Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Catch-All

Sanjuro wrote:

The voice actor who does Darth Vader sounds like my dad doing a Darth Vader impersonation.

So wait, your dad is...holy sh*t, Sanjuro! Please tell me I'm not hallucinating.

Edit: On my second playthrough, the QTE at the end seemed easier since I was prepared for it and knew where to look on the screen when it prompted me (something that Marvel: Ultimate Alliance did better by sticking it in the middle of the screen). I'd be interested in seeing how the controls work on the Wii version. Chucking stormtroopers around might be more fun with the Wiimote.

Rat Boy wrote:
Certis wrote:

I'm really noticing the lack of limbs flying off and having to hit someone multiple times with a lightsaber to kill them. Take the safety off, secret apprentice! It seems a little like they couldn't/didn't want to get too far from the HIT-HIT-OTHER BUTTON combo structure most action games carry. It's hardly needed if you're slicing dudes in half with one killing stroke.

Best way to get around that would probably be to make it harder to get a good strike on someone desperate to avoid it, but that's likely asking a lot.

I think they're trying to keep it down to Teen level. You won't see beheadings like in Dragon Age. The JK series had only minor dismemberment (hands), but you could turn them up with a console command.

Yeah, I will be playing this on the 360 but I really wish it was coming for PC so I could crank the lightsaber lethality up to 11 like I could in Jedi Academy. Nothing like whirling your saber into a stormtrooper and then keeping it spinning there while he flies apart :).

I know this is FORCE unleashed, but I am curious whether you get to increase your lightsaber abilities so you can drop guys in one hit. As it is I was giggling with glee the whole way through the demo as I tore through that station.

Gameraotaku wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
Certis wrote:

I'm really noticing the lack of limbs flying off and having to hit someone multiple times with a lightsaber to kill them. Take the safety off, secret apprentice! It seems a little like they couldn't/didn't want to get too far from the HIT-HIT-OTHER BUTTON combo structure most action games carry. It's hardly needed if you're slicing dudes in half with one killing stroke.

Best way to get around that would probably be to make it harder to get a good strike on someone desperate to avoid it, but that's likely asking a lot.

I think they're trying to keep it down to Teen level. You won't see beheadings like in Dragon Age. The JK series had only minor dismemberment (hands), but you could turn them up with a console command.

Yeah, I will be playing this on the 360 but I really wish it was coming for PC so I could crank the lightsaber lethality up to 11 like I could in Jedi Academy. Nothing like whirling your saber into a stormtrooper and then keeping it spinning there while he flies apart :).

I know this is FORCE unleashed, but I am curious whether you get to increase your lightsaber abilities so you can drop guys in one hit. As it is I was giggling with glee the whole way through the demo as I tore through that station.

I'm starting to get the feeling that some of the powers were gimped. In the trailer shown at the end, you can see Starkiller knocking over a walker with the just the force on top of dragging a Star Destroyer down to the ground.

Sanjuro wrote:

The voice actor who does Darth Vader sounds like my dad doing a Darth Vader impersonation.

Woah, woah, woah. You can't just strut into some random thread like you haven't been gone for like .... forever. Where are my flowers?!

All I need to hear is that the gameplay is of reasonable length and I'm completely sold on this game. Had tons of fun just throwing troopers around. I would've like to have seen them trying to grab on to stuff like on the initial videos, but I'm happy as it stands.

Sanjuro wrote:

The voice actor who does Darth Vader sounds like my dad doing a Darth Vader impersonation.

Holy sh*t! He lives!

jmdanny wrote:

All I need to hear is that the gameplay is of reasonable length and I'm completely sold on this game. Had tons of fun just throwing troopers around. I would've like to have seen them trying to grab on to stuff like on the initial videos, but I'm happy as it stands.

Actually, from my second run through, I did notice that. I tried to grab a militia trooper and chuck him over the side of a bridge, but the little bugger managed to grab hold of a crate. What made that even more interesting is suddenly I was able to feel the extra weight and had to press harder on the thumb stick to drag the both of them over the edge. Nice subtle touch there.

Edit:

Certis wrote:
Sanjuro wrote:

The voice actor who does Darth Vader sounds like my dad doing a Darth Vader impersonation.

Woah, woah, woah. You can't just strut into some random thread like you haven't been gone for like .... forever. Where are my flowers?!

"I remember when
You couldn't wait to love me
Used to hate to leave me
Now after lovin 'me late at night
When its good for you
And you're feelin' alright
Well you just roll over
And turn out the light
And you don't bring me flowers anymore"

Certis wrote:

Where are my flowers?!

Where are my love songs?

Sanjuro wrote:
Certis wrote:

Where are my flowers?!

Where are my love songs?

