THIS IS A BIASED PAPER

THE HYPE DIDN'T MATCH REALITY
The name the Force Unleashed brings to mind images of classic Star Wars characters performing outageous moves with the aid of the force. Sadly, that wasn't the case. The Force Unleashed didn't match the hype that accompanied it due to it's unbelievable storyline, generic characters, and one-dimesional lightsaber fighting system.

The game's story is about Darth Vader's "secret" apprentice. The apprentice is a rather plain looking young man who is unfortunately nothing like his master. He starts as a loyal servant who is willing to risk his life for his master's bidding, but as the game moves on he becomes softer and softer and even begins to befriend the very people who seek to destroy the Empire his master serves. Eventually the apprentice betrays Vader entirely, even going as far as to try to kill his former master. If not for the Emperor's timely intervention Vader wouldn't have survived the battle with his former apprentice.

Many outrageous claims are made throughout the course of the game. The apprentice is even given credit for the creation of the Rebel Alliance, right down to it's symbol. Many people will be happy to learn that jedi master Shak Ti survived order 66, but has strangely gone from almost religiously wearing long robes to wearing an outfit that could barely pass for a bikini. Shak Ti has also taken on an apprentice of her own: Maris Brood. Judging from her disfunctional lightsabers and lack of clothing you can tell that Maris shares her master's lack of common sense. When we first see Maris she is a slightly troubled jedi padawan, but the next time you encounter her she has turned to the dark side and is equal in power to the apprentice. The strange lack of
clothing that plagues the game's femal characters doesn't end with Shak Ti and Maris Brood. Even the apprentice's conveniently female pilot finds herself unable to follow Imperial dress codes by keeping her shirt closed.

The graphics on the game are unbelievable and represent the Star Wars galaxy in almost perfect accuracy. The character models are stunning and almost eerily lifelike and the games environments are rendered beautifully, but appear shiny and metallic even when they shouldn't. The game's lightsaber fighting engine was, sadly, lacking. There wasn't a solid enough system to believe that you were controlling a deadly sith warrior. The ability to control the force was the game's strong point. Your character had extremely precise control of the force and the game's engine represented the force just as well, if not better, than it's movie counterparts. While most of the force powers look utterly perfect some look strange and distorted. For example: when the
apprentice uses sith lightning his hands are at a completely incorrect angle and the lightning is coming out of his palms rather than his fingertips as it should. The game also has problems with the force maelstom move, and the force bubble had a tendency to explode either before or after the apprentice performed the move's animation. An implausible story, common characters, and substandard lightsaber fighting is what kept the Force Unleashed from matching up to the hype that followed it.