Mark pulls one out of the sky...

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is fashioned, first and foremost, to make legions of sci-fi fans feel like a Jedi in the Galaxy Far, Far Away. And on that count it succeeds; possibly moreso than anything before it.

It's as empowering as games get: letting you liberally spray around Force Grip, Lightning and Push powers (amongst others) with the reckless Dark Side abandon you'd expect from Darth Vader's secret Sith apprentice. But only where the game tells you you can. And that's the biggest disappointment with an otherwise stellar fan service – the technology powering The Force Unleashed is at once liberating, and limiting.

Strictly come sabering

But at its best, The Force Unleashed is a dizzying dance of lightsaber-led melee combat and an ever-growing arsenal of satisfyingly potent Force powers, spread across planets all packing a feel you'd expect from Lucasarts' iconic IP.

Indeed, from the skyrise treehouses of Kashyyyk to imposing imperial construction yards, the dazzling fauna of Felucia, ramshackle debris-strewn junk planet Raxus Prime and beyond, The Force Unleashed evokes an eyecandy and atmosphere that's unmistakably Star Wars. That familiar themetune booms, yellow text scrawls across the star-studded sky, and suddenly you're there – exploring the era between the two film trilogies. Playing first as Vader and then as Starkiller, this tale of the Rebellion's beginnings will, for true Star Wars fans, be unmissable.

But The Force Unleashed doesn't succeed solely on its license. The core innovations create a toolset any action game would be proud to call its own; with Havok physics, Digital Molecular Matter and Euphoria giving the gameworld weight, momentum, breakability and as much believability as you can expect from a game featuring Wookies.

Let me en-lightning you

Pick up a boulder with the Force and smash it into an onrushing TIE Fighter to see sparks fly. Watch with glee as you dangle a panicked, flailing stormtrooper ten feet in the air – then hurl him through a window into the vacuum of space. Fry enemies with searing bolts of fingertip-propelled electricity and feel like the biggest badass around. It's about as far from the Jedi Code as it gets – and it's disturbingly fun to do, over and over again, until you've seen both endings.

Pleasingly, you only get more powerful as you progress. The Force Unleashed siphons through a Super Star Destroyer's worth of melee combos and Force powers, costumes and lightsaber crystals, plus neat little touches (we're pretty sure we know what happened to Jar Jar Binks after Episode III) and some impressively powerful foes – including fellow Force exponents, and some unerringly enormous monsters.

Sadly, it's these battles that bring about the biggest frustration with The Force Unleashed. Instead of unleashing the Force on a whim, boss battles end with a simple QTE. Facing Rancors, AT-ST's and rival Jedi should be amongst the game's most bombastic battles; but at the crucial climax, The Force Unleashed holds your hand. All that fancy tech isn't an ever-present, either; only certain objects will bend, break and explode as they should, shattering the illusion somewhat. Shame.

The 'Moon' and back

It's all a bit unbalanced as well. The Force Unleashed features temperamental auto-targeting which won't always pick the ideal enemy (kind of a cardinal sin in a short-range action game), and when later levels start throwing enemy snipers into the mix, you might find yourself wanting to Force Push your control pad into a wall.

Still, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed boasts a story, setting and style that fans will adore, and features enough lightsaber swinging, Force-slinging, interstellar superbeing fun to keep even the most avid action aficionados hooked to the brilliantly bitter-sweet ending and back again.

GAME's Verdict

• Makes good on its name: you'll feel like a real badass dark Jedi.
• Superb production values befitting a Star Wars title.
• Crackin' story, plus two endings ensuring replay value.

• QTEs take the edge off your Force-powered freedom.
• The physics-powered destruction isn't consistent across the gameworld.
• Annoying auto-targeting creates some imbalance - especially when the snipers start appearing.

Review by: Mark 'Light Side' Scott
Version Tested: PS3
Review Published: 01.10.08

"You don't know the power of the Mark side!"

'The Force Unleashed is a game about the Force', begins Activision's James Cathcart, 'This isn't purely about fighting with a lightsaber. It's designed to be exactly what the name says – a complete re-imagining of what the Force can do'.

