STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED review for Nintendo DS
! February 14, 2013
n-Space is a developer that gets close to being something great, but never quite succeeds.
Last year they released the Diablo-esque Heroes of Ruin, which was close to being big, but NOT. They also released Skylanders Giants for the 3DS, which was nice, but still leaves something to be desired. It seems like n-Space tries to make a very good effort on their games, but it doesn’t live up to standards or the hype. Although n-Space’s Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is flawed, it is still a fun game for your DS.
The story for The Force Unleashed is the main attraction of this game. Darth Vader finds you as a boy and you are the unnamed apprentice of the Disney villain himself. As his apprentice you go to different planets and places to hunt Jedi and please your master so you and he can kill the emperor. After that you – SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER – and now you are ready for the sequel.
The gameplay of The Force Unleashed is that of an action game where you go through a linear 3D environment and beat your enemies to a pulp. The top part of the DS’s screen is where the main screen is, and the touch screen is used for all the attacks. This makes it really easy to pull off combos as you just slide one attack with another. However, a lot of the moves and combos are lesser than others; so expect that you won’t be using a light saber throw. The more practical way to kill your enemies is actually just hitting them with your light saber. There is also a skill bar that increases certain attacks but all and all the controls aren’t anything special.
Other disappointing features include not being able to go and replay levels once you complete them. To play them again you have to play through the story mode again. The boss battles are pretty boring as well. I played this game for a good 30 hours in total, and I think only less than half a dozen times did I die from bosses. There is also a multiplayer part to this game, but good luck finding someone who bought the DS version!
On the bright side of things though, this game does succeed in keeping the main story intact with models that resemble the characters. This is also the only other version besides the one on Wii that lets you go around in your ship “the rouge shadow”, where you can change your outfit and the colour of your light saber. The music, as with almost all Star Wars games, is great as well, however, the sound echoes sometimes, as if recorded over.
n-Space has yet to create an excellent game, but as a budget game developer for ports, they do a good job with The Force Unleashed. It’s bad sometimes, but really this isn’t something to not touch with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole. This is a fine game if you’re going the bargain route.
