Star Wars: the Force Unleashed Demo Sets Xbox Download Record

The demo version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released a few weeks ago for download through Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. Now, LucasArts has announced that the game shattered records for the number of downloads on Xbox Live, taking only eight days to reach 1 million. The full version is due out next Tuesday, and LucasArts will be holding a launch party in San Fransisco on Monday night to celebrate. The game is part of a multimedia project which includes a best-selling book, a comic, action figures, and other tie-ins. According to Eurogamer's interview with producer Cameron Suey, previous Star Wars games suffered from a "lack of ambition." Suey also shows off some of the gameplay in a video. A video walkthrough of the PS2 and PSP versions is available at Kotaku. The game will not be available for PC. Early reviews for the game are good, but not great, and developers recently mentioned that George Lucas himself provided input on the project.

Comments

Moderate gameplay

[Enderandrew]

Some are being left disappointed with gameplay. I'm picking up the game for the story, and if that is good, I won't mind the gameplay so much. People forget that KOTOR's gameplay was pretty bad.

Re:Moderate gameplay

[MooseMuffin]

Maybe it was bad if you expected an action game, but as a turn-based d20 system presented in realtime, I found it excellent. My only complaint with kotor is they managed to squeeze framerate problems (xbox version) into a game that certainly didn't seem to be pushing any graphical limits.

That said, the story overshadowed all.

Re:Moderate gameplay

[grahamd0]

Hell yeah.

Forcing Bastila to accept that you are, in fact, the rightful Dark Lord of the Sith is probably the most satisfying moment in gaming history.

Re:Moderate gameplay

[lewp]

KotOR's gameplay was bad because:

a) It was massively imbalanced. Pick up the right combination of feats (Master Flurry, Master Speed, Master Two Weapon Fighting) and you could drop even Malak in one round. Pick up the wrong set of feats (a caster build without Force Breach, for example) and you could breeze through the entire game and then get completely fucked on the boss fights at the end.

b) Half of the mechanics in the game were useless. There was no reason to be a techie or a stealth class because while both had gimmicky moments where they could do something cool, the game was chock full of full-on frontal assaults you couldn't avoid. The gimmicks never paid off as well as going head on anyway. Besides, you could never be as good at those things as the droid, because in the end you had to make your character combat able as well.

c) Ranged combat was horrible. You could abuse the hell out of force powers and plink away at mobs that were permanently stunned with your pistols, but in and of themselves blasters weren't a decent weapon choice.

d) Levelling was fucked up. By allowing you to bank levels until you switched to your jedi class, you could completely break the difficulty of the game. Staying level 2 until the first planet was completely made the first planet way too hard, but having an extra 4-5 jedi levels made the rest of the game way too easy.

e) You could cheese half the fights in the game with grenades and shields. That's how you get to being a jedi at level 2, but it works just as well for the rest of the game. There are very few fights that shield spam and grenades can't win.

KotOR is one of my favorite games of all time. The story is great, there's tons of stuff you can do off the beaten path, and it has a ton of replay value. The actual gameplay is subpar, though. KotOR 2 is one of my biggest disappointments of all time because it fixed the gameplay of KotOR but was so buggy and had so much cut content you couldn't actually enjoy it. A bastard child hybrid of the two might be the best game never made.

Re:Moderate gameplay

[Enderandrew]

I prefer turn-based RPGs to action games actually. Each character was largely going to focus on a set path of feats (Critical Strike, Flurry, etc), so you just spammed your feat attack, or an over-powering Force power like Force Wave. Combat was never difficult, nor was strategy ever a factor.

Final Fantasy games get blasted for encouraging button-mashing, when in reality each character plays different enough to warrant some attention when selecting items.

In KOTOR, I can have every character just focus on Flurry and basically spam the same button for everyone.

Even on replays when I intentionally don't level my character until I become a Jedi, I find all the early areas frightfully easy, even with a level 2 character.

Re:Moderate gameplay

[AmberBlackCat]

Some are being left disappointed with gameplay. I'm picking up the game for the story, and if that is good, I won't mind the gameplay so much. People forget that KOTOR's gameplay was pretty bad.

Have you considered just getting a DVD? Then you don't have to deal with the gameplay at all.

The Force is too powerful.

[taxman_10m]

Bringing down a whole star destroyer?

Re:The Force is too powerful.

[grahamd0]

That's what she said...

She was just being polite, man.

Gravity Gun is better!

[jensen404]

I'm not much of a console gamer (I tried it on my brother's XBox). The Gravity gun in Half-Life 2 is so much easier and more gratifying to use than the Force move powers. The third person perspective in SW:FU makes it hard to select an object quickly. Both control sticks are used to move objects, making it feel mechanical. When throwing an object, it moves from the character's point of view, so it is hard to aim. Maybe I just suck at using gamepads.

You are part of the problem

[nobodyman]

I'm picking up the game for the story, and if that is good, I won't mind the gameplay so much.

While I can see your point to some extent (I like the Star Wars universe too), I can't help thinking that you're part of "the problem" when it comes to LucasArts, and the whole movie-tie-in market in general. What publisher is going to put any effort in making a good game if they know people like you will line up to buy it even if it sucks?

