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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

EMAIL PRINT ps3

6.2 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 47 critic reviews
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Based on 116 votes
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Game Info

Publisher: LucasArts

Developer: LucasArts

Genre(s): Action

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: September 16, 2008

Summary

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed casts players as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice" and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith" and "Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope." In it, players assist the iconic villain in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi - and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny. Unleash and upgrade the Secret Apprentice's four core Force powers - Force push, grip, repulse and lightning - throughout the course of the game, and combine them for ultra-destructive, never-before-seen combos. The Secret Apprentice doesn't just Force push enemies into walls - he Force pushes enemies through walls. The Secret Apprentice doesn't just Force grip foes to throw them aside - he Force grips them in midair, zapping them with lightning, then dropping them to the ground to explode like a bomb. In addition to new adversaries created just for the game, such as fugitive Jedi and Force-sensitive Felucians, players also confront and associate with familiar faces from the Star Wars films, including Darth Vader. Visit locations such as Episode III's Wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk and the floral Felucia, the junk planet Raxus Prime, plus an Imperial TIE fighter construction facility. Decisions made by players throughout the game determine the path of the story, including multiple endings that will rock Star Wars continuity as they know it. [LucasArts]

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Also On The Web: Kotaku Review Official Website

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

GamingXP

A story set in the world of the Star Wars-universe, impressive fights and a hero with profile - all that a Star Wars-fan needs!

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Game Informer

The gameplay is electric and fun, and the plethora of awesome new enemy types will make Star Wars action figure collectors salivate.

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Cheat Code Central

For Star Wars fans, there is a lot here to love. The game looks great, controls well, is fun to play, and has a great storyline that you won’t want to miss.

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ZTGameDomain

The unlockables and amazing force powers offer plenty of replay value, and the story is top notch. Anyone who calls themselves a Star Wars fan needs to experience this game, if only for the narrative which really adds a lot to the main canon.

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Gameplayer

The truth of the matter is that Star Wars: The Forced Unleashed is an enormously fun game, which will suck you in with its story, frequently blow your mind with its visuals and, perhaps most importantly, will fulfil your Jedi fantasies like never before. And that, Star Wars fans, is worth the price of admission alone.

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MEGamers

The story is engaging, the graphics are incredible and the mood fits with the classic three films. It is the best Star Wars game on the current gaming consoles and it is a very satisfying experience.

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GamingExcellence

Overall, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a pretty good game. If you are a Star Wars fan, you owe it to yourself to add this to your collection.

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Maxi Consolas (Portugal)

Embracing the Dark Side of the Force, this is a game plenty of action, memorable locations e a few surprises in the Star Wars world. It has some technical issues and an incoherent difficulty, but it’s still an experience that no fan should miss, also deserving the attention of the action gamers. [Sept 2008]

DailyGame

As a Star Wars video game, The Force Unleashed just takes too many missteps to be a masterpiece. But as Star Wars canon, The Force Unleashed does very little wrong.

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Cynamite

Straight-forward lightsaber action meets first class story. But what sounds like a must have game reveals a lot of frustrating sides and small bugs.

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PTGamers

The playability should have been better, considering the technology behind it all, but it still manages to offer some hours of unadulterated entertainment.

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Deeko

The game takes a lot of time to figure out how to complete but when you do finally figure out the puzzles, it becomes an experience well worth the admission price.

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3DJuegos

Despite of being repetitive, The Force Unleashed is a really interesting action title. The AI defects and the reiterative form of resolving combats are aspects which should not distract us from the fact that the videogame is attractive, ambitious and full of action.

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ImpulseGamer

For all of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed incredible game play, there is not a huge amount of replay value here.

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IGN AU

Some overlong levels, repetitive enemies and the inconsistent effect of your powers stop this from being great. As it is, it's a lot of fun but once you've played through it a few times it's hard to imagine dusting it off years or even months down the track.

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Gamer 2.0

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is an enjoyable game with plenty of action and mementos to keep fans happy for quite some time.

