Perhaps the Second Buggiest Game I've Ever Played

So... I finally got through Star Wars: the Force Unleashed. It like the story, and feel it fits reasonably well in the overall plot, though there are a couple very minor issues on that score. The gameplay itself was somewhere approaching torturous at times, however. I hit at least four noteworthy glitches, some of them frustratingly repeatable. The lock-on system was entirely too touchy (though I'm not sure how it would be done better, off-hand). Many of the fights seemed like someone said "this is too easy, we need to make it more challenging," but they only way they could figure out to do that was to make the enemies cheaper and increase the batshit-crazy factor (some of the boss fights are especially hard just because it's difficult to keep track of what's going on with the camera zoomed way out). The result was major boss fights that made me feel lucky and relieved to get through them rather than accomplished. I actually found myself turning the difficulty level down partway through because I wanted to get on the the game rather than deal with the crap it was throwing at me.

On the up side, the game looks very good. The physics are impressive, if a little over-the-top once in a while (hurling boulders would be more awesome if they didn't fall like styrofoam blocks when dropped). The Force powers felt pretty cool in general.


Glitches I encountered:
- In the fight with Proxy, I "killed" him in the first stage and nothing happened. No cut scene, no continued fight, no respawn. The game didn't lock up either, I was free to run around the fight area and twiddle my thumbs.
- I got caught behind some sort of invisible wall while dealing with the Star Destroyer that wouldn't let me get up to where I could take out the TIEs anymore. I jumped to try to get back, but ended up jumping myself off the bridge to my death.
- Again in the Star Destroyer scene, after the first couple phases of pulling down, the stick indicators on the screen (which were already a little counter-intuitive) utterly failed to direct me correctly. I'd follow them and they wouldn't put the ship where it was supposed to be to advance. I had to ignore the indicators totally to continue, and there's something wrong with that.
- Fighting the Emperor, the game froze. Repeatedly. At least five times, in fact, maybe more. Resets and costume changes didn't help. The one time I managed to get through successfully, I didn't pause at all in the fights with Vader and the Emperor, but I don't know if that's a factor or not. Horribly frustrating for the final battle in the game to lock the system up like that.

The dark side ending was interesting to watch, though if I hadn't read about it before, I wouldn't have known I could jump over the side to follow-up against Vader. It seems obvious to the character in the cut scene, but it's not at all obvious to the player.

Discussing with a friend who played the PS2 version, it's interesting to note a lot of minor differences. There was no Empirical stage. The Star Destroyer scene was just a cut scene, not interactive (almost a plus). The PS2 version had "Jedi Temple" levels where you fight Sith... or ghosts of Sith... or visions of Sith. Something. He also said Proxy never attacked him, which seems odd as that's a big part of the character.


This is also the only game I can recall anytime recently that made me swear loudly at the game designers. I can't help but wonder if it was rushed or what, because it could (should) have been so much better.

Decent game. Worthy playing once, perhaps, unless you're easily frustrated. I wanted to like it so much more than I did, though. I can't help but think if it weren't Star Wars and tied into a story I already like that I'd probably want my money back. And I borrowed, not bought.