With nothing planned for the weekend I decided to pick up Force Unleashed (PS3). It was a game I was originally looking forward to, but I was put off slightly by the demo. If you have not played the game/read the book or TPB then I should point out that some spoilers may follow.

STORY:
Set during the period between Episode III (Revenge of the Sith) and Episode IV (A New Hope), Force Unleashed tells the story of Darth Vader's apprentice - a.k.a Starkiller. To be honest the story was one of the big selling points of the game for me. I read the book and TPB during the summer and was impressed by several characters. Hopefully there will be future stories detailing their histories/tales.

SOUND:
Amazingly beautiful music through out the game, the various scores truly make Force Unleashed feel like a missing chapter of the Star Wars movies. The voice acting is also spot on, which was quite impressive for a video game.

VIDEO:
The animatic cut scenes were sometimes of a really high quality (which is great) however at other times there are flaws - eyes appearing through eyelids and lips moving very out of sync. The video does make the Force Unleashed feel like a movie and they really add to the game but it would have been nice to have the option to skip them (at times the video just displays the Force Unleashed logo when you try and skip it).

CONTROLS:
The force powers are mapped to the various buttons quite well, and its easy to switch between electrifying (Force Lightning) and throwing (Force Push) Storm Troopers. Aiming/targeting can sometimes be an issue - but I feel thats more down to the sometimes arkward camera (which brings us to....).

GRAPHICS/CAMERA
I don't think ingame Storm Troopers have ever looked as good, blast marks show on their chests when you deflect blaster blots back and there bodies go all rag doll when they are thrown into a wall. Then there is the amazingly detailed (and lets face it, a little bit scary) Rancors, their size is impressive. However, there is some issues with the ingame camera - at times it zooms in way too closely and at other times it won't swivel into the correct position, causing Starkillers death as an enemy kills you from a far.

BUGS:
Yep, bugs. One occurred on Imperial Kashyyyk when a whole Imperial sub-base (the gate type) and the enemies turned invisible (but where still able to shoot at me!). The other was fighting Darth Vader, Vader stopped fighting and could not be hurt (and no it was not one of the button sequence moments).

CONCLUSION:
OK it was cleared in 1 weekend (around 8hrs of play), and the lack of any online mutliplayer does limit how much time will now be spent on replaying the game. Heck, even a survival mode (with continuous respawning Troopers) would have been good. However, the storyline/video cut scenes/music do really save the game. I'd give it a strong 7 out of 10.

POSITIVES:

Force Abilities (yep, Psi-Ops did the same several years ago on the X-Box but its great fun blast Storm Troopers across a room).

That Star Wars movie feeling (thanks to storyline, music and cut scenes).

NEGATIVES:

Game length / Replayability Factor

Star Destroyer Boss