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BigPond GameArena

The story is engrossing and playing around with The Force powers is a treat.

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Gameplanet

A solid game with fantastic sound and visuals. However, unpolished aspects of gameplay will cause frustration. Ultimately, Force Unleashed is unlikely to be remembered for anything other than its excellent story.

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Armchair Empire

As much as I'll remember the awesome setting, the very satisfying conclusion, some really great outdoor set pieces, and just feeling like a bad ass Sith apprentice, I'll also remember the Star Destroyer Slap to the Face.

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GameSpot

The Force Unleashed's action can be incredible, though it too often strays from what it does best.

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Game Over Online

What you wind up with when all is said and done is a neat little chunk of Star Wars fiction wrapped up in a mediocre action game package.

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GameShark

As good as the game is - aside from the targeting issues and the falling to your death over and over - the story that unfolds is the definite high point.

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IGN

Uninspired level design and some tedious enemy battles mar an experience that gives you power over the Force like we've never really seen before. While it's far from perfect, Star Wars fans will find that it's worth playing through simply for its story and the ability to use the Force in fairly awesome ways.

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Worth Playing

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed can often be a frustrating mess. There are tons of polish issues and questionable design choices. Even with a 2.5GB install onto the PS3, there is still far too much loading. However, when everything works, there's just something innately satisfying about being able to kill dozens of Stormtroopers with the flick of your wrist.

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VideoGamer

If you like the idea of messing with some storm troopers to the extent that it verges on Force-fuelled torture we recommend you give The Force Unleashed a look.

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GamePro

Killer force powers and intense action can't fully save an otherwise inconsistent effort. Still, it has its moments.

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Playstation: The Official Magazine (US)

At the end of the day, this remains a Star Wars game - and an essential one thanks to its compelling story and, to be fair, engaging gameplay. [Oct 2008, p.74]

GameDaily

The fancy technology powering the experience is impressive, as is the performance by actors who lent their voices and likenesses to the game's pivotal characters. That's mixed with rote game mechanics -- hack, slash, fight big boss, level ends -- that can easily grow tiresome, and a leveling up system that's more distraction than a way to create a customized character.

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Playstation Official Magazine UK

One of the most bizarre failings, however, has to be a bafflingly imprecise lock-on system. [Nov 2008, p.114]

LEVEL (Czech Republic)

Instead of a game revolution, here comes an “ordinary” great and fast action-paced game with RPG elements and amazing Force usage. In Darth Vader’s service you try to kill popular Star Wars characters – what more did you ever want?! [Oct 2008]

Gamervision

Just as is the case with prequels, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed provides insight into the dark areas of the Star Wars Universe while being flawed in many ways.

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Thunderbolt

With all of the new technology implemented within the game, it feels like a mediocre game from the future. The camera is rubbish, and the controls are hard to wrestle with thanks to that; and of course, let's not forget that the level design tends to hover between infuriating and boring in some places. Still, there's nothing else quite like it on the market.

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DarkZero

An essential play for any fan of George Lucas’ creation. Unfortunately, the gameplay feels a tad repetitive, un-ambitious and never quite lives up to the superb storytelling.

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Playstation Official Magazine Australia

A Force bonanza that plays a good game of Sith but fails to use its idea to max effect. [Nov 2008, p.90]

Level7.nu

The Force Unleashed does so many things right that you'll almost be able to overlook all the flaws that unfortunately plague this production. The unfinished state of this thing is a direct reflection of the scattered state the developers were in when this game was sent to the presses. Even though there are a lot to complain about here this is still a must have for die hard Star Wars fans.

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PSX Extreme

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed won't be one of the games I'll remember as being poor, but I also won't look back on it years from now and feel nostalgic.

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GameZone

The Force may be unleashed, but it's a bit more average than the dream Star Wars fans were hoping would come true.

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Play UK

Fast paced and never deviating from its solid format, this arcade adventure, where limited in parts, does boast some superb visuals and addictive gameplay.

