The Force Unleashed
Oct. 14th, 2008 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walbournHaving a few hours to kill over the weekend, I broke out my Xbox 360 copy of The Force Unleashed. This game got a lot of buzz, and has been a number of years in the making. It was developed in-house at LucasArts (unlike say the Knights of the Old Republic series), and was supposed to be the first result of the closer "synergy" between the game and film side of the company.
Now, I already had some concerns since they have released it for every platform on the planet, but have no plans to ship it on Windows. In fact, they laid off their in-house PC compatibility lab after decades earlier this year. After having played it a while, I have to say it's a mixed bag.
The visual look is very cool, and they do have some amazingly dynamic environments, so the artists definitely delivered. The game play and design, on the other hand, leaves a bit to be desired. I ran into numerous collision/geometry bugs, ridiculous amounts of fighting-game button mashing combos, many of the levels are just repeated uses of the same mini-boss and puzzles over and over, and the voice acting/writing for the cut scenes is terrible. Did they get George to direct it? (just kidding :>)
Back in the day, X-Wing and Dark Forces were best-of-breed games and have become classics. Sadly I think this one isn't going to make that cut. The torch has passed to the chimera that is Lego Star Wars and Lego Indy, which are not 'cutting-edge' games. I still long for them to bring back SCRUM, so maybe I'm suspect.
Now, I already had some concerns since they have released it for every platform on the planet, but have no plans to ship it on Windows. In fact, they laid off their in-house PC compatibility lab after decades earlier this year. After having played it a while, I have to say it's a mixed bag.
The visual look is very cool, and they do have some amazingly dynamic environments, so the artists definitely delivered. The game play and design, on the other hand, leaves a bit to be desired. I ran into numerous collision/geometry bugs, ridiculous amounts of fighting-game button mashing combos, many of the levels are just repeated uses of the same mini-boss and puzzles over and over, and the voice acting/writing for the cut scenes is terrible. Did they get George to direct it? (just kidding :>)
Back in the day, X-Wing and Dark Forces were best-of-breed games and have become classics. Sadly I think this one isn't going to make that cut. The torch has passed to the chimera that is Lego Star Wars and Lego Indy, which are not 'cutting-edge' games. I still long for them to bring back SCRUM, so maybe I'm suspect.
