It’s the 4th of May, 2023, which means Star Wars Day that is kicked off with a review of LucasArts/Aspyr‘s bombastic action game The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition.

The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition (PC)
(USA 2009, developer: LucasArts (defunct)/Aspyr, publishers: LucasArts (defunct)/Disney), platforms: PC, Nintendo DS, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch, iOS)

After Darth Vader kills his father, Jedi Master Kento Marek, young boy Galen is raised by the Sith Lord as “Starkiller” in order to bring down the Emperor.

A different and familiar kind of story
The Star Wars universe has seen its fair share of stories running side by side the original trilogy and prequels, often doing a balancing act on how much the canon can be changed. Here one experiences a plot that doesn’t make a lot of sense the further it develops. Of course not everything is as simple as it appears, but even with later twists, the baffling ending makes one wonder if George Lucas really knew what was going on behind his back.

If one doesn’t think too much about Darth Vader’s questionable introduction of a second apprentice and his strange sentiments towards the Emperor and one takes the alternative origin story of the Rebellion with a pinch of salt, then one can experience an engaging storyline. Starkiller is far from charismatic or memorable compared to Kyle Katarn or Mara Jade in Jedi Knight – Dark Forces II and Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, but the other characters helping him on his mission are more fun: sassy imperial pilot Juno Eclipse, prototype holodroid PROXY, and disillusioned ex-Jedi General Rahm Kota. Their witty conversation pieces are welcome in a story that sometimes takes itself a bit too seriously.

Fan service
Fans are served well with meeting Princess Leia Organa, her father Bail Organa, R2-D2, or some jedis from Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones, including a short cameo of Darth Maul. Of course Darth Vader and the Emperor play a much more important role not only in the development of the story, but of Starkiller himself. Fighting both is probably something many people have wished for for a very long time. This is also true for playing as Lord Vader in the very first minutes of the game, as one delivers powerful blows either by using the Dark Force or lightsaber.

Meeting all these characters might be a dream come true for long-time fans of the movies, but it often feels as if the developers tried to somehow squeeze them in just for the sake of it. This becomes especially true for the 3 DLCs in the Ultimate Sith Edition (more about this later). The various locations one visits are also a best-of of settings, e.g. the impressively-looking city in the clouds Bespin or seeing the Sarlak pit on the planet Tatooine and even walking around the mighty Death Star.

Mission objective control
Mission objectives are varied and mostly clear, even if there are navigational problems in levels. While one does a lot of repetitive fighting, there’s a bit of light puzzle solving with the use of the Force to mix things up, too. One can argue that these sometimes stop the flow of the action by moving platforms or other objects around in a rather clunky way. But it’s still a nice change of pace.

Some bonus objectives are often fun to complete (e.g. killing 3 Rancors), if not for the additional power points as rewards. Unfortunately not every level is great, e.g. with one being particularly tedious, as one has to constantly evade a tractor beam. This requires long waiting times and fast running that becomes tiresome and rather annoying very soon.

May the Force powers be with you
Of course a Star Wars game wouldn’t be complete without the Force playing a big part in it, and while the Jedi Knight games did it first, the results in The Force Unleashed are much more spectacular, at times even too over-the-top. Throwing huge doors open, catapulting multiple stormtroopers off platforms or against each other pales in comparison to destroying windows in a star destroyer to have enemies sucked out into space. The biggest highlight is without doubt pulling down a star destroyer which is sadly a very fiddly and clunky control affair, but impressive nonetheless if one pulls it off (pun intended).

Force powers can all be upgraded by investing different points into each skill which are gained by destroying objects, defeating enemies, or sometimes picking up big shiny cubes. It’s possible to reset all skill points, but this costs one of them, so one should choose the ones that are the most useful with one’s play style.

May the different lightsabers be with you
The lightsaber makes an appearance as well, and in addition to many special attack or combo moves that can be unlocked, one can even find different colored parts of it that offer various perks, e.g. accumulating more experience points or draining health from enemies. However, with the force powers allowing Starkiller to hit multiple targets or even mind control them to fight each other, investing in lightsaber skills isn’t as rewarding as putting them somewhere else.