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Giant Bomb

The story is the main thing that I'll remember about The Force Unleashed--I found it to be more satisfying than the last three movies combined. Though you go in sort of knowing how it has to end, since it has to lead into Star Wars, there are plenty of significant events occurring throughout. It's enjoyable to watch it all unfold. That said, it's unfortunate that the game isn't a bit more even, because the constant flips from too easy to too hard really drag things down and prevent The Force Unleashed from being great.

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GameSpy

Awkward controls and handling largely dilute the fun of "kicking ass with the Force," especially during a few big moments toward the end. The Force Unleashed spins an entertaining yarn, but its gameplay prevents it from becoming a rich contributor to "Star Wars'" interactive tapestry.

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PSM3 Magazine UK

This is just another mundane Star Wars game to throw on the pile. [Nov 2008, p.74]

Game Revolution

Unfortunately, though beating the crap out of Rancor is cool, it's quite flawed, thanks to the wonky camera and targeting system.

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Electronic Gaming Monthly

An ambitious--yet ultimately dissatisfying--effort. [Oct 2008, p.82]

1UP

Even the most hardcore Star Wars fans will be disappointed in what could've been an opportunity to highlight the true power of the Force.

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Wired

It's all the more disappointing because you can see, mired in the boring levels and bad cameras, glimpses of fun ideas.

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G4 TV

The concepts are solid, the story is excellent, and the characters sustain. Aesthetically it is a beautiful piece of work. It's just not all that much fun to play, especially when bugs have left parts of the game incomplete.

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Gamer.nl

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed could have been a great game, however it doesn't live up to its premise. The story and physics give a new dimension to the Star Wars franchise, but the countless technical glitches and shallow gameplay make this game a huge diasppointment that's not worth your money.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this game is 6.2 (out of 10) based on 116 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Simon L gave it a2:
At first, the game was alright. But after about 30 minutes of gameplay, I realized that the game went from alright to worse. The camera system is terribly bad. During boss encounters, the development team thought it was a good idea to fix the camera sideways, making it look like a fighting game. Unfortunaly, it doesn't work. It's hard to tell from the angle the distance between objects, from where you stand and to the wall and so on. Very irritating as the boss encounters require you to jump and move around alot. Another thing I find very annyoing is the fact that the targetting system does not work properly... Or maybe it's "working as inteded", I don't know. Anyway, the targetting system is so random that you have to force yourself not to throw the controller down on the floor. You might want to pick up one object that is right infront of you, but the targetting system doesn't want to target that specific object and instead you find yourself throwing away other things. The story is so-so and the characters feel pretty shallow. The main character is whining too much through the entire game. A plus for the different combinations there are in the fighting system. Unfortunaly, you need to spend points in order to get all the good stuff (including force powers and fighting combinations). The extras you can recieve, such as different lightsaber crystal colors or crystal cores which you can gain some passive advantages from (such as health draining when you hit an enemy) aren't quite enough for me to even wanting to replay this game. The replay value is 0. Once you played through it, you'll understand what I mean. You gain nothing from playing it again, except for a new lightsaber color. The music is quite obviously taken from the Star Wars saga as well as the sound effects. The graphics are alright, but for some reason the characters' eyes are creeping me out.

Dave C gave it a0:
This game blows. I guess if you love all things Star Wars you might give it a pass, but it even misses on that front. Overly cartoony animations and terrible character models make this miss on feeling like you're playing actual movie characters. This game is a blatant rip off of God of War - but clearly the developers didn't get what made God of War good. The quicktime sequences were poorly pulled off, the camera control was abysmal. (should've left it out like GoW) Combos were'nt fun, and enemy placement was only annoying. Pretty much the only useful skill was force throwing, which was pretty poorly implemented considering you have to use it almost all the time. Loading screens when you go to the options screen or the inventory is unacceptable. I'm surprised this game passed certification. This is a poor rip off of God of War, much like THQ's Conan. Like Conan, it is a cheap feeling, inferior product. Unlike Conan, it also was no fun at all. This is the only game that I have EVER ejected from my console, and snapped the disc in half. It is also the only game that I have EVER felt the need to warn others against buying. Lucas Arts - how you have fallen.

