Star Wars: The Force Unleashed [Demo]

[Eight Rooks]

At least I'm not alone! Haven't played it, but I watched my housemate who's a rabid Star Wars fan sit through the whole thing and, well, from an observer's point of view I agree with most of the criticisms here. The game just doesn't reach out and grab me at all - not to mention Starkiller has to be one of the most boring character designs I've seen in a while. PsiOps comfortably eclipses this in most respects - the demo of PsiOps just screamed "buy me now" - and if a flagship title for one of the biggest SF franchises in the world can't compare to a five-year-old PS2 game that's pretty embarrassing.

[Concrete donkey]

It seemed a fun little game to me, something worth picking up in the bargain bin perhaps but I wouldn't go so far to say it was a bad game. Definatly not the game I was expecting though which is disapointing though it's good for me as money is tighter than ever right now.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Its certainly no Obi-Wan or Revenge of the Sith. It's just very underwelming, i'm going to pick it up and see what the full game is like anyway. As the other areas that have been shown look alot better than the one in the demo.

I don't know why people are dissing Starkiller, i think he looks cool as ****. I love the way he weilds his lightsabre.

[ezee ryder]

The graphics were impressive and the framerate was solid but the controls were awful (mainly the force grab) and the camera was awful too.

Chopping up that walker thing was quite fun though, it reminded me a little bit of DMC there.

Camera was fine for me, no problems with controlling it. Certainly better than say, Too Human.

[eastyy]

This was fun very similar to psi ops ....i just hope in the full game it goes a bit more indepth with the combat

[fishbowlhead]

Slight update on further play.
Personally i liked the main character, his raggy clothes moved nicely when he moves. I also like the way he wields his lightsaber, gives him a slightly different look to other jedi or sith characters in the films or other games.

Cut scenes seemed fairly good, sounds as always with Lucasarts was excellent.

On further experimentation with the combat i discovered that if you force grip an enemy and lightning him you can turn him into a grenade of sorts, quite entertaining!
I also found that you can indeed throw the tie fighters hanging up (the game didn't want to highlight them to grip though, i had to stand looking straight at them for several seconds to highlight them) so ill take that point back.

Did find some glass to smash in one of the corridors as well (looked fantastic when it shattered all over the floor and stayed there in the dev demonstrations of the game) in the demo though the glass looked like a ps1 texture and simply vanished after hitting the floor, looked rather ****e!

[EvilBoris]

Played it again and it was lots better, inverted controls made the force grip a bit of a swine to use. I still think that it is too hard to focus on one object sometimes.
I won't be buying it on release, but I may pick it up ont cheap

[Dogg Thang]

I only got around to playing this tonight. I love the main character, though he's seriously ugly compared with the Soul Calibur version - hope his face gets an improvment in cut scenes. Graphics are unimpressive and I suspect gameplay could end up being really repetitive but it does seem like fun. I think I could enjoy going through this just tearing stuff up.

But the potential impact of the game is lost in the physics. No weight. No impacts. Everything negative about ragdoll with none of the positives. So many steps behind GTA4, which had really solid and powerful reactions to impacts. Throwing a giant metal container at a Stormtrooper was as rewarding as blowing a feather across a table.

If they seriously improve that though, I think this could turn out to be a lot of fun.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Theres a new developers walkthrough for the 2nd or 3rd level on gametrailers. You should all check it out, it certainly looks alot better in that than what was in this demo.

EDIT: Here it is http://moses.gametrailers.com/player/39048.html

[merf]

I hadn't even heard of this game so came to it totally cold, played thru the demo a few times and its gone to instant pre-order for me.

i love the controls, , graphics, camera and pretty much everything about it, can't wait for it to come out !

[B1gBeard]

Looking at the guy on the demo video there the level they have put up seems pretty uninspiring in comparison.

The demo level is the usual souless effort we haver come to expect from Star Wars games. A show off of Force powers with the game tacked on as an afterthought. Everything completely lacking in character and charm.

The combat was dull. The enemy seems to notice you from miles away leaving no real thought to the way you can approach an encounter. Its all about using the seemingly way over-powered Force to smash everything in your way. Even the Dark-side were more subtle than that. Smash is probably the wrong word though as has been mentioned, there is little feeling of weight or violence. I had more fun Force Blasting doors than throwing stormtroopers around as it at least felt as though I was achieving something physical.

We are looking at major plot nonsense here as well. Kill everyone on board so no one lives to tell the tale? I would of thought that a Sith attacking a space station with a fair few people on board with any kind of communication is going to be big news.

This leads on to another issue. Your enemies need to show a bit more fear. If you are wielding a red lightsabre and throwing Tie Fighters around I want a little more respect.

Saying all that, the levels on show by the dev bod look a lot more interesting.

Edit: I just came across some stormtroopers and opponents standing looking at each other until I reached a certain point and triggered the fight. Thats damn poor.

[Dogg Thang]

We are looking at major plot nonsense here as well. Kill everyone on board so no one lives to tell the tale? I would of thought that a Sith attacking a space station with a fair few people on board with any kind of communication is going to be big news.

Yeah, I was willing to let that go in the demo but the logic was a little nuts. Makes no sense but it does facilitate all-out chaos gameplay so I guess it needs to be forgiven.

[fuji]

Not bad demo - but not really my cup of tea. Didn't like the long wait to load up the options menu and the numerous crates left lying around - it reminded me of playing Lego Star Wars for some reason.

[Korlis]

I thought the demo was appalling, really. I was thoroughly hyped for this, but it just kept throwing up things that spoiled it. The graphics seemed rough, with the destructible parts of the environment always seeming pretty jarring (the doors you can force push open stand out in the way they kind of bounce around, and the opening corridor where you can shatter the glass and expose it to space was just pathetic: why does everything else fly out, but the Apprentice doesn't even react? His clothes aren't even pulled in the direction of the breach). The whole 'force unleashed' concept seems wasted. I know this is an early level, but even so, your reservoir of force power and the rate it recharges basically crippled your abilities. Likewise, it was impossible to chain them together with any effectiveness. I don't know whether this is just because of the lack of force power, or its just the way it works full stop, but it was impossible to, say, pick up and throw one guy, and immediately throw someone else - there's an enforced pause.

Because of the lack of ranged attacks once you've exhausted your limited force powers, you seem to spend half the level running about (or doing a very retro little speed boost along the ground or through the air) to hack at people with the lightsabre - people who barely react. The AI is awful. They either shoot you, or run at you and shoot you. Half the time, they shot explosive barrels they were using as 'cover', but I don't think any cover was intentional. None of them actually moved to take it, they just happened to be behind it. Oh, and the fight with the AT-ST at the end - that's the worst implementation of a quick button event I've ever seen. There's no warning you're about to enter it, leading to a frustrating number of times where I'd be slashing at it with the saber or trying to hit it with one of the other powers, only to get the event 'wrong'.

This seems like a huge step back from previous Star Wars games. In Jedi Academy, your character could run up walls and force jump off, flick enemies aside easily, and there was a great deal of choice in what weapon to use, both in the variety of lightsabers and a smattering of guns for longer range stuff (and what happened to the cauterised limbs flying every which way? The lightsaber has been neutered). Sure, the character here is meant to lack the finesse of a trained Jedi, but your limited abilities really don't seem representative of a truly powerful force user. Maybe if this demo is representative of much older work, and the retail release will be a lot better, but given how people seem to be reacting with baffling positivity, I don't think I could trust any reviews of it. As it is, this demo pretty successfully put me off buying it.