Force Unleashed launch party

[Roderick]

I just came back from a Force Unleashed launch party in Utrecht, which was a refreshing departure from Amsterdam (which is further away and less compact, so more difficult to get to and find your way).

The presentation was a mixed bag: on the one hand there was a horrible amound of BS in the first five minutes about how the games industry is, again, larger than the movie industry, and that this would be the first time you could play in the Star Wars universe (errr?). Then there was the half hour making of the game, which would have been totally exclusive if I hadn't seen it already months earlier on Gametrailers. But on the other hand there was a touching lecture on the history of Star Wars by national film icon René Mioch, who is a pretty nice guy (I talked to him a bit later on to tell him I enjoyed his prematurely cancelled tv programme where he would go head to head with our other film icon, Jac Goderie).

Afterwards there was an opportunity to buy the game itself before it hits the stores this friday, and get a horrible toy lightsaber with it for free. I didn't get it yet, I'm waiting for a better opportunity. Which is to say, I hesitate to spend 65 Euros on a game I know to be flawed at best. There was also a line-up of completely unrelated 'stars' that gave interviews in exchange for a free copy. That stuff with local celebs is always awkward at best, pathetic at worst.

But, despite all of this, I enjoyed myself; I had a chance to talk to some colleagues in the journalism biz and surround myself with that authentic feel of Star Wars. The thought that all the way over in San Francisco they were having exactly the same party, but with George Lucas attending, didn't diminish that

[Nachimir]

Interesting choice of city for a launch. A good one too

Were there launch parties all over the world? Seems strange, it being developed in the US, Australia and Finland.

[Roderick]

Well, they're really pushing this game, so it's not weird that they're capitalizing on the Star Wars brand's popularity.

They were really smart about the presentation as well. Having perhaps noticed that the game's gameplay garnered a lot of negative reactions, the presentation focused on the story. The general emphasis was: this is the new core canon Star Wars. At that point it became irrelevant that the game might not be good, since it as simply something a Star Wars fan would have to play.

[twmac]

Good thing too, because the game is pure gash.

Actually, I wish to retract that as it is an insult to gash everywhere.

Shitty AI, wonky controls, monotonous nods to the films, powers that were done so much better 4 years ago (second sight and Psi-Ops). Oh yeah and if you wait long enough the veneer of sheen they applied to every surface starts to fade and graphical glitches are abound.

I fucking hated that game.

[Roderick]

Haha, well, I just bought it for the 360 and I'm loving it. Sure, there are some glitches and the AI seems to freeze, but I just love the art style, the atmosphere in the game and the instantly likeable cast. It's funny that they've managed to capture the Star Wars feel from scene 1 perhaps even better than the new movies did. And you know what? It really does feel like canon Star Wars. The stuff that we didn't know happened between movies 3 and 4.

Who knows, maybe my opinion will become as bitter as Twmac's in a few levels, but the first two were long, shiny and did not disappoint. But it might help that I'm not playing this for the gameplay, but for the story and atmosphere. As an actiongame it's pretty generic, yeah, and it suffers majorly from too many vague combo's that it's too chaotic to use anyway.

[Cigol]

How much are they paying you Rodi? It can't be worth it

[Roderick]

Hmm, I'm now about 3/4ths along the way. When is this thing supposed to get shit? Because I'm still enjoying myself hugely. So far I've stumbled upon a few graphical glitches (terrain popping op or blacking out, which would never last for more than a second) and some mediocre gameplay (sloshy controls, stupid AI, repetetive bosses). But the art design is never less than breathtaking, the worlds well realized, the writing and acting amazing and the story pushing all the right buttons.

I'm coming to the conclusion that most of the naysayer journalists must've had their expectations way too high, which is exclusively their own fault (you really can't blame a publisher for hyping their game; it's up to the reporter to be able to judge a game objectively, that's the fucking job). Force Unleashed getting sixes? That's amazing bullshit. It only proves that the particular journalist really doesn't get what FU's about. Hell, what Lucasarts' about. Jesus Christ, how many more decades before some people realize that the studio had never been about gameplay, but all about story and atmosphere. Sure, they did fine when they were making adventures, which didn't require a lot of gameplay tweaking and movement controls. But almost everything they did with action in it was terrible or mediocre. I thought this was well known by now.

But really, Force Unleashed is great when you go into it with the right mindset: seeing the next Star Wars movie. The game's littered with excellent cutscenes and characters. And it's never too hard on easy mode, so you won't get stuck often. But actually, the game's trickier than I had expected! Some of the Jedi Holocrons (which unlock features and give bonuses) are difficult to get! Sure, FU would've greatly benefited from a few months extra development, but the ambition is clear, and some of the force powers and combo's are fun to play with.

This is NOT a mediocre game. It's flawed, but ambitious and quite often fun to play. And it's also one of the best Star Wars stories I've seen so far, movies included.

[twmac]

Shit, I was logging in to apologise for my outburst the other day.

The Force Unleashed is everything you just described. A good bit of Star Wars lore mired by a retarded game Maybe because I was a little too personally involved with it that I'm being so harsh... But really? Does it not bother you how bad the main game is?

Wouldn't it have been more enjoyable if they had just released a book or film instead of making a poor game with a few really good cut-scenes?

