Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, effectively operating as Star Wars: Episode III and a half, casts players as Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice in an all-new adventure that spans the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Players accompany the Apprentice through his quest for revenge and redemption, villainy and heroism, as he explores the galaxy with the crew of his starship, the Rogue Shadow, armed with an over-the-top array of Force powers. The Secret Apprentice is taken by Darth Vader at a young age and nurtured as a slave of the Dark Side. Still, as he hurtles towards his destiny, which will have far-reaching repercussions for Star Wars chronology, he will learn much about his history and future.
Throughout the game, the player will go from world to planet, searching for any remaining Jedi for Darth Vader. Each location (the junk planet Raxus Prime, thickly forested Kashyyyk, organic fungus Felucia, and other surprises) features new foes that require different Force powers to defeat, and the player obtains access to them at the beginning of each new level. Because most adversaries on Raxus are mechanical, the player learns Force Lightning at the start of the story to take advantage of this. Aside from Force Powers, players may use the customization menu to purchase several Force Combos, which combine lightsaber moves with Force Powers and even contain many grappling moves. These skills can be upgraded at the customization screen, including choices for customizing the lightsaber and selecting from various costumes.
Instead of just chopping with the lightsaber, the game awards players for eliminating adversaries in showy ways that use Force powers and the environment. Different “bonuses” are provided to the player according to how adversaries are defeated, such as a “Crush Bonus” for slamming an enemy into (and consequently destroying) a piece of the environment or a “Long Way Down Bonus” for launching an enemy off a cliff. These bonuses increase the player’s Force Points, which function similarly to experience points to level up; once Level Up is obtained, the player receives Combo, Talent, and Ability spheres, which can be spent on the customization above screen to gain new abilities and boost attack/defense-related stats. Furthermore, the game employs an “Action camera” whenever foes are defeated ruthlessly, temporarily pausing the action to show an adversary hurtling to his death.
The Force Unleashed Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are the first to use LucasArts’ Ronin engine, which combines the Havok physics engine, Natural Motion’s Euphoria AI, and Pixelux’s Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), allowing enemies to react with fluid animation and self-preserving AI (such as grabbing onto ledges and dodging projectiles) and objects in the environment to bend, stretch, and shatter based on their material properties. Other versions’ versions simulate the effects but do not have the modules.