Jason P gave it a1:
I waited a year for this game to come out and having watched the first Star Wars in the late 70s and having been a huge fan of the franchise ever since, and I might add gaming during that time, I was salivating over the three physics engines and the fantastic graphics. On the physics engine and graphics, 10 out of 10 guys, on the gameplay -100. Shame on you Lucas, I thought you weren't into corporate marketing over substance; you haven't finishing what could have been an absolute classic. Ok, now I'll quantify the problems: 1) A Jedi knight, that walks along a flat surface and comes to a slight incline, oops, he can't move he just gips around on the spot until you jump; COME ON! 2) The bonus cubes, placed in such a way that it's not a question of skill in reaching them, it's a question of how good you are at overcoming the terrible character control to jump just at the right moment, from a buggy game surface that will, 95% the time, result in you jumping into a void and having to restart the level. Again, I wasn't really immersed in the Jedi experience guys. This is just sloppy rushed game design. 3) Camera angles; Grrr, you're turning to fight off a group of storm troopers and all you can see is your guy's left nostril. Attempting to reset the camera angle by pushing one of the paddles just leads to disorientation and action has moved on so far you're in the same boat. Sorry, but the first "alone in the dark" handled this better than you guys, and that game’s more than ten years old. 4) Object auto targeting/selection, by this I mean picking up objects retargeting foes during combat etc etc. 90% of the time it just does not highlight the object at the crucial moment and then you're dead, great. Instead of whacking the Rankor bull with a lighting blast at the crucial second or throwing an explosive container, you're just dead; restart the level, or go make a cup of tea, it's less frustrating. Why not send someone to Rockstar games or just play one of their titles to see where the technology is today. 5) Level boundaries. I found time after time on the open levels that, thinking I could jump off something, or quickly hide in a niche or similar, meant that I bounced of an invisible surface just in front of whatever it was, or I was trapped in some invisible hole that suspended in mid air. This in conjunction with the yellow bonus cube placement, just totally destroyed the feel of the game. The capture of some bonus cubes was made a total chore, to be abandoned after ten attempts. Manic Miner on the Speccy in the 80s managed this better. I accept that for some people an arcady beat em up is just fine, but any one of the mortal combat iterations does this so much better. I'm forcing my way through it to see how the story in the cut scenes unfolds, that's about it; I'm bored and frustrated with the gameplay. For me this product is from the General Motors of the game world for the cost of a BMW or Mercedes. I'll not spend another penny on Lucas arts game products in the future, period.

Kyle W. gave it a10:
This game was amazing. From the force powers to the epic boss battles, this game is a great play. The character model (I forget the actor's name but he now plays on the CW's Smallville) is really good, being very nicely modeled and rendered. The levels are expansive, and fun to play through, even more than once (I actually played through the demo prior to buying the game about a dozen times). My only qualm about the game is the fact that the lightsaber combat is a bit lacking. It's pretty much two buttons that you can just mash to kick someone's butt. Not very creative, but its small annoyance is greatly outweighed by the pure fun this game brings. There is tons of replay value (You need to replay the game just to find all the extras) which is nice because you actually want to play more when you finish it. This game is a must buy. Go buy it. Now.

Tristan H. gave it a4:
Could've been a really nice game but the Bugs and the glitch Controls made it quite a big disappointment. Pity The only good things are the nice graphics and animations. And of course the Physiks.

P. W. gave it an8:
I think people in general have been overly critical of this game. It is an action game as billed, not a adventure game nor an RPG. The bottom line is good physics engine, good graphics, good story, good combos and force effects, and all set in the heart of the Star Wars storyline. You get used to the controls after playing for a while. I have played through this game 4 times and I still enjoy sitting down to reek havoc in new ways.

B Brazil gave it a9:
Star Wars fans will love it! Good replay value. Good graphics and sound. Good story.

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Game Info

Summary

What The Critics Said

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