


For My Ally is the Force



The Force powers remain fun to play with throughout the game. Tearing apart walls and throwing them around corners to take out awaiting enemies is always a blast. Even with the wide range of Force powers at your command, the controls are fairly intuitive. It won't take long before you're fully in command of your powers. When you need to get up close and personal with your enemies, your lightsaber is a button press away. Forming combos with your saber is simple as well, and they'll often invoke the Force for a little extra oomph.

That is Why You Fail

Despite the solid controls, there's one annoying feature to the combat system. There's no denying that TFU feels inspired by Sony's God of War series, which is all fine and good, but it unfortunately picked up one of GoW's more annoying aspects -- canned button-pressing events. You know, those obnoxious "interactive cinemas" where the game developers came up with a very cool sequence but couldn't figure how to implement it into the gameplay proper. Their clever solution is to simply play the sequence while forcing you to press random buttons. This sort of thing was just super in Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, but it isn't 1984 any more.

Even more annoying is the camera, which can be extremely difficult to work with. This goes double during boss fights when the camera seems to occasionally get bored with watching the battle and decides to wander elsewhere. This also isn't the PSP's best-looking game. Especially affected by the sometimes downright ugly graphics are the cinema sequences. The game has a pretty interesting story that fits in extremely well with the "Star Wars" universe, but it's hard to get too involved with it when it's being acted out by a bunch of creepy, blank-faced mannequins.

Coming in at about six hours or so, the main adventure is a tad short. To help extend the experience, there are a few PSP-exclusive goodies to enjoy in what is conveniently known as Force Unleashed mode. Here, you're treated to a Duel mode, Order 66 mode (a survival fight), and some historical missions that let you experience classic "Star Wars" moments with the game's extravagant Force abilities. There is also a multiplayer mode that allows up to four people to compete via Ad Hoc. These fairly routine deathmatch and king of the hill-style games aren't quite as enjoyable as the Force Unleashed mode bonuses, though.

Force Unleashed may not be the mind-blowingly awesome "Star Wars" game that it was hyped to be, but thanks to some cool play mechanics, a great story, and a couple fun extras, it's still a fun (if flawed) ride. With a bit of tweaking, it could be great, so hopefully a sequel will pop up sometime down the road.