Saturday, January 24, 2009

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

The Force Unleashed arrived in my mailbox today, and I prepared myself for a torrent of mediocrity. After all, I'm no fan of constant beat'em ups and this one screams beat-the-shit out of everything up!

Actually, the opening level letting me play as Vader with complete force powers was an enthralling game of Sith badassery. I'd like to say force powers are a very feel good field days in fun, flinging wookies and stormtroopers alike with nary a remorseful thought. Choking anyone I feel like slowing down with, then picking up the pace by holding a rock with my sith force power and chucking it at a pack of enemies.

There seems to be a weird distance ratio going on though. The farther away I am, the more likely I need to use force powers to fight, and the more fun I'll have. Inversely, if I'm near enemies, it might be more effecient to hack and slash with my lightsaber, but I'll be falling back on hack and slash tactics, and thus, will have trouble embracing the fun of that.

That's my idea in a nutshell. I want to throw futuristic exploding barrels at you people, but you have to go off and shoot me with your "lasers" and "grenades". The problem can be alleviated with lightning from mah fingertips, but as a beat'em up, things start to appear pretty static for me.

It's a pretty solid package that deserves some attention for it's DLC changing things up, but it's not a blockbuster like the hype leads you to believe.

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