"A boy? Months of attacking imperial targets and Vader sends a boy to fight me?"

This is so fucking bad-ass.

Sam Witwer is so fucking cool. Truly a gift to the Star Wars universe.

I love how Darth Vader's body language really gets across how he is just like a child who the Emperor is like an evil step-father to. He hates him, but he also fears him enough to follow his commands.

I like that, during the mission summaries before you leave—the first one being right after the first fight with Kota—they play the music that plays when Anakin finds out that Shmi has been kidnapped in Attack of the Clones (and the main menu music for the Revenge of the Sith game), making a parallel between that moment and the fight with Kota, as the Attack of the Clones moment is the first catalyst for Anakin's turn to the dark side, and the fight with Kota is the first catalyst for Starkiller's turn to the light side.

But I hate how stunned you get when hit. The enemies will just lay in on you for 6 hits and you can't do anything.

And fighting Jedi is always fun. Unless it's that small fucker. That whole first scrapyard level should have been scrapped.

One thing I never loved about these games is that the dark side endings always had you kill Darth Vader. Fuck that.

And the Jedi Temple DLC mission may not be the best level ever, but I think they should have kept it in the main game. And I'm disappointed they cut the other three PS2/Wii exclusive levels.

I like the moment of Starkiller almost sort of kinda flirting with his master's daughter.

The Sith DLC's opening crawls is the coolest ways to start a Star Wars game DLC. And I love that Starkiller's Sith outfit has a bunch of lightsabers, like he collects them.

This game is so fucking insane, how was this ever considered canon?

8.5/10

The gameplay, voice acting and level of power are everything I wanted in a Star Wars game. I played the game on the Wii and it was probably the first time I interacted with ‘Quick Time Events’ and shaking the remote which was really engaging the time - i heard that the Xbox version was better but I can only attest to my own experience. The characterisation is also one of the game’s strongest points with Sam Witwer doing an amazing job as convincing you - the player - at his conflicting internal state between the Light and Dark. This is supported by Ram Kota, the goat, bringing together an unforgettable Star Wars experience.

I WON'T GIVE UP ON MY FRIENDS
Force Unleashed is a dumb ass game, it's a game with Evil Jar Jar Binks and it gives the ability to throw any enemy across the room, and I enjoyed my time with it. The entire game is a massive power trip, with you slaying Stormtroopers by the dozen with pretty fun force powers and simply if enjoyable sword play. Although the amount of quick time events tend to sour my enjoyment, and the boss fights are forgettable as hell. All the bosses except the previously mentioned Evil Jar Jar Binks, and the final bosses against Darth Vader and THE SENATE (seriously that fight is really fun).

I consider the Force Unleashed versions on the PSP/Wii/PS2 to be superior to the PC/PS3/Xbox 360 versions. I will be discussing the PSP version specifically, but I played the Wii version around the time it released.

In general the Force Unleashed's story across all versions is a bit ridiculous, like fanfiction almost. The characters are flat, until they change suddenly, because the plot is going at a breakneck pace. This is roughly an 8 hour game, with pretty brief cutscenes, so character development is haphazard. You play as Starkiller who is strong enough in the force to rival Darth Vader and the Emperor, and is the secret apprentice of Vader.

The overkill nature of Starkiller's strength is there to support the gameplay. Because this game came out in 2009 and is a 3d action-adventure fantasy game, that means it is basically God of War but Star Wars in spirit. Using the force to throw stormtroopers miles away, grabbing tie fighters out of the air and throwing them at things, electrifying whole groups of enemies, and even crushing AT-STs with the force, it is absolute madness and feels quite fun. Lightsaber combat is sadly limp, it feels like swinging a baseball bat and the combos are uninteresting and do not chain into each other. QTEs are very prominent, again 2009, and can get pretty annoying when you fail a QTE to kill a boss and they regain a bit of their health extending the fight. The spectacle is quite nice and is very appropriate for the style of game however. The game wants you to feel like an unstoppable force monster, but gets in its own way by bloating enemy health as the game goes on. The jetpack enemies in particular have massive health pools and it feels like it takes several minutes to kill them even with maxed out skills. One last gameplay note is that there are quite a few collectables around levels: holocrons that give you concept art, crystals to change lightsaber color, and different lightsaber hilts. It is a good variety and rewards exploration well.

