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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed | 
| From: Lucas Arts Entertainment
Category: Video Games
List Price: $59.99
Buy Used: $34.96
You Save: $25.03 (42%)
Rating:  143 reviews
Sales Rank: 98
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: adventure_games
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Xbox 360
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 33276
Model: 32761
UPC: 023272332761
EAN: 0023272332761
ASIN: B000R0URCE
Release Date: September 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Game works perfect. Includes original manual, case, and artwork. Satisfaction Guaranteed!
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| Features:
| ⋅ | Confront and associate with familiar faces from the Star Wars films, including Darth Vader in addition to new adversaries such as fugitive Jedi and Force-sensitive Felucians | | ⋅ | Unleash and upgrade the Secret Apprentice's four core Force powers - Force push, grip, repulse and lightning - throughout the course of the game, and combine them for ultra-destructive, never-before-seen combos. | | ⋅ | Examples of unleashing the Force in ways never thought possible: Secret Apprentice won't just Force push enemies into walls - he'll Force push enemies through walls, and will Force grip them in midair, zap them with lightning, then drop them to the ground | | ⋅ | Visit locations such as Episode III's Wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk and the floral Felucia, the junk planet Raxus Prime, plus an Imperial TIE fighter construction facility | | ⋅ | Decisions made by players throughout the game will determine the path of the story, including multiple endings that will rock Star Wars continuity as they know it. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
The Star Wars saga will continue in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a videogame developed by LucasArts, which casts players as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice" and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy. The expansive story, created under direction from George Lucas, is set during the largely unexplored era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. In it, players will assist the iconic villain in his quest to rid the universe of Jedi - and face decisions that could change the course of their destiny.
Join the Dark Side |
You are Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice
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Use The Force to disable your enemies
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Artwork of the Jedi "Maris"
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As its name implies, The Force Unleashed completely re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force by taking full advantage of newly developed technologies that will be seen and experienced for the first time: Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), by Pixelux Entertainment, and euphoria by NaturalMotion Ltd. Paired with the powerful Havok Physics™ system, these new technologies create gameplay only possible on the new generation of consoles. DMM incorporates the physical properties of anything in the environment so that everything reacts exactly like it should - wood breaks like wood, glass shatters like glass, plants on the planet Felucia bend like plants on the planet Felucia would, and more. Meanwhile, as a revolutionary behavioral-simulation engine, euphoria enables interactive characters to move, act and even think like actual human beings, adapting their behavior on the fly and resulting in a different payoff every single time.
Game Features:- During the period between Episodes III and IV, players hunt Jedi in the role of Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice.
- Unleash and upgrade the Secret Apprentice's four core Force powers - Force push, grip, repulse and lightning - throughout the course of the game, and combine them for ultra-destructive, never-before-seen combos.
- Examples of unleashing the Force in ways never thought possible:
- The Secret Apprentice won't just Force push enemies into walls - he'll Force push enemies through walls.
- The Secret Apprentice won't just Force grip foes to throw them aside - he'll Force grip them in midair, zap them with lightning, then drop them to the ground to explode like a bomb.
- In addition to new adversaries created just for the game, such as fugitive Jedi and Force-sensitive Felucians, players will also confront and associate with familiar faces from the Star Wars films, including Darth Vader.
- Visit locations such as Episode III's Wookiee homeworld Kashyyyk and the floral Felucia, the junk planet Raxus Prime, plus an Imperial TIE fighter construction facility.
- The Force Unleashed is LucasArts' first internally developed title for next-generation consoles, and it represents the first in-game collaboration of talents and technology between LucasArts and Industrial Light & Magic, two companies now finally under one roof at the new Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco's Presidio district.
- The Force Unleashed debuts Digital Molecular Matter from Pixelux and euphoria behavioral simulation from NaturalMotion Ltd.
- LucasArts is preparing an unprecedented promotional effort around the launch of The Force Unleashed, encompassing a full line of toys and game-based action figures from Hasbro, as well as a full publishing program from Dark Horse, Del Rey and Palace Press.
Meet the Cast
The Star Wars Saga will continue in 2008 with LucasArts' biggest-ever video game event. Set during the "dark times" between Episodes III and IV, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed portrays the previously untold story of Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice -- and now you can put a face to that mysterious character as well as the major supporting cast members as LucasArts unveils the actors set to star in The Force Unleashed. The New Technology of The Force Unleashed
With The Force Unleashed, LucasArts not only introduces a new chapter in the Star Wars saga, but also two completely new and innovative technologies -- Digital Molecular Matter by Pixelux Entertainment and euphoria by NaturalMotion Ltd. These groundbreaking technologies combine with Havoc physics to create true next-gen gameplay and the Force like it's never been seen or experienced before.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 138 more reviews...
