universe before smashing them into other objects. Force Grabbing stormtroopers are the most fun to do because you can see them holding onto each other or to the latch on top of a cliff as the AI is intelligent enough to "fear for their lives". The AI is embedded with "euphoria" which is a behavioral-simulation engine which simulates the unpredictability of real life. Euphoria enables interactive characters to move, act and even think like actual human beings. Freaky...

(2) Combos and Leveling - There's a deep level set for combo moves and most of them involves the 4 Force powers and your trusty lightsaber. Although most combos involve your lightsaber attack, I guess that's OK because you wouldn't want your all powerful Apprentice to start fighting with his bare hands or be doing some kung-fu style kicks right? Furthermore, as you level up, your attacks become more powerful as well. For example, you can grab up to 3 objects and enemies at the max level for Force Grab.

(3) Lightsaber - Yes, you can finally change its colour! And for pure aesthetic reasons at that! (Isn't that why we prefer the purple lightsaber to the dull blue one? Or why must red always stand for evil while blue stands for good?) In Force Unleashed - you can collect power crystals to "power up" your light saber to have it inflict more melee damage or have it infused with lightning. As mentioned this power crystals don't change the colour of your lightsaber, you need to collect a different set of colour crystals for that. And they almost come in a rainbow set (However, black lightsaber is a bit... weird, to say

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