LucasArts used to make top-notch games: Full-Throttle, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, X-Wing, and dozens more in every genre. But then Lucasarts executives (and Lucas himself, I imagine) realized that the most profitable thing to do was to churn out countless Star Wars games irrespective of quality. Yeah, there's been a couple good ones, but for every "Knights of the Old Republic" there's at least ten "Star Wars: Galaxies - Episode III Rage of the Wookiees"

Re:You are part of the problem

[Enderandrew]

Many people don't realize that LucasArts went bankrupt and folded, and that the new company is exactly that. ILM is making technology that will help ILM as much as LucasArts, and then finding a means to build a game around that. Look at the physics and dynamic rendering of the the new Indy game they are developing for instance.

LA did realize they flooded the market with crap games (Super BomBad Racing, Clone Wars, Bounty Hunter, Episode 1, etc) so now we're only going to get maybe 1 or 2 Star Wars titles a year.

I prefer the smaller, more polished titles, but I also would prefer to move back to titles like X-Wing.

Aren't we due for a new X-Wing title that features ships from all 6 movies, and the EU? Wouldn't that just sell like mad?

Re:You are part of the problem

[nobodyman]

Emphasis mine:

Many people don't realize that LucasArts went bankrupt and folded, and that the new company is exactly that

Citation needed. I certaintly don't remember hearing this, and I can't find it on LA website, wikipedia, google, etc. There were rumors of this following a series of layoffs, but it turned out that LucasArts had abandoned much of its internal development and would farm everything out to 3rd parties from then on. At least that's what I heard, I admit that my memory is fuzzy on that point.

That said, I agree that it's a crime we get crap like Adventures of Obi-wan but no continuation of the X-Wing/Tie-Fighter franchise.

Re:You are part of the problem

[grahamd0]

Aren't we due for a new X-Wing title that features ships from all 6 movies, and the EU?

I don't know man. Somehow I doubt the eurofighter stands up against an A-Wing.

Re:You are part of the problem

[Enderandrew]

Wow. Google is failing me at the moment, but rest assured it happened. It was what moved the KOTOR 2 release up. LucasArts completely closed shop, and laid off their employees. There was an internal development team doing pre-production on KOTOR 3, among other products that were laid off. The facility closed, and LucasArts reopened internally within ILM.

http://www.lockergnome.com/game/2004/11/02/lucasarts-layoffs/

Amazingly enough, Google isn't finding much on it now.

Re:You are part of the problem

[Bodrius]

I think you may be misreading the parent post.

Buying the game for the story doesn't mean you're buying because of the tie-in.

I'd also buy adventure / rpg games for the story - but what I'm looking for is primarily a GOOD story. Which is sorely lacking in franchise games (or games in general).

Most of the LucasArts games you describe were top-notch because they had great stories - not really great or innovative "gameplay" (except for X-Wing / Tie Fighter - that was gameplay).

Storytelling was the strength of LucasArts, for obvious reasons. There's no "problem" with that, since stories ARE a vital part of entertainment for some of us.

E.g.: Deus Ex is still one of my favorite games - it was an 'ok' FPS, but it has a great story and narrative quality. KOTOR had similar virtues / flaws mix in its genre, and more recently and to a lesser degree, so did Mass Effect.

The "problem" you describe is with crappy games with no redeeming quality - no gameplay, no story, no primary entertainment factor.

But even these days I'd have more faith in LucasArts' storytelling prowess than their game design skills. That just means I'm more likely to buy their game, since I care mostly about the story, than an FPS / action game fan, who's more concerned about the gameplay.

 

JKII...

[i.of.the.storm]

I miss Jedi Knight II... whatever happened to that storyline, anyway? Kyle Katarn was awesome. Jedi Academy was really fun too. The dual-sided lightsaber was so powerful, I loved it. This is bringing back a lot of memories, of the days when Lucasarts didn't suck.

Lucas Provided Input? Oh...

[McNally]

and developers recently mentioned that George Lucas himself provided input on the project.

Meesah sorry to hear that.

Re:Lack of ambition?

[russlar]

Guess what, physics games have been done. Played Half-Life 2? No... really? Try it, it's great.

Yeah, Half Life 2's pretty good, but for the ultimate physics game, you gotta try this new game from France called Large Hadron Collider.

Re:Lack of ambition?

[jannone]

I also find their "lack of ambition"... disturbing.

Re:fp

[carlmenezes]

Please don't unleash the force.

Force Unleased sets record boredom

[Jackie_Chan_Fan]

The demo was kind of cool at first, but it quickly became boring. It was too repetitive and dull. It started off good, but then i realized its just about running around a large map running into the same badguys over and over.... pick a box up throw it.

Graphically, its pretty nice but the gameplay didnt have that special something.

I'm sorry but...

[pizzach]

LucasArts used to make top-notch games: Full-Throttle, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, X-Wing, and dozens more in every genre. But then Lucasarts executives (and Lucas himself, I imagine) realized that the most profitable thing to do was to churn out countless Star Wars games irrespective of quality. Yeah, there's been a couple good ones, but for every "Knights of the Old Republic" there's at least ten "Star Wars: Galaxies - Episode III Rage of the Wookiees"

Star Wars: Rage of the Wookiees sounds awesome! But I can't seem to find it on ebay?

Re:Lack of ambition?

[Fx.Dr]

It's gotten great reviews, they say it's absolutely smashing.