Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was tagged as being the best Star Wars game to date, with a great story, beautiful graphics and the ability to control the force in ways you never have before.  Well I guess 1.5 out of 3 isn't all that bad right?

The best and practically only redeeming part of this game would have to be the storyline. The story is part of the official Star Wars canon and really brings some insight into the happenings in the Star Wars universe in the time period between Episodes 3 & 4. You start off as Vader on the search for a Jedi on the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyk.  Once there you fight the Jedi and kill him in front of his son.  Darth Vader trains this youth, in secret, to be his apprentice. He is named Starkiller and his story is the one that you follow throughout the game.  The majority of the story is decent enough with there being different holes in areas. There isn't much that can be said without ruining the story, but it is safe to say that Star Wars fans will greatly enjoy this glimpse into the timeline between Episodes 3 & 4.

The character models, landscapes, and the graphics on this game are overall just stunning. In full HD you almost forget you are playing a game with how much it comes alive on screen.  There has not been a Star Wars game that looked this good on screen.  If they had done the Clone Wars movie with this setup, it might have been better received. The characters and environments come alive before you. The camera work however, leaves much to be desired. There will be different sections in the game to where you are being attacked and with the way the camera sets itself you can't see where you are at and who you are attacking.

The gameplay however, is lacking.  The title of the game is Force Unleashed and for the first few levels that is very true. You feel like a completely unstoppable being. Throwing Stormtroopers and anyone else that gets in your way like ragdolls.  However, around halfway through the game you begin to realize that you are chained in your ability usage.  The largest portion of enemies have some force blocking armor or shielding that make them invulnerable to Force Lightning, Force Grip or any other force ability. When you can use the force, the unreliable targeting gets your frustrated. With enemies directly in front of you, hitting you or shooting you, you still seem to be targeted at a box to the left side of the screen. This leads to many times where you can lose half of your health due to faulty targeting.

This leaves you to battle them with your lightsaber or throw things at them, which isn't entirely effective. The lightsaber in itself is treated like a big glow stick in that you have to hack into enemies multiple times before they are down. The last time I checked, the lightsaber could melt steel and cut through enemies in one hit, what happened to that lightsaber? I want that one back, not this glow stick that you are stuck with in the game.

Overall, this game is just not worth the money to pickup currently. If you are a Star Wars fan, I would just do a rental. With the game only taking around 8-10 hours to beat it will be easily worth that money.  With the broken targeting and camera, it isn't worth the full retail purchase. The replay value is only seen when trying to get the Dark Side ending, which isn't a full part of canon, just a quick achievement pop for those super concerned about Gamerscore.