The Force Unleashed

[th3-space-pope]

5 tweaks that would turn the Force Unleashed from a great game bogged down in piss poor design decisions to a great game. (in no particular order)

1. Blocking: I should to be able to move while blocking, granted it should slow you down to a slow walking pace or something but I should be able to make ground on the 50 guys shooting at me while keeping my guard up.

2. Blocking (again...): When I press block it should be instant, I shouldn't have to hold block before an enemy starts attacking just for it to be successful, blocking should be about reflexes not whether you've planned to press block a couple of seconds before you even look like your going to get attacked. Also, pressing block should override any combo I am in the middle of.

3. Stun Locking: This is mainly a boss thing. If everyone and their sister can stun lock me to get their full combo in then at the very least I should be able to do the same, at the moment it just feels like cheap bullshit to make up for inadequate AI.

4. Force Battle Mini Games: If you want me to play stupid little mini games to decide the victor of a force battle then I should be f@#$ing invincible during it, or at the very least the minions should know not to attack me while it is in progress.

5. Auto targeting: ENEMIES SHOULD TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER STUPID LITTLE CRATES. If I am looking directly at an enemy then chances are I want to target that enemy not the crate he is standing next to.

My first play through of the game was on Sith Warrior (normal) and most of these issues where not that big of a deal and I happily over looked them and got right into the game, however, when I unlocked Sith Master difficulty and gave that a go, well lets just say that the games faults start to stick out like a sore thumb, then the game completely falls apart and becomes an exercise in tedium and frustration.

Still I can't help but love it for it's story.

[dolson]

I also hate the jumping and slowed descent when attacking mid-air.

[flapjax]

5. Auto targeting: ENEMIES SHOULD TAKE PRECEDENCE OVER STUPID LITTLE CRATES. If I am looking directly at an enemy then chances are I want to target that enemy not the crate he is standing next to.


But I love electrocuting crates instead of the massive swarms of enemies that are all blasting me repeatedly. Especially the explosive crates that happen to be just to my left. Apparently my character loves the idea of suicide....

[fanboys-strike-back]

The game has it's faults but I loved it and it seems like everyone only talks about the bad things about it.

The story was truly epic

and overall I really felt like a badass dark jedi and I think that was the point.

If I could change things, other than the slowdown, glitching, I would just make the game longer, it was far too short.

Also I would flesh out the level system and add new powers.

I think the perfect Star Wars game would be a mix between Jedi Knight 2 and The Force Unleashed.

[Bret]

i vote they make the movie of this game since i have heard so much of the story. I am going to wait until its a lot cheaper to play it.

[th3-space-pope]

The game has it's faults but I loved it and it seems like everyone only talks about the bad things about it.

The story was truly epic

and overall I really felt like a badass dark jedi and I think that was the point.

If I could change things, other than the slowdown, glitching, I would just make the game longer, it was far too short.

Also I would flesh out the level system and add new powers.

I think the perfect Star Wars game would be a mix between Jedi Knight 2 and The Force Unleashed.

I can't help but think that you stopped reading before the last line. I think you'll find that people are only complaining about the problems with the game because we all recognise that this could have been the greatest Star Wars game ever made. Instead Lucas Arts pushed it out the door and fired all their staff. C'est la vie.

Also, while I really enjoyed the adventures of Kyle Katarn I think that Jedi Academy trumped Outcast.

[inertianinja]

my star wars fanboy friends have been very critical of the game.

the glitches are there - but not any more than in Devil May Cry 4.

once i accepted them and let them go -- the game got much better

[blacksymbiote]

Apparently you can switch your targetting mode to a toggle setting instead of holding, and a lot of people are finding this much better.

[tlazaroff]

First of all, I loved the game. I find it interesting that this game's story was far better than any of the 3 prequels. I had so much fun playing this game. Problem is, it was WAY too short! This is supposed to be the most expensive (production) game produced, and I beat it in 4 hours! That was REALLY disappointing. When will developers get it in their heads that we want a longer play experience? When broken down, I paid $15 per hour for entertainment. Movies cost that for ~2 hours, MMO's cost that for a MONTH of entertainment. It seems that developers these days are sacrificing the length of their game for pretty graphics and early release. I hate the fact that to get my money's worth out of a game, I have to buy an RPG. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE RPGs and love playing them, but I don't think I should have to cough up $60 for a game I can beat in one sitting. Hell, I spend $60 on comics and they last me a few weeks!

Developers, this needs to STOP.

This is how I'd rate F.U.:
Story: 10/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Graphics 9/10
Audio: 10/10
Length: 3/10
QPR (Quality to Price Ratio): F.U.

[gi_josh]

This game was fun as hell, but it certainly did have issues. I beat it once and don't ever plan to play it again, I just wanted to experience the story. For me, the game is a solid 7 to 7.5, for the reasons mentioned earlier in this thread.

the whole time though I just kept thinking, "damn, this should have been a movie!" Apparently the voice actor for Starkiller looks just like the dude in the game, so he could even be the actor...

[forbizzle]

This game was overhyped, and oversold by the TRS guys tbh.

Why did nobody mention how short it is? I've been working overtime for the past few weeks, and haven't had much time to play games. But I was able to breeze through TFU in a couple sittings. It relies completely on unbalanced difficulty in stretching out almost no content. You return to 2 planets, just so they can cut corners and reuse assets. It's a huge galaxy, you can move people around, rather than return them to the same backwater planets over and over again.

The story was alright, and in relation to other video games it was worth praise. But the comparison to other star wars games just doesn't hold up. Pick a game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_video_games). Any game that isn't a spinoff of any of the 6 movies. If the game is limited to at most one Hoth or Death Star sequence, chances are it's story has got a story on par with TFU.

This game was not tested enough. Plain and simple, it's shovel-ware as LucasArts moves towards third party development. There was a game buried there that would have been pretty good, but it was completely ruined by numerous game breaking issues. They're not technical bugs, but balance and gameplay issues. It's apparent that all the good in this game comes from the early stages of development. Cool technologies, great concept art and plot line. It just wasn't iterated enough. This happens when you have:

- project managers that don't understand design patterns

- developers with too much influence on the release schedule.

or most likely
- a publisher that wants a return on their investment and rushes the product to market.

The reason that so many people have so many ideas on how this game could be better, is because it was essentially a commercial release of a beta phase game. It's rough and there are a lot of things that it could have built on, but there wasn't a strong enough direction.