May the bugs and frustration leave you
While this all sounds like the perfect Star Wars title in terms of gameplay, there are quite a few problems to prevent it from becoming a classic: unfair checkpoints and chaotic camera movements. Even more frustration literally comes from all sides when enemies attack without the player knowing what hit them or from where (something that seems to be a recurring problem with many action-adventures). Boss fights are often very chaotic, too, and as the finishing moves usually involve QTEs, quick reflexes instead of sound strategies are required to survive.

The PC port brings its own problems in form of bugs, e.g. missing sound and music (or having a very low volume in either case), a few system crashes and even a boss enemy falling through the ground, making a restart necessary.

Good graphics and sound you must have, yes
Graphically, the game looks quite good, even though the well-done CGI sequences fare better than the in-game visuals due to some rather muddy textures. The backgrounds are impressive, especially the open spaces, as can be seen with the city in the clouds, while the ragdoll effects on enemies add to some unintentional fun. As is to be expected from a licensed Star Wars game, the attention to detail when it comes to starships or stormtrooper designs stays true to the original.

This also holds true for the great sound design which features the timeless John Williams theme and other original Star Wars tunes. Add the iconic pew-pew or lightsaber sounds and top it all off with convincing voice acting, and there isn’t much to complain about.

DLC fan service
The Ultimate Sith Edition includes 3 story DLCs (Jedi Temple, Tatooine, Hoth), and it’s clear that these feel obviously more like fan service than the main game. They don’t add much to the storyline and don’t really work as self-contained plots, serving more like 1 hour fillers that reward players with a certain deja vu… or maybe a WTF moment. This becomes apparent in Tatooine and Hoth, as one ends up fighting Boba-Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Luke Skywalker. It doesn’t make a lot of sense and the fights are just as chaotic and frustrating than in the original game.

This isn’t to say that the DLCs don’t have their merits. In Tatooine, one walks through Jabba’s palace (complete with the droid torture chamber), meets the alien kingpin himself, fights his pig guards and the Rancor (after questionably mowing down scores of Jawas and kicking down a sandcrawler with the Force). In Hoth, one kills more than one Wampa ice creature in a cave and then enters the rebel base, all the while seeing the Empire attack outside with their AT-ATs and various Rebel aircraft taking off from hangars.

Jedi Temple is a different story, as it offers players the chance to explore a setting that isn’t as well known, and while the outside looks impressive with some huge statues guarding the entrance and one sees a vast city backdrop, the interior isn’t that interesting, with only a Jedi training chamber featuring droids that evokes a bit of awe.

DLC mission objective control
The mission design in all DLCs isn’t particularly noteworthy, probably because they only last about 1 hour. What sticks out rather sadly are some very annoying disappearing platforms that have to be traversed in Jedi Temple, while camera roblems can be found especially in the other two because of the very small spaces in which one fights too many enemies.

As it has already been said, story-wise, none of the DLCs works quite well, as there isn’t much of plot or character development, so one doesn’t really miss out on anything special. Even the inclusion of various hero cameos plays with the movies’ canon a bit too deliberately without adding much to it, which can be seen with each DLC’s unsatisfying and abrupt endings (after their promising iconic Star Wars scroll-down letter intros).

A tour de force of a different kind
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition should be a dream come true for any fan of the sci-fi saga, as it allows players to wreak havoc among enemies with destructive Force powers. Some spectactular cut-scenes, the glorious soundtrack, and good voice acting are all indicative of a great experience.

However, frustrating (boss) fights and the checkpoint system prevent it to be more accessible, while a few technical problems could have been fixed, too. It’s probably the story and characters that won’t be to everyone’s liking, as the game dabbles a bit too much in fan fiction territory, which can also be said about the DLCs that offer a few short episodes of just around 1 hour each without any lasting impression. Still, as a hack-and-slash game with RPG elements, it’s a lot of fun for everyone who can overlook the narrative and gameplay problems during its 9 hours playtime.

Score: 7/10

Buy the digital PC version on
GOG
Steam

Buy the retail version for PC on
Amazon Germany
Amazon UK (import)
Amazon USA

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