Unlimited power.
QUEST LOG #36: STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED
I played through and completed Star Wars: The Force Unleashed when it was first released back in 2008, and I spent an inordinate amount of time collecting every single Holocron... Accomplishing that was a frustration filled fest of fun (plus the carpal tunnel), but not something I wish to ever repeat. But the general gameplay? A few months ago, while browsing through some of the Legends audiobooks, I got a hankering for a bit of old canon Star Wars and popped the novelisation of the game on to lessen a little of the tedium of work. As I listened to the audio drama, complete with sound effects and all the fun that make Star Wars audiobooks so enjoyable, the memories of the game came flooding back (the book almost matching the game beat for beat). While listening to the Apprentice go about his missions in such a videogamey way, I got a hankering to go all dark side with some fun force powers, and as the subsequent weekend arrived, I downloaded and installed the game. It was then that I realised that my saves had disappeared in a computer upgrade, and that I couldn’t load the decked-out force user I had left to rot in the virtual world all those years ago.
So, what does one do in such a situation? Well, I played the first level (after the Vader section), and my crippled old hands protested against the clumsy platforming in their own special way, and I realised that perhaps I wouldn’t be up for the task of fully empowering my character, as I had surmised. The double jump and dash combo works most of the time to get the easy to reach collectables, but when it doesn’t quite get you where you need to go, the dark side begins to follow through you - this would be ideal if force powers were real, but all it does in reality is make you a bit cross. I just wanted to go on a sci-fi kill fest with some fun powers and a bright red sword, and without dedicating tens of hours to re-completing the holocron collectathon… is that too much to ask? Well, on initial inspection – yes, sort of, but more on that later. It was time to dive back in.
There is always a danger in revisiting games from this era. They aren’t so old as to be shielded fully by the tint of rose, or so new as to be super slick in controls, graphics, and support. No, games from this era suffer from in-between-itis. The graphics, while incredibly impressive at the time, have aged a little, but with all the setting jacked up, it still looks really quite nice. Where it shows its age a little is in the pre-rendered sequences, but to be fair, they still hold up quite well too. In game, the lighting is a little off in places, and the aforementioned controls and support? Basic at best. PC gaming has the user familiar with the humble .ini file from a young age, but it’s nice not to have to bother fiddling about in these… Not the case for me with an ultra-wide monitor, but the fix was incredibly brief and effective, with the only notable drawbacks being some on screen effects clipping to the ratio the game thinks it’s rendering to, and the stretched and blurry FMV sequences. All things considered though, for a 2008 game, it runs remarkably well on a modern system, and only hitched a tiny bit for a split second at the start of each level.
Getting into the game, and the main selling point - the physics of it. We get to see how, in many ways, the game was quite ahead of its contemporaries in regard to moveable objects within the virtual space, and how enemies react to them. Courtesy of the magic of the Havok and Euphoria engines governing object movement and NPC reactions respectively, no end of fun can be had getting Stormtroopers to hold hands as they let out cries of panic while you suspend them in the air with the force. Fun can be had in ample measure when tossing enemies far into the air, blasting out windows on space stations and having your foes blow out into the vacuum of space, or hanging in mid air yourself while you make a squad of enemies dance in spasms as you unleash a torrent of electricity through them.
I say no end, but actually, I think perhaps in returning to this game, and having already rinsed it dry once, I have found that there is only a little bit of moisture left. By the time I got to the Felucia level, I was already a little bit tired… there is just a lot of jumping to do. The controls aren’t all that precise, and the need to perform precision jumping seems to rear its head quite often. It’s usually forgiving enough, but when being shot at or hit… well, it can get annoying being tossed into an instant-death pit over and over, or getting knocked off the last stage in a half dozen run of awkward to reach platforms. Another thing that seems pretty basic now too is the lightsaber combat. The game was always more about the force powers, but the swinging feels a bit insipid. More so with the recent release of the JEDI games to compare it to. Having said that, lightsaber combat was perfected in Jedi Academy, and you can fight me if you think I’m wrong. I’m a pathetic weakling, so you’ll win, but I’ll still be right.
All that being said, those iffy bits of the game aren’t the worst. What really takes me out of the game are the quick time events. I know they are great for making a game cinematic, and alright, on occasion, I suppose they are harmless, but I’ve just never been a fan. And it turns out, I’m still not. I don’t know how the boss fights could be done otherwise, but as I say, it’s a 2008 game, so suggestions are moot anyway. Luckily, they aren’t too egregious, and if you want, on occasion, you can just power on through and force lighting some of the lesser bosses to death without going through the cinematic rigmarole.
All in all, the game is still fun, and probably far more so if you’re playing it fresh today, rather than replaying it. The story is interesting if you’re a fan of the series, and the game sits amongst some of the better releases in the Star Wars universe, despite its quirks. I recall it being mind blowing back when it was released, and at the time, the demo that came out on the XBox 360 Marketplace had me amused for countless hours. It was the most impressive Star Wars game I had seen, and in some ways, one of the most impressive games overall, regardless of the Star Warsyness. Now, it pales just a little bit. It’s still fun to fuck about in, but I can see it being a little outdated for many. If you can’t be bothered to play it, just listen to, or read the novel, the graphics in your imagination can’t be beat – and if you can be bothered to play, I’d say it’s definitely worth your time. If, like me, you finished it years ago and just want to mess around with a force power sandbox, I’d suggest whacking some cheats on and having at it.
…I mentioned earlier that I wasn’t up for finding all the secrets and upgrades in my subsequent playthough, having done all the hard work last time, and as I played through the game again, I began to hanker for more power, perhaps even an unlimited amount! I wanted to avoid Holocron hunting in order to unlock all this extra fun though. As luck would have it, the developers thought to add a nice selection of cheat codes to the game, which is something we don’t see too often anymore - they’re are a great way to add value and replayability to a game once you’ve exhausted its content in the way it was intended to be played, so bravo to Lucasarts for that inclusion. The clapping ends abruptly a moment later after having entered a code, however as saving is disabled… I know this is to prevent people fucking about with the trophies and achievements, but why not just disable them instead? Or perhaps have the cheat-enabled playthrough save on a different slot or something? No, you just have to play through the whole bloody game in one sitting if you want to make the most of this feature.
Well, that isn’t strictly the case - heehee. As I was tooling about with the game, it occurred to me that a quick browse on the old internet might yield some workaround, and sure enough, someone has figured it out. I followed a few of these suggestions to no avail initially, but I finally I found one method that worked - after putting in the cheats I wanted, I completed the first level, and killed myself upon loading into the second stage. I then quit to menu, and then immediately continued the game (not quitting to desktop). In doing this, the save feature was somehow unlocked (don’t ask me how), and I had a save which had the cheats enabled, and thus, the extra fun enabled too.
I usually want to experience the game as intended during a revisit, but I just had a hankering to mess about, and with my save lost, and after having waded through the missions again without finding all the upgrades, I revelled in being a dirty cheating bastard.
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Jamie B