There are two main differences between the PSP/Wii/PS2 versions and the PC/PS3/Xbox 360 versions: story structure and levels. For simplicity's sake I'll call the PSP/Wii/PS2 games "SD" and the PC/PS3/Xbox 360 games "HD". I believe that the SD versions are vastly superior to the JD versions. The way story flows in the HD games is the simple you go from mission to mission separated by a cutscene. This contrasts with the slightly different structure of the SD games, where there are small moments of leisure between missions. After one mission and before the next, you will be returned to your ship, where you can pan around to different areas where you can change costumes, modify your lightsaber, upgrade abilities, etc. You can see members of your crew around the ship, you don't speak to them, but it does bring a bit of life to the story. It is very barebones, essentially a glorified menu, but it makes the game feel like more of an adventure or journey, while the HD version's missions feel disconnected.
The SD versions do come with some extra levels integrated into the story, where you visit the Jedi Temple several times and fight unique bosses. It is an interesting idea to revisit the same location with new paths to follow each time, and I never felt it took up too much time.
The HD version does get some unique "what if" missions on Tatooine, Hoth, and the Jedi Temple, but these are standalone and not part of the main narrative.

Overall the Force Unleashed is very flawed, even if I enjoy it a lot for what it is and the potential I see in it. I like the idea of the characters and what they could be, but the story feels more like thrown-together fanfiction. The attempt of the gameplay to give you over-the-top force power is fun for a bit, but becomes monotonous quickly (the Jedi Knight games continue to reign as the kings of lightsaber combat). That being said, I do have a soft-spot for this game in my heart.

One last note, this game feels almost like a predecessor to the modern Fallen Order games by Respawn in terms of scope and featuring Jedi between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. I could see the Force Unleashed story being reworked and the game being made in a similar style to those.

The Force Unleashed (talking about the PS2 version from here on out), is like video game junk food. It has a nice story you don't have to concentrate much on, it has easy to learn and easy to master combat, and you do cool stuff like fighting giant monsters and robots and dealing with a boss fight at the end of each level. Easy on the eyes, light on thumbs.

If you have experience of playing the seventh generation versions ("Next-Gen"), expect a slightly different experience. The story of Starkiller is slightly more fleshed out, with the additioanal ambiguity adding some meaning to the through-line of the story: Is there good in this clone of a murdered Jedi? Knowing Star Wars, the answer is in the question itself, and although the story still does very easily prefer you become a Jedi, I appreciated the slightly more fleshed out moments that are in modified backdrops. The difference between the versions does increase as you go along the game. I wouldn't say it's better or worse, it really comes done to personal preference.

The combat, when in sync is your typical beat 'em up/hack 'n slash. You deal with normal enemy cannon fodder, some brutes, and the cannon fodder become stratified as the game moves along. There's not much strategy involved, but the sense of progression is nice as your increase in abillities. If your a Star Wars fan, there is innate fun in swinging your lightsaber around and killing bad guys, and the game is aware of it. Your journey as a Sith apprentice progresses from weak, one two way lightning to eventual crowd control lightning storms. You'll move from small crowd control repulse to eventually becoming a mini-moving tornado. As you collect orbs from killing enemies, the upgrade tree makes being able to roleplay whether you wanna be "good" or "evil" with your force powers. The combat encounters eventually become repetitive, but the short length of the game makes up for it.

As your roam from Imperial destroyers, to the tropical Felucia, or to the deprecated Jedi Temples, you'll find a variety of collectibles that are at-times, frustratatingly hidden. The game doesn't have a replay feature (just a New Game Plus), or ability to track how many collectibles are in each level, so you're left to your own devices if you really wanna play this to 100%. The Jedi Holocrons showcase some neat concept art, and the lightsaber components give some welcome customisation.

For a late-PS2/Wii cross-port (that somehow is best on the PSP), the game looks great, albeit muddy at times. It's certainely ambitious when trying to go for open-vista battles, however I do feel the game looked best when going for smaller environments with attention to detail. The character models and cutscenes are all in-game, but they do look good for the hardware at hand. The highlight here, are the animations. The way Starkiller twists and turns as he strikes contact with anyone in his way, with whatever clothes he has swinging around in the background, is immensely satisfying, even though the actual game skill required to get there isn't much. By the time you're at the end, and just about to go for New Game Plus, the hybrid combat and force power combos are just plain fun to perform. Enemies will ragdoll around and although it may not be at Euphoria levels like it's next-gen counterparts, it's nothing to scoff at either. Also.. Star Wars music. Need I say more?

The Force Unleashed is through-and-through for Star Wars fans, but if you like a fun action game, I think you'll get your mileage out of this one. It's a decent game to sit down for a weekend on and just plow through.