I´ve heard people say that
Too much of anything is not good for you, baby
Oh no
But I don´t know about that
There´s many times that we´ve loved
We´ve shared love and made love
It doesn´t seem to me like it´s enough
There´s just not enough of it
There´s just not enough
Oh oh, babe

My darling I, can´t get enough of your love, babe
Girl, I don´t know, I don´t know why
Can´t get enough of your love babe
Oh, some things i can´t get used to
No matter how I try
Just like the more you give, the more I want
And baby, that´s no lie
Oh no, babe

Tell me, what can I say?
What am I gonna do?
How should I feel when everything is you?
What kind of love is this that you´re givin´ me?
Is it in your kiss or just because you´re sweet?

Girl, all I know is every time you´re here
I feel the change
Somethin´ moves
I scream your name
Do whatcha got to do

Darling, I, can´t get enough of your love, babe
Girl, I don´t know, I don´t know, I don´t know why
I can´t get enough of your love babe
Oh no, babe

Girl, if only I could make you see
And make you understand
Girl, your love for me is all I need
And more than I can stand
Oh well, babe

How can I explain all the things I feel?
You´ve given me so much
Girl, you´re so unreal
Still I keep loving you
More and more each time
Girl, what am I gonna do
Because you blow my mind

I get the same old feelin´ every time you´re here
I feel the change
Somethin´ moves
I scream your name
Do whatcha got to do

Darling, I, can´t get enough of your love babe
Oh no, babe

Baby, let me take all of my life to find you
But you can believe it´s gonna take the rest of ny life to keep
you

Oh no, babe
My darling I, can´t get enoug of your love, babe
Yeah, I don´t know, I don´t know, I don´t know why
Can´t get enough of your love babe
Oh my darling I, can´t get enough of your love, babe
Oh babe
I don´t know, I don´t know, I don´t know why
I can´t get enough of your love, babe
Oh babe

We've missed you so much. [sniff]

Sanjuro wrote:
Certis wrote:

Where are my flowers?!

Where are my love songs?

D-CACK IN YOUR MOUTH! Welcome, please stay.

On topic, I liked a lot of the details. Tthe graphics are spectacular, especially the animation and effects, and the cutscenes are gorgeous. The DMM stuff allowed for some cool deformation with the force, like bending of the pillars out into the TIE fighter's flight lane, causing it to ASPLODE. But the mashy combat got boring even in the space of that very short demo. The combos looked cool, but they don't fill any different tactical slot, aside from the amount of damage done. I'm not sure why I would choose one over the other, aside from aesthetic preferences. I'll let you guys be my guinea pigs, to see if the combat gets more interesting late down the road. It would seem that Ninja Gaiden, this is not.

Sanjuro wrote:
Certis wrote:

Where are my flowers?!

Where are my love songs?

Don't push it

Welcome back.

Rat Boy wrote:
jmdanny wrote:

All I need to hear is that the gameplay is of reasonable length and I'm completely sold on this game. Had tons of fun just throwing troopers around. I would've like to have seen them trying to grab on to stuff like on the initial videos, but I'm happy as it stands.

Actually, from my second run through, I did notice that. I tried to grab a militia trooper and chuck him over the side of a bridge, but the little bugger managed to grab hold of a crate. What made that even more interesting is suddenly I was able to feel the extra weight and had to press harder on the thumb stick to drag the both of them over the edge. Nice subtle touch there.

Oh cool, I'm going for another run through in a second.

Another thing that kinda bugged me is that the lightsaber doesn't affect any of the crates that you can through around. I mean, I damage walls, terminals, unfortunate troopers and rebels, but I can't damage/destroy crates?

Rat Boy wrote:

Actually, from my second run through, I did notice that. I tried to grab a militia trooper and chuck him over the side of a bridge, but the little bugger managed to grab hold of a crate. What made that even more interesting is suddenly I was able to feel the extra weight and had to press harder on the thumb stick to drag the both of them over the edge. Nice subtle touch there.

I noticed that, too. I ended up semi-dragging the crate to the edge of a platform. The struggling Trooper did the rest. Hey, I tried to lift him back up. Really, I did!

And I'm glad to see other people being disappointed with the QTEs. They popped up and I thought "oh great, God of Force."

Star Wars +1

Certis wrote:

Is there such a thing as TOO powerful? I feel a little too god-like at times, not feeling much danger or need for defense. Just flip out and spam the hell out of your powers.

It's FUN, don't get me wrong. Just feels like I don't need much finesse to get by.

That's because you're a beautiful man with finesse dripping off your fingers. That, or in a demo feeling too powerful is an awesome experience but the real game will probably require a bit of thinking, minus the QTE's which require lots of beer. None of those stormtroopers were in my Monkeysphere so having God-like powers didn't feel like cheating it felt like POWER.

Try playing on the 3rd difficulty of the 4, you definitely won't feel too powerful.

