Almost fifteen years on from its initial release, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed recently made a comeback with a modern port to the Nintendo Switch. Despite its age, The Force Unleashed remains an iconic entry in the vast library of games set in the Star Wars universe and one which many fans cherish to this day.
However, while Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and its sequel have their fair share of aspects that have aged like fine wine, there are some elements that have not had the same grace. Some of these flaws were actually present from the beginning, but have become a lot more noticeable over the years.
10 Loved: Sam Witwer As Starkiller
If there is any reason to go back to The Force Unleashed games, it is for Sam Witwer as Darth Vader's secret apprentice known as Starkiller. Galen Marek AKA Starkiller gave fans a journey of a Sith who slowly turns to the light side of the Force with Sam Witwer giving a stellar performance.
Despite the shortcomings of The Force Unleashed II, Sam Witwer's performance in the sequel is arguably even stronger than in the first. He not only makes the pain and anger of Starkiller feel real, but the fact that he's not a flawless hero makes him one of the more grounded portrayals of a Jedi/Sith in the franchise.
9 Loved: Hack And Slash Gameplay
Since Starkiller is not a morally righteous Jedi even at his best, The Force Unleashed allowed players to experience lightsaber combat at its most visceral and brutal. Starkiller's combat borrows heavily from the classic God of War trilogy, featuring hack and slash gameplay that is both addictive and visually stunning.
Sometimes it goes a little overboard with the God of War inspiration, feeling almost like a clone at times. However, the gameplay remains fluid in both games, with the dual-lightsaber combat of The Force Unleashed II taking everything that worked well about the first game's combat system and making it even better.
8 Loved: The Characters Are Memorable
Not only is there Starkiller himself, but The Force Unleashed games also introduced the likes of Juno Eclipse, Rahm Kota, and Proxy. They are an atypical cast of characters for Star Wars, which is fitting since Starkiller is far from a typical protagonist in the Star Wars universe.
Even returning characters from the Star Wars lexicon such as the powerful Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, and Bail Organa give these games a proper feeling of acting as a bridge between the prequels and the original trilogy; something that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order followed up on quite well.
7 Loved: Different Lightsaber Colors
Earlier Star Wars games featuring a Jedi protagonist forced players to be stuck with only one color for their lightsaber blade. The Force Unleashed changed that by having unlockable Kyber crystals of many shades that not only changed the color of the blade, but also its form.
The Force Unleashed II doubled down on the lightsaber color choices, allowing the player to mix and match the colors in any way they wanted. It may not have the hilt customization of Fallen Order​​​​​​, but simply being able to have so many blade color options went a long way, especially since they had different effects on gameplay.
6 Loved: Many Costume Choices
So far, very few games have managed to give players the chance to customize their character from head to bottom. Even Fallen Order had very limited cosmetic options for Cal Kestis. The Force Unleashed games stuck to different costumes and skins, but they made up for it with a surprising amount of skins.
From detailed original costumes for Starkiller to being able to play as many characters from Star Wars canon, the game had a lot to offer. The recent port of The Force Unleashed for the Nintendo Switch added even more characters, such as Asajj Ventress from many iconic arcs of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
5 Loved: Light & Dark Endings
Replayability is always a good bonus and The Force Unleashed games have that due to the number of holocrons to find and the fact that both games have two different endings. One is the more satisfying conclusion that is meant to be the canon ending for the game while the other is a darker ending that leads to a far more twisted future.
Both endings are always fun to check out on the first couple of playthroughs. It may not be as drastic as some of the other game endings that are dictated by player choice, such as those found in Detroit: Beyond Human and the Mass Effect trilogy, but just having that option for a different ending is appreciated.
4 Disliked: Quicktime Events
This is where The Force Unleashed games borrowed too much from the God of War games, even taking some less desirable mechanics such as the quick-time events. Even in God of War, the quick-time events were tolerable at best, but annoying and distracting at worst. Unfortunately, the quick-time events in both Force Unleashed games are more of the latter.
They disrupt the flow of the combat and, during boss fights, the quick-time events are both over-abundant and last way too long. There's a reason why quick-time events like these are not featured that much in gaming anymore; it's just not needed and was never all that engaging.
3 Disliked: Starkiller Is Too Overpowered
This does not take away from how fun it is to control Starkiller as a character. From beginning to end, both of The Force Unleashed games are addicting and satisfying due to how much of a deadly force Starkiller is. At the same time, it is understandable why he was left out of the official canon of Star Wars.
Not only does he defeat a massive Sarlacc Pit on his own, but he also kills masters of the Jedi Order, he fights Darth Vader twice, fights the Emperor, takes on a massive kaiju on Cato Neimoidia, and famously pulls down an entire Star Destroyer. At that point, there would be no need for characters like the famous Luke Skywalker or Anakin because Starkiller would overpower them both.
2 Disliked: The Mocap Is A Little Awkward Sometimes
This is an issue that the sequel fixes, but, in the first game, the motion-capture performances really have not aged well. A lot of the expressions on character models tend to be exaggerated, which can lead to some cutscenes being unintentionally humorous.
Luckily, the actors are still giving stellar performances throughout, which prevents the Uncanny Valley effect from ruining it. Some could argue that this is to be expected from an older game, but, even around that time, a lot of other video games managed to do better expressions.
1 Disliked: The Sequel Was Too Short
It may have superior visuals, gameplay, and even better performances, but The Force Unleashed II was far too short. Overall, there are only five levels across the entire game and one of them is simply a repeat of the first one.
Apparently, the developers were rushed and, as a result, The Force Unleashed II ended up feeling like only the first third of a story instead of a complete game. The game can be beaten in less than four hours, which is criminal for a Star Wars game.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is available for PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PS2, and Nintendo Switch.
