Force Unleashed - is this a game at all?

I was watching the fight between Master Shaak Ti and the the Apprentice on YouTube, and I can not believe people actually make games out of stuff like this.

The fight basically consists of button-mashing the right button when told to. This will trigger a continuation of the cinematic. For example, the Jedi Master is jumping right onto the Apprentice from behind when he is not looking, you have to keep pressing the Triangle button in order to ensure that the Apprentice turns around and parries her.

This is not even a game. It's just a movie you are watching and the only concession to being called a game is that you have to press a button on the controller when told to do so. If they wanted to make a movie, why didn't they simply make one?

See, I was just watching the cutscenes of the game on YouTube and they apparently add up to a freaking 60 minutes. OK, it's shorter than Metal Gear Solid, but 60 minutes of cutscenes is an ostentatious lot. And if you watch that stuff, it's actually quite long.

TBH, I was enjoying watching those cutscenes quite alot. I mean, they had good voicing, well-made set pieces and what not. There's alot of work put into all of it, with a long bit dedicated to showing the pilot's background through the droid's hologram projector, stuff barely relevant to the actual game. That's where they put all their effort. They wanted to make a movie. Not a game. So why do developers do this? I am not going to pay full price just to watch a bunch of cutscenes. I can do that on YouTube anyway. So what's the point of all this?

 

Not having a Gruelbox/PS3 and not willing to buy the Wii version, my only experience with the game is the DS version.
When you beat the first real boss, the old Jedi master guy, he backs away to a window and... topples backwards over the ledge and falls downwards.
We were in a spaceship. In space.

I don't know. I really don't.

 

Here's a wierd thing. I just saw all 60 minutes of those cinematics.

Here's the new dimension to the Star Wars storyline. The Rebel Alliance is a creation of the Empire itself. Vader and The Emperor wanted to root out dissidents, and thus secretly forged the Rebel Alliance with their own insiders, so as to capture those guys. Wow. That kinda sucks, though it is a pretty creative. It's just that there is only so much contrived shooting yourself on the foot you can do so as to capture your enemies as a part of a bigger plan.

And the Darkside ending is completely out of the goddamn canon. You know what happens? Vader dies, and the Apprentice is physically destroyed. Then he...is put into a suit? A machine suit. Like Vader's.

The lightside ending...are you telling me this guy is strong enough to defeat both the Emperor and Vader in battle? That's exactly what he does. Of course, since this one had to be the canon ending, he lets Vader and the Emperor live. Apparently, he dies holding back the Force Lightning Of The Emperor Himself, a noble sacrifice, you know. But it's just blown out of proportion if this guy was stronger than two of the strongest Force users in Star Wars canon of that era.

But the final cinematic to the lightside ending...it was actually not bad. It ends with his love interest looking in the sky, mourning his death. She is told by a Jedi Master that the only bit of goodness in him was just because of her. And then, the people continue the Rebel Alliance, holding the Apprentice as their symbolic martyr, and the forefront of their revolution.

I would say that this game had a way better story than KotOR did.

 

It's been around for a long time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_lair

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenmue

 

I wish Roger Ebert was there to berate game designer's attempts at making their own virtual B-movies. I fully support his good fight in saying that games are not art.

 

Generally speaking, Roger Ebert is correct, but he never played Torment. He is also a pseudointellectual with crappy taste in movies and a total douchebag.

 

No, "press the button shown to you" minigame is only a final of the battle, before that you must defeat your opponent in normal battle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TznhKrDJfZc

Maybe you will, like, play this game before posting such rants?

 

No. This would be no way to get kul points of prestigious rpg codex magazine.

 

And he would have to fess up to owning a kids console.

 

What is art?

 

Art is a load of pretentious shit.

I'm glad games aren't art.

 

I'm sure Michelangelo was just trying to get laid. No way he was inspired to enshrine the less tangible realms of the human experience or anything.

 

Art is for niggers.

 

He doesn't really defeat the Emperor. Palpatine is obviously pretending to be defeated to turn him to the Dark Side (a few moments later, he is perfectly able to unleash his lightning... and he survives the explosion).

As for Vader, if I remember the RotS novel correctly (one of the few SW novels I've read and surprisingly decent), his cyborg body has severely crippled his ability to use the Force. Don't know how canon that is since Lucas seems to treat all of the novels as fanfiction anyway.

The cutscenes are pretty good and I liked the LS ending too, but it didn't inspire me with any desire to actually play the game.

 

As a pretty huge Star Wars fan, I wouldn't take the RotS novelization as anything close to canon. Then again, I don't accept the first three movies(the new ones) as 'canon.' Lucas considers all of novels to be a bunch of crap, but most fans seem to accept pretty much anything by Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole, or Keven J. Anderson to be as good as canon.

I personally don't think that Darth Vader's ability to use the force would be at all inhibited by his cybernetic armor. The armor sith lords wear is actually a personal force imbued artifact according to the roleplaying setting and many authors, and holds a lot of the significance that a lightsaber does.

 

But Vader's armour isn't imbued with the force, or is it? I believe that midichlorians or not, the Force is supposed to be linked to life, so being physically diminished by losing large parts of his body may very well have reduced his abilities. I didn't read the book, but maybe Erebus was referring to this rather than the suit itself restricting Vader.

 

The actual button timing thing is what you do to finish the boss off - think of it as a fatality from Mortal Kombat, if you want. You still have to beat the actual boss before that.

Also, I found the game fun. It wasn't deep, it wasn't intellectual, but it was entertaining.

-Codex Points

 

Wasn't he doing service for the church to pay off his sin of homosexuality? So quite literally, yeah he was doing it so he could get laid... by guys.

 

It's actually very close to the movie, but it develops psychological elements much better, makes Anakin's fall more believable and is, to be blunt, more intelligent. Not that I disliked the movie (as opposed to the previous two) : it was full of impressive, entertaining and powerful moments.

As Claw suggested, I meant the fact that his four limbs (and I guess some of his organs) had become mechanical. The author linked the ability to use the Force with physical integrity. It is quite possible Lucas does not agree with the idea (even though it kinda fits with his stupid midi-chlorians).

 

By that argument you may as well say that yoda should be weak in the force because he is small.

 

Where do you people get this stuff?

 

And wouldn't that be a logical consequence of midi-chlorians ?
But what I meant is that losing some parts of your organic body decreases your ability to use the Force (yes, I know that Luke doesn't seem affected by losing a hand, but the hand is after all not a large part of the human body).

Anyway, this discussion is mostly futile. What somebody can do with the Force isn't really consistent in the SW universe. The powers it grants are certainly more impressive in the more recent movies than in the original trilogy (mostly because of real-world technological evolution, one can assume). In the Clone War cartoon series, the Force is shown having devastating effects. And in one of the cutscenes from the Force Unleashed, we see Starkiller bring a galactic cruiser to the ground...

 

It's sad that it's used often enough to have a term as a game design element (QTE):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_Time_Event

I've heard that he was gay/bi as well (from high school Art teacher, if memory serves...).
Same with Rocksteady and Be-bop.

 

This is the Codex, girl. One quarter is obscure fact, one quarter is delussion, and the remaining half is something Brother Coyote told them during their last LSD journey.