Got to say - not hugely impressed so far, at least not enough to consider this a purchase over the umteen other games coming out this year.

Sabre combat is about as basic as you can get and it looks like most of the interesting stuff (e.g cutting an AT-ST in half) is going to be quick time events.

The grip stuff is fun for a while but I don't think it's going to be enough for me to grab the game at full price (Particularily since I get the sense that it's going to be a fairly short game).

It's certainly no 'jedi knight' replacement, for me anyway.

Sanjuro, is that you. Oh my baby, you're back. We missed you. Sniff - no I will be ok.

Maybe it is because I saw Ratchet & Clank: QFB on the PSN store but isn't this game just like R&C? Seriously you run around breaking stuff looking for enemies to try different weapons (or force powers) on. This game is very, very similar in gameplay. I kept force pulling everything and smashing it because I expected to get bolts so I could upgrade stuff! Actually that is what the game is lacking. What is the point of smashing and pulling everything? In R&C it helps you build your character...in Force Unleashed it....well doesn't do squat. After the first level or so you won't bother. Even in God of War (which many people mention when talking about the final fight) you get stuff for smashing the crap out of things. You get red orbs and when you get enough you can upgrade your weapon. Force Unleashed is missing that hook to do more damage.

It was fun but it took awhile to get used to the controls. I didn't like how glow the grab mechanic was. Maybe it's because it's on a controller.

I do agree that from what I saw in the demo Jedi Knight is better. It just doesn't have as much physics and Force Unleashed.

Rat Boy wrote:

Actually, from my second run through, I did notice that. I tried to grab a militia trooper and chuck him over the side of a bridge, but the little bugger managed to grab hold of a crate. What made that even more interesting is suddenly I was able to feel the extra weight and had to press harder on the thumb stick to drag the both of them over the edge. Nice subtle touch there.

I was fiddling around tonight and found you can kinda grab a militia guy/stormtorroper and drag him into another - he'll grab onto the other dude and you can llift the pair of them up squirming and complaining and torture them a bit before flinging 'em into a wall or whatever.

Also in the area with the tie fighters flying past you can push some of the big steel beams out into the flight paths for a bit of a giggle.

OK, quick impressions...

There's not a lot of story in there (I get the impression that he's going to turn on Vader at some point) and I don't know a ton about Star Wars, but... Starkiller is INSANELY powerful for an apprentice, isn't he? I mean, he can throw TIE fighters around and in the ending "trailer" they show him force-gripping one of those giant Imperial Pizza Slices. Don't you think we would have HEARD about this guy before? He's either got to die or run off to be a hermit somewhere by the end of the game, otherwise he would have totally changed how the Star Wars story went. I also felt his powers were a little inconsistent, like he could fling around ships and people like they were toys but could only deflect about 1 in 10 shots with his saber.

On that note, the game actually feels very Japanese to me. Over the top power, running around like a ninja, flashy moves, the backhanded grip (which really looks suicidal to me)... these are the sorts of things you'd expect to see in an anime instead of anything Western.

I was surprised with how easy it was to hit things with force-thrown items but was disappointed with the mechanic in general. You're very limited on what precisely you can grip and when you rip things off walls/ceilings they always break in exactly the same ways. You can move fighters around, which is cool, but they don't even change their orientation which makes it seem less like you've picked them up with your frikkin mind and more like they're just moving around on a wire. Thrown objects seemed strangely floaty to me. I mean, I know they were just LEVITATING, but the way they'd bounce around after hitting the wall made them seem to lack any real mass. I had fun with my old Jedi Academy trick of smashing people into walls and throwing them off cliffs but if they were using that super-advanced adaptive AI, the demo didn't do a good job of highlighting that. In fact, NONE of the whole "material modeling" stuff we've heard so much about came into play in the demo unless you count smashing glass.

It feels a lot like Jedi Academy though there are a lot of little details that game had but this one omits. For instance, in Jedi Academy when you hit someone with your lightsaber sometimes you'd cut off limbs or heads or chop them right in half. In fact, if your lightsaber so much as brushed up against a wall it would leave glowing cutmarks. It really made me feel like I was wielding a sword of super laser powered goodness. The lightsaber in Unleashed feels a lot like the "light clubs" in Futurama. They seem to whack against stuff, don't leave a mark, and certainly don't cut through enemies like you'd expect. That's some good armor those Imperials have.