 Star Wars Money Well Spent! November 28, 2008
Ben
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
While some people may say that this game is glitchy, I don't know what they are talking about. This game works perfectly. The levels never get old and it is always fun to push the stormtroopers around. The only thing I will criticize is the difficulty level you chose. I always pick the lowest one because if you try higher difficulty then the people your fighting don't get harder, your health just goes down faster than with the lower difficulty. But still this the most fun of the Star Wars games. I cant wait to throw the stormtroopers around more so I'm cutting this short. I highly recommend this game. You will not be sorry if you buy this.
Lucas get it right! November 28, 2008
Strategos (In Space above Planet Earth)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
People have been playing at jedi knight ever since Luke Skywalker turned on his father's light-saber. Unfortunately though, making the experience as fluid and seamless (and fun) as the movies has been a long, frustrating, uphill climb. We've had the arrow-guided light-saber blocking of Star Wars Arcade, simplistic slashing and complex force-power selection of Dark Forces: Jedi Knight and its sequels. We've had the arcade side-scrolling insane difficulty of Jedi Power Battles and the platforming, boss-battling battling of Revenge of the Sith (which was actually pretty good). But not until now have we finally gotten the kind of seamless control of the force that we always knew was possible, the effortless execution of insane tricks that make you feel like you're right in the middle of an awesome Star Wars movie.
The story of the game picks up where Revenge of the Sith left off, with Vader going about the galaxy hunting down the last of the Jedi for the Emperor, when he happens upon a child with great force ability, and decides to make him into his secret apprentice. From there the game a game of chase-the-jedi (and mow-down anyone who gets in your way), and second-guess Vader as he repeated tries to kill you while you carry out your mission to infiltrate (and destroy?) the rebel leaders, to distract the Emperor and give you a chance to attack him with Vader. Since there isn't supposed to be anyone with force powers roaming the galaxy other than Vader and the Emperor (as far as the Empire is concerned), you can't let any Imperial see you alive. What all that means is, basically just about EVERYONE in this game is your enemy at some point, except for the hot pilot Juno and your trusty droid pal Proxy (and while he's your pal, he still tries to kill you every chance he gets).
The real meat of the game of course, is not the story. A lot of emphasis has justly been placed on the physics in this game, as it is an attempt to shake up the boring action genre by having enemies that behave realistically (within the dictates of fictional physics). So yes, the storm-troopers fly and smack into things when you force-push them, twitch when you zap them with force-lightning, and in general behave fairly intelligently. Of course, ultimately, everything in this game is fodder for your light-saber, so all that is just a little extra immersion factor, complemented by enemies who in later levels attack you relentlessly and can't be pushed around with the force (they have energy shields, ect).
In an action game what matters is quite simple. Beautiful graphics, music that doesn't get irritating (because you're going to play the same levels over and over), awesome bosses, non-stop action, and fun gameplay (with some cool extras thrown in for good measure). For the most part, this game delivers in every way. Presentation is top-notch, with slick menus, intuitive controls, neat cut-scenes, and graphics that push the system about as far as it will go. The light-saber effects, explosions, laser-fire, and throwing things around with the force all work splendidly. There is some frame-rate drop here and there, but most action fans are used to that. Load times are minimal, people look great from a distance. I'm thinking that the 360 at this point has just about reached the edge of the uncanny valley, to the point where people ALMOST look like the jaw-dropping Squaresoft pre-renders that is the ultimate goal, but are still a little freaky-eyed zombie-looking if you zoom in too close. Darn good on-the-fly rendered of people in the cut-scenes, but not quite Advent Children. Yet.
The original music for this game is so good I got a little irritated when I heard old Star Wars music from the movies later in the game. I'm actually thinking about a soundtrack purchase. Maybe. Also, like any good action game the extras keep you coming back as you unlock light-sabers, costumes, and awesome concept art. Multiple difficulty levels and power-unlocks as you go as encourage multiple play-throughs as you chase after that maximum difficulty play-through looking as awesome as you possibly can (that's what I go for anyway).
