Title: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Price: $34.99
System(s): DS (PS2,PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP)
Release Date:September 16, 2008
Publisher (Developer):LucasArts
ESRB Rating: “Teen” for fantasy violence.
Pros: Unique touchscreen control scheme, decent graphics and the usual amazing Star Wars score and settings. Two multiplayer modes.
Cons: Locked camera and direction control issues.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one thumb sideways; 84/100; B; * * * out of five.
LucasArts decided to conquer the task of creating a Nintendo DS version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed by not creating a simple port but, instead, a slightly different take utilizing the Nintendo DS’s unique touchscreen, using he same core story and adding some missions, a few new opponents and a multiplayer mode. The result is a decent game with an interesting controls scheme although it is not nearly as engrossing or addictively enjoyable as the big brother version
Walk on the Dark Side
You begin the game playing as Darth Vader at full strength as he creates and “rescues” a force-sensitive orphan. Flash forward a dozen years, somewhere between Star Wars: Episode III and IV, and now you play as an adult version of that orphan, now called Starkiller, who has become Vader’s secret and well-trained Dark Side apprentice (previously unknown padawans seems to be the theme of the year for LucasArts - see the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated feature).
Vader’s still cranky about the events of Episode III and sends you out to eliminate tracked down Jedi. Unlike the console release, you have essentially the same powers as Darth Vader once you start playing as Starkiller, though they are not quite as powerful.
The single-player story mode maintains a distinct Star Wars feel and environments and the usual John Williams score. The cutscenes are a mix of animation and talking heads, likely to cut down on the game’s size on the cart. The story for the DS release of Force Unleashed is essentially the same as the console version aside from five different missions and a few new opponents.
Most of the game’s controls are on the bottom touchscreen, including jump, attack, lightsaber toss, Force push, Force grab and Force lightning. Attack combos are accomplished by touching one action and then dragging the stylus to another action. Earned Jedi points can be redeemed for new moves and increasing the intensity of core abilities.
Motion is done with any of the face buttons with the ABXY buttons acting like a second directional control pad (sans diagonals, of course). The system’s shoulder buttons both perform the block and dash commands.
The game also includes two multiplayer combat games: Free For All where up to four players fight each other battle royal style and a one-on-one Balance The Force mode. A cart per player is required.
Flinging the Force Pseudo-Fantastic
Although fun, the DS release of Force Unleashed is not nearly as engrossing or addictively enjoyable as the big brother version.
On the light side, the gameplay is a decent mix of Force abilities and lightsaber slashing. Force lightning and saber tossing are available right away, which is not the case in the console release, allowing you to perform some of the more fun and graphically satisfying attacks right away.
Unfortunately, attacks don’t always go in the intended direction. Although Starkiller moves pretty well, he often ends up facing the wrong way, slashing at air while opponents seem rather befuddled, waiting for him to turn around. Opponents do get in the occasional back-side attack but usually aren’t so ruthless. Distant shooters, however, are rather unforgiving (even if highly patterned), firing at you from every direction no matter what you are doing or how far off screen they might be.
Boss battles involve a nice mix of real-time attacks and two minigames (a right-angle lightsaber rotation game and slide-the-glowy-orb-into-the-swirly-vortex game). I like the minigames a little better than context-sensitive combat since, even though they are a bit silly, they at least let you feel like you have some involvement in your opponent’s destruction and you can actually pay attention to the animated cutscenes.
On the dark side is that the camera is fixed, likely to compensate for the simplified direction controls, making it difficult to always be accurate with directed attacks and hard to see oncoming and distant opponents. Objects sometime block the screen as you walk down pre-determined paths with areas that feel more like a platformer than a Star Warstastic action game. To compensate there are a few interesting, if somewhat simple, area-specific puzzles to solve en route to the level boss.
Lifting objects is fairly easy but directional tossing and the finer control scheme of the console release is missing. Instead, the game takes over most of the directional control which you crudely suggest using the Force push command. It would have been nice - and more natural - to find a way to incorporate the touchscreen to drag and fling objects in specific directions or incorporate a semi-auto targeting system.
The combination of touchscreen and shoulder button pressing is also a tad physically awkward since curling your index finger to get to the shoulder button forces your thumb lower, making it even harder to control your direction. The nice part about the control pad/ABXY duality (and shoulder pad control duplication) is that the game is immediately playable by lefties and righties, even though lefties will have a slight disadvantage in terms of directional control due to the lack of diagonals.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to try the promising multiplayer games since I only received on copy of the game and it doesn’t ‘t have a single-player vs. computer opponent option.
Kinda Sorta Strong with the Force
Force Unleashed for the DS is enjoyable but not quite at the same refined controls and energetic combat as the console releases. It is certainly a visually appealing game with great sound effects and background music but, then again, when is that ever lacking in a Star Wars game?
LucasArts definitely deserves kudos for embracing the touchscreen as a primary control scheme and, even with its faults, will likely earn an award or two simply for that aspect of the game. Otherwise, it’s a decent game to rent, borrow, trade or buy at a slightly discounted price.
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