...which brings me to the AT-ST fight at the end. After throwing around TIE fighters and bending girders, I didn't understand why I couldn't just throw the walker off the platform and be done with it. I chucked a heavy object at it and it bounced off harmlessly. I tried using force lightning, I tried slashing it, but nothing worked until I remembered why we don't actually use walkers in real life and tried to push its legs out from under it. That didn't work either, though apparently it was enough to make it.. dizzy? Or something? Let's say it was off balance. So it was off balance and then... oh boy, a quick-time event. I've got to admit that cutting the thing in half right down the middle was pretty cool but I'd imagine after the 100th time it won't be so impressive. In Too Human you have the choice between a quick time event and good old-fashioned firepower against those hammer robots, but here it looks like it's the QTE or that thing isn't going down. That was a little disappointing, particularly in a game that markets itself on being able to dispatch your enemies in creative and hilarious ways.

It strikes me just how empty this game would be without the Force Grip mechanic. While the demo level captures that "Star Wars" feel pretty well, it's pretty bland. Lots of open space without even furniture. Some of the set pieces shown in the trailer at the end of the demo seemed impressive but I worry The Force Unleashed is just an average action game built around a neat physics engine.

EDIT: So much for quick impressions.

Damn Vector, were you saving that for this very moment? (well played) So much for the Annual "Whatthef*ckeverhappened to Sanjuro?" thread. Don't be a stranger, Sanj.

<- Yet another annoyed by the QTE. At least in God of War the guy would do something different each time you mashed one of the buttons. When it came up last night, Badass Jedi Dude just sat there while I played a short game of Simon. There was no action until the event was successfully completed. Lame. Very lame.

If you want to milk a little extra fun out of the demo, try the following:
-grab stormtrooper
-shoot lightning at stormtrooper
-throw electrified stormtrooper
When he lands, all the lightning discharges, damaging anything nearby. The AT-ST fight is a lot more fun when you can turn all his stormtrooper buddies into living bombs. Also fun: pick up a guy in the middle of a large group, zap him, and slam him into the floor.

My thought process so far in this thread:

1: This sounds like I'd probably like it despite the presence of QTE's. (re: the devil, I agree with rabbit)
2: It's downloaded... I should actually play it.
3: I'll just finish the thread first.
4:

Sanjuro wrote:

The voice actor who does Darth Vader sounds like my dad doing a Darth Vader impersonation.

5: Dude?
6: DUDE!
7: Dude.

In a similar vein, here was my thought process watching the trailer at the end of the demo:

1. I wonder how much of these actions are QTEs.

2. Did this dude just recoil when the blond tried to kiss him?

3. I wonder if kissing is a QTE.

4. Hmmmm. Kissing QTEs.

5. Wait a minute, wouldn't that be bordering on Hot Coffee?

6. Hot Caf. Now there's an idea to make QTEs tolerable.

Rat Boy wrote:

5. Wait a minute, wouldn't that be bordering on Hot Coffee?

6. Hot Caf. Now there's an idea to make QTEs tolerable.

What happens if you mess up the button sequence in a Hot Coffee QTE?

muttonchop wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

5. Wait a minute, wouldn't that be bordering on Hot Coffee?

6. Hot Caf. Now there's an idea to make QTEs tolerable.

What happens if you mess up the button sequence in a Hot Coffee QTE?

You saw the Jason Biggs / Foreign exchange student (Shannon Elizabeth) scene in American Pie right?

LobsterMobster wrote:

...which brings me to the AT-ST fight at the end. After throwing around TIE fighters and bending girders, I didn't understand why I couldn't just throw the walker off the platform and be done with it.

That's going to be the hardest balance to strike in this game: giving you all the over-the-top, move-a-planet-out-of-orbit force powers and have it be internally consistent. I'm fine if it's not consistent within the established Star Wars universe (because face it, that has gotten completely {ableist slur} with the extended universe stuff, provided that it gives me a consistent experience within the confines of the game itself.

Oh, and I'm back because I missed you guys.

Oh, and I'm back because I missed you guys.

Welcome back!

I have to agree that I was disappointed that I can toss around TIE Fighters but I couldn't seriously affect the AT-ST with the force grip stuff. If I'm that powerful I should be able to do something to that AT-ST outside of a QTE. That sort of thing could get really irritating.

Bending the girders was cool but it didn't feel natural. It was, "Oh hey, a targeting reticle on that beam! Cool!" rather than me just playing around with the environment and discovering this stuff.

I also found the targeting for the force grip stuff to be irritating. It's really hard to line up and grab a specific thing; I wish you could cycle through all of the available targets somehow. So I'd just grab random stuff and attempt to toss it in the right direction. It works but not as well as I had hoped.

Maybe the game will be much more satisfying once you get more powers under you belt. The force push is cool and I didn't get tired of bending the doors open. It actually reminds me of Advent Rising quite a bit, although in all honesty I found the powers in Advent Rising to be more satisfying and fun to play with Again, it's just the demo so it's hard to say how much more fun there is to be had. I will say the guys gripping stuff is a cool gimmick but it really doesn't impact the game at all.

A solid rental but I'm not sure it'll be much more than that for me.