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I never felt there was a gap that needed bridging between Episodes III and IV. Anakin becomes Vader, the Emperor (aka Palpatine) forms the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance gathers momentum. Afterall, Luke and Leia are still growing up. The trials and tribulations of a snotty farm boy or a precocious princess aren’t exactly riveting storytelling in the intergalactic scheme of things. However, lest I had forgotten, the Dark Side of the Force has much going on and explains the events after Episode III with a new protagonist, a young boy from a rogue Jedi outpost that becomes Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. Apparently the plot is legitimised by George Lucas so it’s not just a spin-off from the Star Wars universe. It’s a fully fledged story that underpins much of what happens in the latter films. If that isn’t reason enough for a Star Wars fan to play this game, you’d want to sit through someone else playing it or YouTube the cinematic cut-scenes to get the story. Luckily the game itself isn’t bunk. At least not all of it. And for fans it’s a long time coming for a new Star Wars action game.

Star Wars: The Force Unleased begins with you as Darth Vader creating havoc on a population of Wookiees as you search the last remaining Jedi Knights to destroy. This opening level delivers exactly what the game’s title suggests and gives you a great teaser of the Force powers you can develop later on. Vader soon discovers a little boy whom he sees has great potential and the story begins in earnest when the brooding apprentice grows up. After the opening act however, your abilities are back to student levels when you take control of the apprentice. It comes as a bit of downer after controlling Vader and discovering that your Force powers of genocidal proportions are reduced to something like an electric shock handshake prank. However this is a necessity for the plot to develop you as an understudy and the game to apply its progressive combat system where you upgrade your Force powers and Lightsaber techniques. The apprentice isn’t alone in his journey however as you are accompanied by a holodroid, Proxy, who aids you in the Training Room, briefs you on new characters and provides the prerequisite light comic banter in the dialogue. Also along for the ride is your sexy pilot named Juno Eclipse. She was handpicked by Vader himself and only knows you as “Starkiller”.

With a lot of the game’s mechanics relying on your Force powers, you would want to make sure that a robust physics engine is in place. Lucasarts enlisted the Havok and Euphoria engines providing the basis for body physics and AI, plus the addition of a new material physics engine with a swanky name, called the Digital Molecular Matter physics system. Glass shatters, wood splinters, metal bends and rocks crumble like they should. It works well enough but only certain parts of the environment can be manipulated and it seems there are pre-programmed states of damage or manipulation rather than a free flowing physics system. So it’s not fully realised and probably not possible with our current systems computing power anyway. Don’t expect a tree to break if you bend it enough or crumple a TIE fighter wing if the game hasn’t built that as part of the “in-play” objects for manipulation. So it’s a little contrived but it does open up some interesting puzzle elements and allows you to grab rocks or crates and fling them around or electrocute an enemy mid-air before tossing them like a bowling ball into a group of enemies. Dealing death in more creative ways will give you more Force points to level up your character or alternatively pick up well-hidden Holocrons for the same effect. Levelling up your character means allocating resource points to 3 main Force categories of Talents, Powers and Combos. Within these categories are a myriad of options such as increasing max health, Force grip power and electrocution or if you’re more inclined to slicing and dicing, your melee attacks and combos. What you choose to upgrade will have an effect on how you deal your damage so you can tailor the gameplay to whatever suits your combat style. You can’t constantly use your Force powers as there’s a separate Force meter that depletes when you use your powers before regenerating again after a short period. You can also regenerate health by dispatching foes and sucking some green life force from them. Not everything has to be within the laws of the Star Wars universe so it seems. There’s also the option to unlock new Lightsaber colours and upgrades later in the game. Wielding a Lightsaber should be the stuff of dreams but initially it seems a little underwhelming as it just boils down to plain button mashing. Fortunately as you upgrade your technique you open up new combos and can combine your Force attacks to creatively dispatch your foes in true Jedi (or Sith in this case) style. Sadly there’s still no amputation though. I’m still waiting for the first Star Wars game that’s true to the Lightsaber weapon and lets me slice an Ewok in half, with suitably crispy charred fur sound effects.

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