Ty Arthur
BloodyaugustThe Force Unleashed Demo
September 1st 2008 18:22
The newest Star Wars epic hits shelves this month, and from all indications this one is going to be one of the better titles in a series that has had its share of hits and misses. My brother in law has been carefully watching the development of The Force Unleashed at a level that has border lined on complete obsession, so even though I’m not that big a fan of the series or action games in general, I have become rather interested in this game because of its three separate engines that cover things like physics, motion, and character self-preservation.
In general demos seem like a bad idea, as they take people away from the main development of the game, and there is no way to know how much of what is in the demo will actually still be in the game itself. Will the bugs in the demo be present in the game? Will the graphics be of the same quality? Will the controls have changed? Are all of the powers available to the main character on the demo the only ones in the game? Playing a demo really puts too much guess work into the process of deciding which games are worth it and which aren’t. They can serve as a general guideline, but really don’t give any specific information to help in your decision.
With that warning in mind, I did get a chance to play The Force Unleashed demo, and overall it looks like it’s shaping up to be a pretty great game. On a humorous side note, when you download the demo on Xbox Live, the title says “Star Wars: TFU Demo.” This is odd because there is more than enough room on the title bar to have written out “The Force Unleashed,” and it provides some unintentional humor since it seems like they are going for a shortening of the popular internet acronym STFU. Are they trying to say Star Wars: The F*&! Up Demo?
Anyway, on the demo itself. There is a tutorial that shows how to use the force powers so the player doesn’t get frustrated when playing through, and it’s pretty comprehensive yet easy to grasp. The force powers themselves are uniformly awesome, but you could probably play the whole thing through just using the push and pull mechanic and completely ignoring other abilities such as force lightning. There are plenty of things to grab in the environment and throw at enemies, like boxes, droids, other enemies, and even huge TIE fighters.
There are really only two complaints worth raising about the demo. The first is the lack of blood and gore. The game makes a point of focusing on how much damage your light saber can do to anything. If you strike a wall, there will be a permanent gash in that wall. If you hit a droid, it will fly into two pieces. Yet for some reason when you strike a storm trooper or rebel guard with it, they simply get knocked backward and then disappear when they die? It really ruins immersion, and makes the game less believable. I understand the developer’s plight though, as a certain terrible writer who for unknown reasons has millions of dollars and a huge franchise under his control wants to make certain that that franchise never gets out of a PG-13 range. The other issue is rather minor, and may not even be present in the game itself. When you have the character jump in the air, he automatically uses his force powers to keep himself floating if you attack with your light saber, which allows you to remain suspended above the ground to attack large objects or flying things. It would have been nice if there was also an option to do a downward attack, jumping into the air and then striking downwards with the saber to hit an enemy below. The demo ends with a large scale battle between the main character and a contingent of storm troopers backed up by an imperial walker. It’s a fun and challenging battle, and they throw in a mechanic very similar to what the “God of War” series does. Once the boss is reduced to a certain health level, you have to hit a specific combination of buttons on the controller to pull off a finishing move. In this case, cutting the walker completely in half with your light saber.
Overall the demo seems to indicate that The Force Unleashed will probably become the best Star Wars game in recent memory. It’s a shame that the amazing use of force powers couldn’t have been mastered by earlier games. Imagine if Knights of the Old Republic had been this in depth with use of force powers!
Moving away from video games, while I was watching the latest season of Lost (love being able to download them on Xbox Live!) I noticed something rather amusing. In one of the last episodes of this season, when Sun is about to accost Mr. Whidmore about the secrets of the island, there is a brief moment where you can see him in the background talking to some colleagues and you just barely make out the end of their conversation. He very clearly says “Orgasm, thanks!” and then walks away. What could a group of high profile businessman on the street be talking about that ended that way? A secret for the ages I suppose…
In general demos seem like a bad idea, as they take people away from the main development of the game, and there is no way to know how much of what is in the demo will actually still be in the game itself. Will the bugs in the demo be present in the game? Will the graphics be of the same quality? Will the controls have changed? Are all of the powers available to the main character on the demo the only ones in the game? Playing a demo really puts too much guess work into the process of deciding which games are worth it and which aren’t. They can serve as a general guideline, but really don’t give any specific information to help in your decision.
With that warning in mind, I did get a chance to play The Force Unleashed demo, and overall it looks like it’s shaping up to be a pretty great game. On a humorous side note, when you download the demo on Xbox Live, the title says “Star Wars: TFU Demo.” This is odd because there is more than enough room on the title bar to have written out “The Force Unleashed,” and it provides some unintentional humor since it seems like they are going for a shortening of the popular internet acronym STFU. Are they trying to say Star Wars: The F*&! Up Demo?
Anyway, on the demo itself. There is a tutorial that shows how to use the force powers so the player doesn’t get frustrated when playing through, and it’s pretty comprehensive yet easy to grasp. The force powers themselves are uniformly awesome, but you could probably play the whole thing through just using the push and pull mechanic and completely ignoring other abilities such as force lightning. There are plenty of things to grab in the environment and throw at enemies, like boxes, droids, other enemies, and even huge TIE fighters.
There are really only two complaints worth raising about the demo. The first is the lack of blood and gore. The game makes a point of focusing on how much damage your light saber can do to anything. If you strike a wall, there will be a permanent gash in that wall. If you hit a droid, it will fly into two pieces. Yet for some reason when you strike a storm trooper or rebel guard with it, they simply get knocked backward and then disappear when they die? It really ruins immersion, and makes the game less believable. I understand the developer’s plight though, as a certain terrible writer who for unknown reasons has millions of dollars and a huge franchise under his control wants to make certain that that franchise never gets out of a PG-13 range. The other issue is rather minor, and may not even be present in the game itself. When you have the character jump in the air, he automatically uses his force powers to keep himself floating if you attack with your light saber, which allows you to remain suspended above the ground to attack large objects or flying things. It would have been nice if there was also an option to do a downward attack, jumping into the air and then striking downwards with the saber to hit an enemy below. The demo ends with a large scale battle between the main character and a contingent of storm troopers backed up by an imperial walker. It’s a fun and challenging battle, and they throw in a mechanic very similar to what the “God of War” series does. Once the boss is reduced to a certain health level, you have to hit a specific combination of buttons on the controller to pull off a finishing move. In this case, cutting the walker completely in half with your light saber.
Overall the demo seems to indicate that The Force Unleashed will probably become the best Star Wars game in recent memory. It’s a shame that the amazing use of force powers couldn’t have been mastered by earlier games. Imagine if Knights of the Old Republic had been this in depth with use of force powers!
Moving away from video games, while I was watching the latest season of Lost (love being able to download them on Xbox Live!) I noticed something rather amusing. In one of the last episodes of this season, when Sun is about to accost Mr. Whidmore about the secrets of the island, there is a brief moment where you can see him in the background talking to some colleagues and you just barely make out the end of their conversation. He very clearly says “Orgasm, thanks!” and then walks away. What could a group of high profile businessman on the street be talking about that ended that way? A secret for the ages I suppose…
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Comment by Cibbuano
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