Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360)

There is a long tradition of mediocre-to-bad Star Wars games, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed happily carries that tradition on. In this one, there’s a twist: you play as the bad guy. Specifically, Darth Vader’s “secret apprentice”, as played by Battlestar Galactica’s lovely Sam Witwer. Set in that fun twenty years between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, you rampage around alien worlds and hunt down Jedi that escaped the Emperor’s purge.

And, while this game certainly looks good, it plays like crap. Force powers are all mapped to individual buttons, which is good, but trying to use them is a crapshoot. Throwing objects/people around requires manipulation of the thumbsticks, and often that results in it flying off in a direction you didn’t intend. Platforming sections are also awkward, and if you fight an enemy near a ledge you have a 50/50 shot of getting thrown off a ledge and dying.

Then there’s the fact that the game itself is buggy as hell. There is no lack of large metal doors that block your progress, so you have to throw stuff at them to bash them open. Which, aside from being a pointless attempt to make the game longer by stopping your progress, often requires you to bash them over and over in the hopes that this time, it’ll actually open the door the extra inch you need to slip through. Why you can’t just cut the doors with your lightsaber, I don’t know.

Overall there’s no point to playing this game. It’s just another crappy Star Wars cash-in, with a ridiculous plot and dull, uninspired gameplay. Skip it.

2 out of 5