He's not kidding. From the moment Lucasarts released the first video of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – showing a mysterious cloaked figure using the Force to bring down a hulking Imperial Star Destroyer – fans have marvelled at the possibility of wielding a power even Jedi Master Yoda himself could only dream of.

Dark Side abandon

The Force Unleashed doesn't start you out quite that powerful, but it certainly still makes good on its name. Giving you control of the saga's iconic villain, Darth Vader, you're soon striding imperiously across the spectacular-looking walkways of the Wookie homeworld Kashyyyk, wielding the Force to obliterate enormous gates, picking up boulders with a press of a button and slinging the planet's furball inhabitants casually to their doom with reckless Dark Side abandon. It's very, very good to be bad.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed takes place between the two film trilogies, in a time when the few remaining Jedi are scattered across the galaxy, hunted by the evil Galactic Empire, headed by Vader's master, the tyrannical Darth Sidious. The thing about the Sith, though, is that they always betray each other. So when Vader ends the level by finding a small boy with extraordinary Force powers, the besuited Sith takes the kid for his own, deciding to train little Starkiller as his Secret Apprentice in a bid to eventually overthrow the Emperor.

Fast forward a decade and the boy has become a man – and developed considerable power with the Dark Side of the Force. And so Vader decides to send him on his first of many tests – and the first of the game's many levels as the Secret Apprentice.

Secret Sith slaughter

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed begins proper in a Tie Fighter Manufacturing Facility overrun by Rebel troops, lead by the Jedi General Kota. As Vader's Dark Side minion, it's your job to take him out. Being a secret Sith, however, you have to slaughter everyone else in the factory too. Rebels, Stormtroopers; none can be left alive to tell of your exploits.

This provides your first chance to test out the Apprentice's own considerable Force prowess; and it's an utter joy to behold. Unlike the lumbering Vader, Starkiller sprints, leaps and quick-dashes (both on the ground and mid-air) energetically, but like his master he can bend steel doors with a swift Force Push, as well as pick up highlighted objects with the R Trigger Force Grip ability.

It's Force Grip that captures the imagination, especially when you run into your first batch of Stormtroopers. Pick them up, wave them around and they'll flail in comic fashion, scrambling desperately to find a purchase on something and even latching onto their comrades in their futile struggle to stay alive. It's perfectly conceivable to have several of them, all dangling daisy-chain-style over a precipice, and you'll laugh manically when you float them into the path of an oncoming Tie Fighter. This sandbox factor alone will delight Star Wars fans.

Old-skool design

And yet, The Force Unleashed also boasts a remarkably deep combat system. With unlockable Force powers like lightsaber throws, Lightning, Repulse and numerous saber combos (as well as novel costumes and blade colours to unlock), there's a world of choice. Linear and combat-driven as it is, The Force Unleashed ends up playing like a Star Wars take on Ninja Gaiden, with the wide variety of weapon styles replaced by a huge degree of choice in the way you use the Force.

It's an old-skool way of designing a game, which climaxes perfectly with each end-of-level boss battle. The first as the Apprentice sees you battling Kota in a room reminiscent of the location for the Count Dooku lightsaber duel in Revenge of the Sith, and proves an epic conflict with lightning-fast lightsaber parries, Force-powered projectiles and a spectacular QTE finish. It's a true fan service, this; there's never been a game that's made you feel like a Jedi in quite the way The Force Unleashed does.

And Kota is just the beginning. We played another two levels after that; the junk planet Raxus Prime and the colourful vegetative world Felucia – each with completely contrasting, but equally beautiful detail and their own iconic enemies, from cobbled-together junk monsters to colourful Rancors; culminating in increasingly tricky Jedi battles that really push your ever-growing arsenal of Force abilities.

Much has been said of The Force Unleashed being 'the greatest Star Wars game ever'. To fans that played Knights of The Old Republic that will seem a tough ask, but this is undoubtedly the most empowering, as well as visually astounding title that the series has yet seen. Add that to a compelling, twisty-turny story too, and Star Wars fans have every reason to be excited about unleashing the Force in just a few short weeks.

Preview by: Mark 'Sithspawn' Scott
Version Tested: Xbox 360
Preview Published: 05.09.09