The actual gameplay is very close to as good as an action game can get. It looks like Lucas learned a great deal from a few play-throughs of my favorite action games, Advent Rising and Tomb Raider Legend. You have only one button for melee attacks, camera and object control mapped to sticks, and lift controlled with the right trigger. Force push and lightning are mapped to B and Y respectively, the left bumper is dash (you cannot change the control setup). You also get to combine your powers (infuse your light-saber with lightning), and thank the maker, automatic autosave. The biggest difference between this and other action games (and the Jedi Knight games) is that the developer seemed to be scared of any kind of weapon select menu, instead giving you the left-trigger combined with button presses for ultimate attacks (lightning shield, force repulse, and throw light-saber, and both triggers for a massive force grip on multiple objects), and lots and lots of combos to memorize or accidentally hit.
For the most part, this system of control works great with the heavily-action-oriented gameplay. You'll be flinging storm-troopers with the force, blasting them through walls, and slicing them with your light-saber like dearth-maul on cola-jolt in no time. There is a slight-frustration curve, as your powers are pretty weak to start with, and take too long to charge, and (worst of all) don't do all that much damage. The first thing you should level up (in my opinion) is your light-saber, as using it normally takes no force points at all, and your force points recharge with time. You are almost penalized in this game for standing still, as your health-bar is recharged by destroying enemies (we've seen this action game gimmick before but it works well here). The level design is also carefully tailored most of the time to keep you moving forward. There's even an arrow on the mini-map display which points you in the right direction 90% of the time. The only thing that really detracts from all this is a few poorly done puzzles and action elements (and upgrade choices).
One thing that Advent Rising really had down was the level design that kept you moving FORWARD and never let you get stuck wondering where the heck to go to next. A few sections of the Force Unleashed do exactly that, letting you wander in circles until you realize you need to force-lift something BEHIND the shield wall to bring it down, and after getting knocked down three floors you need to go up those flights of stairs AGAIN. These moments are infrequent, but they do intrude upon the flow. Large enemies are taken down with those famous GOW-Tomb Raider Legend button pressing cut-scenes. The take-downs of the bosses are awesome, but they do take you out of the game momentarily, and far more than momentarily if you have to keep doing them over and over to get past a segment you keep barely missing. Personally, I liked them as an end to a defeated boss at the end of each level, but would have rather cut the AT-STs in half myself rather than pushing buttons in time to watch a cut-scene (I don't mind hitting X a thousand times to break a saber lock either). Only you can say whether you love or hate the button pressing cut-scenes.
It's also worth mentioning that that totally awesome bring-the-Star-Destroyer-down-with-the-force scene actually happens in the game, but the execution stumbles like a drunk monkey. A bunch of tie fighters come out of the thing and you have to destroy them, with no idea how you're supposed to proceed. You can force grab them, but only for a split-second before they are out of range. You can force throw floating debris at them, but it only comes by once every 30 seconds. You you can do what I did and just stand in one spot and wait for them to be in range for that split second, at which point you throw lightning at them, and having missed, wait 30 seconds for them to come around again, at which point you throw lightning again. Yuck. Pretty much every enemy in this game goes wherever it wants whenever it wants. Why in the name of all that is Star Wars do those tie-fighters just fly around in a loop?! That's bad enough, but after that, when you grab the Star Destroyer and drag it down, the tie fighters attack again, forcing you to let go. You now have about one minute to destroy them all before the Star Destroyer moves back to exactly where it was before you grabbed it. Wonderful. You managed to make one of the coolest parts of the game frustrating and REPETITIVE! The same thing goes for the final level in the laser system of the Death Star. In a game with this much action, putting a timed puzzle in the way is not a good thing (move the focusing lenses one at a time with the force, then run and jump through before the next laser blast. ARGH!)
For the most part I like this game. It was never so easy to look so cool. From the Apprentice's reverse light-saber hold (he holds it upside down so it's behind his back when he doesn't use it), to the awesome auto-deflection of blaser-bolts when you level it up, and the effortless pulling off of combo after combo between swings of your trusty saber, ending in a flourish of light or a battle-camera cinematic, this game is fun, fun fun. All of the duels with jedi are outstanding (with the battle with Proxy as every jedi you've fought so far being my favorite). With a little more polish in the design department (powers should auto-level up according to usage, you should not have to choose them right in the middle of the action of a level without the option to do so between levels, the aforementioned issues) this game could have been flawless in execution. It also could have been a little longer in length, but short and sweet is fine by me. If you like Star Wars or action games, give this game a rent. Now if they would just make more games like this based on the expanded Star Wars universe of the books I'd be all set.
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