Star Wars: The Force Unleashed review (Xbox 360/PS3)

LucasArts have a hell of a lot riding on this one - this is their chance to prove to the doubters that they can still make great games internally. Unfortunately, it ain't even Republic Commando, let alone Jedi Knight.

There are two words I can use to describe The Force Unleashed (TFU), the first of which is FRUSTRATION (I'll write them in big letters for impact).

Falling for the fortieth time in the caves of Felucia, getting knocked over when hit and taking so long to get up you get hit again, an unpredictable save system that may or may not have saved your location, not being able to skip cut-scenes until you're halfway through them . the list goes on and on.

Don't even get me started on the hardest difficulty mode either, where I almost got killed by the tutorial boss.

The second word, which goes hand in hand with the first, is CHEATING. Yes, the game cheats at every possible opportunity.

A lot of people, including myself, were worried about this 'Jedi Superhero' LucasArts were bragging about. We were worried about the old idiom, "with great power comes no difficulty and great boredom".

Instead of ramping up the number of enemies or playing the Jedi Knight card of introducing loads of canon-defying Dark Jedi to combat the extreme powers of the Apprentice (no, it isn't Alan Sugar in disguise - Ed), it cheats.

Starkiller (that's you, Vader's Secret Apprentice - do try and keep up) can pull a Star Destroyer down from the sky, but can't lift a slightly heavier than normal Stormtrooper. Yeah, right.

This is not to mention the extreme canon-breaking of Force-repelling shields, which have never existed at any point in the Star Wars saga, even in the Extended Universe.

The biggest and most disgraceful cheat of all is the levels. There are five worlds in TFU and 4 of those are repeated. Kashyyyk and Imperial Station are different enough to make them worthwhile, but Raxus Prime and Felucia are examples of sheer developmental laziness to pad out a still very brief game.

The gameplay itself is mostly fun, although very simple and very repetitive. I would say it's a poor man's Jedi Knight, but it's more like a slightly richer man's Revenge of the Sith: The Game. It's less linear and more open than the Episode III tie-in, and definitely a better game, but only just.

The only undeniably great part of the game is in the presentation. Jesse Harlin's fantastic score fits in snugly alongside John Williams' iconic themes, the graphics are mostly superb like the animation, the voice acting is spot-on (even the impressions, which waver between perfect and middling still do their best), and the story . the story is the reason Star Wars fans will need this.

I had read several reviews before I played the game and was expecting a twist, but I would never have predicted this one. It fits it to the saga well and keeps on twisting right until the last cut-scene. It really does put an entire new spin on the classic trilogy as people have been hyping.

The two endings are present as promised and both cool, although they are reached a little too quickly. This is a rather short game, and with the doubling-up on levels you're playing a very, very short game twice, and one with too many problems, FRUSTRATIONS and CHEATING to classify it as 'good'.

There are numerous unlockables, from the impossibly hard difficulty to more costumes, although the unlockable character list is just ridiculous. Who would rather play as Darth Vader than Bail Organa? Everyone but LucasArts it seems. You can't even play as a female character.

So, to summarise for all those people who skip to the end of reviews, this is an absolutely fantastic game with no flaws whatsoever, but I'm only giving it a low score because there isn't a bloody PC version.

6.5/10

Chris 'The Tingler' Capel