I've been looking forward to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for quite some time, but with reservations. In certain respects the game appears to be more fanboy circle jerk than an earnest attempt at expanding the Star Wars universe in a manner consistent with what has come before. Witness the character features to the side wielding Lightsaber tonfa. Let that sit in for a second. Lightsaber tonfa. Placing a three foot glowing blade that will cut through pretty much anything severely hampers the versatility for which a tonfa is usually appreciated.Lately these doubts in the games worth have been contributed to by the unending discussion coming out of the developers about all their efforts to make the physics and AI technologies work together. Most of the promo material we've seen has droned on and on about Havok this, DMM that, and Euphoria the other. I have no real issues with promoting the software technology behind the game. But with such an emphasis being given to the technology I'm starting to wonder if we are getting a game, or a glorified tech demo.
However cautious my enthusiasm for this game is it would be nothing but deception on my part to imply that it isn't enthusiasm which drives my concern. The game does look great, there's no arguing that. And I certainly look forward to playing it. But I haven't played a truly great Star Wars game since Knights of the Old Republic; and the potential is there for Force Unleashed to be the action RPG equivalent to KOTOR. That's what I WANT it to be. But the doubts continue to mount.
However cautious my enthusiasm for this game is it would be nothing but deception on my part to imply that it isn't enthusiasm which drives my concern. The game does look great, there's no arguing that. And I certainly look forward to playing it. But I haven't played a truly great Star Wars game since Knights of the Old Republic; and the potential is there for Force Unleashed to be the action RPG equivalent to KOTOR. That's what I WANT it to be. But the doubts continue to mount.