The combo system is pointless (it makes Dynasty Warriors and N3 look deep by contrast) the lock on system is as bad as the early GTA series. Yeah the levels look nice but have you tried running through them quickly, and noticing you don't really have to kill most of the people you encounter? The boss battles are rubbish and quite frankly the QTE nause is only surpassed by Viking: Battle for Asgaard.

If you are a fan of Star Wars then there is a good 20 quid's worth of game in there. But it plays like a kids' game.

I'm glad that it is getting negative reviews or else we would have a case of Episode 3. A bad film that is better than its predecessors so therefore elevated to 'not shit'.

[Noyb]

Tried out the demo. Meh. Combat wasn't satisfying, the floaty turret explosions on the AT-ST boss got annoying, the game didn't give me any good indication that a quick time event even started other than a tiny prompt where my eye wasn't looking the first two times, and I generally kept being reminded of how blunt my lightsaber is and how much more fun I had with the Jedi Knight games.

[Roderick]

And here I am having to swallow at least a bit of the gloss of my previous post. Though I still like the game and insist that it's not mediocre (only if you take the average of the great ups and great downs it has, and that poorly reflects the game -but hey, that's what's wrong with the entire industry's grading system), having finished it throws some hindsight perspective on the case. It may also be the disappointing final confrontation. Should I use spoiler tags here? Let's.

The final confrontation sucked. Why did they rip off Return of the Jedi? If one thing was clear: Force Unleashed had a tremendously nice story of its own to tell. It would've greatly benefited from an ending of its own. Now it's a Jedi clone which diminishes both its own ending and makes Jedi's ending less important.

And what the FUCK happened to the Emperor? He used to be SO scary and cool. Here he's even more of a cackling old coot than in the prequel trilogy, and that's saying something!

The graphical glitches seem to increase slightly in later levels, and there it also feels more rushed. As has been lamented everywhere; pulling down the Star Destroyer is a frustrating, shit sequence that could've blown everyone's mind if they had done it right. But I will grant them, I wouldn't know how they should've done it, and so far I haven't heard any other ideas either, so it might just have been really impossible in the first place.

Also, the camera rivals that of GTAIV in terms of me having to adjust it absolutely ALL THE TIME. It manages to always frame the action in just the wrong way, with no overview, no sense of dramatics, making me look at drab ground instead of the often breathtaking skies and landscape.

But all these things aside, I STILL enjoyed the game. Superficially as it sounds; because it's STAR WARS. And it does some amazing things with the story and characters which I won't even hint at. And sometimes... that's enough.

[DanJW]

This has got to be an internet first - two people with opposing opinions on a game, gradually converging on something near a consensus.

[Roderick]

Cherish it, and never let it go!

[twmac]

Haha yeah.

The end result is really the same I can't resent fans of the series for enjoying this game at the end of it because they do do a good job of the story.

My outbursts alos don't help as they can prove to be divisive, by that I mean if you come in to strng people are always going to disagree.

[Cigol]

Played the demo, thought it was shit. Rented the full game - played it for five minutes and put it back in its envelope for return. Utter, utter shit. If I want Star Wars I'll watch the films, read the books or use my imagination. Playing the game is a waste of time.

[baconian]

The good thing about this game is that lots of people seem to bringing up the fact that Raven's Jedi Knight games from years ago did the jedi thing a million times better.

Anyone who missed them should check them out, I look back on JK2 with the same sort of nostalgia that the original trilogy still holds for me, Kyle Katarn is a really memorable character, and you can use lightning and still be a goody, sweet!

[DanJW]

The good thing about this game is that lots of people seem to bringing up the fact that Raven's Jedi Knight games from years ago did the jedi thing a million times better.

Anyone who missed them should check them out, I look back on JK2 with the same sort of nostalgia that the original trilogy still holds for me, Kyle Katarn is a really memorable character, and you can use lightning and still be a goody, sweet!

Yeah, I've still to come across a game that has swordfighting as good as Jedi Knight 2. Apart from Sould Calibur maybe, but that's a different type of game. The JK2 lightsaber was fluid, controllable, and effective. The duel against Desann's apprentice was a particular highlight for me.

[Roderick]

It may be because I played JK2 on the Gamecube, but the swordfighting never felt that accurate to me I still enjoyed the game, though, even if JK1 (and Dark Forces) meant a lot more to me when I played them.

The Force Unleashed hate is a bit weird though. I understand the opinion that it's mediocre and flawed, and therefore disappointing... but shit? It's actually pretty fun a lot of the time, especially once you unlock some combos.

[Scrobbs]

The last good start wars games i played were X-Wing, TIE-fighter, and the first FPS - was that when Kyle Katarn was first introduced - perhaps making it Jedi Knight I? That was back in '96, I know the year as I should have been studying for my finals.

[DanJW]

The first FPS was Dark Forces. Jedi Knight was the subtitle for Dark Forces 2.

TEchinically, this means the full title of the third game was Star Wars: Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi outcast. A classic in the wide field of idotic game titling.

[Scrobbs]

Dark Forces! That was it!

[elmuerte]

shouldn't that be Dark Forces 3? Because Dark Forces 2 was Jedi Knight 1

[Roderick]

Star Wars: Dark Forces 4: Jedi Knight 3: Jedi Outcast 2: Jedi Academy: George Lucus is Batshit Insane

[elmuerte]

Star Wars: Dark Forces 4: Jedi Knight 3: Jedi Outcast 2: Jedi Academy: George Lucus is Batshit Insane

George Lucus accidentally the STAR WARS™

[Scrobbs]

All of it.