Today, a demo came out for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on Xbox Live Marketplace (later today on Playstation Network) as a taste of what is to come in a month since is the most anticipated Star Wars game on the current generation of consoles (After that, it is the KOTOR MMORPG). For almost a GB, you're in some Empire-like facility to hunt down a Master Jedi as Darth Vader's "secret" Apprentice, or just call him Starkiller. The demo itself seems like an early build because it is not as polished as it should be (Hopefully it is in the final game). There are technical issues if you're crazy about it from the cutscene stopping for a second or two to load up and others that people noticed. The camera is also something to worry about because it can be bad at times as you try to center it a lot with the right bumper (that's also the lock-on) or using the right sticks. Other than that, I enjoyed the demo after playing it twice on the Normal difficulty there, but it doesn't mean it is worth my purchase yet (I guess so since it is Star Wars).
The gameplay of Force Unleashed is pretty simple if you played any action games in the past few years and plays like recent ones too like God of War and Devil May Cry. Even on the normal difficulty, you can breeze through the demo without dying if you're not careless. After all, the game is called The Force Unleashed, which means you have to use Starkiller's force powers a lot. At least it does a good job of making you feel like a badass of using them and your lightsaber skills as well. The controls are also pick up and play with Force lifting being the right trigger and other powers like Force pushes and Force Lightning are on the face buttons. With the Force lift, things can get a little too complicated (likely for casual players) of using both analog sticks to manipulate an object's movement. Dodging is remiscient of the Devil May Cry games of using the lock-on and then using Force Dash (left bumper) or just jump around to avoid enemy fire. The demo wants you to test Starkiller's abilities and they delivered on that front as it concludes with an AT-ST battle (not an actual boss battle) that is finished by an quicktime event (Another staple of recent action games of buton presses and then magic happens).
Presentation-wise, it is typical Star Wars as everything you see and hear in the game is faithful to the series (even the soundtrack in which I don't know if John Williams cooked up original material just for this game). The Force Unleashed is out on September 16th and expected to a big sales hit because of Star Wars fans for all ages (the kids sure loved it when I saw it at Comic-Con last month). Who knows if the game will have critical success too (OXM already reviewed it and the new EGM out next week for subscribers has a review there too), but at least this will be better than The Clone Wars movie and also the prequels.
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