Monday
Aug182008
Super Colliding Super Fun
It's probably too early to tell, but so far the brief glimpse that is the Star Wars: The Force Unleased demo has proven to be startling promising. LucasArts over the past few years has consistently reanimated the dead horse that is the Star Wars franchise only to beat back into its blue ghost of a form. In fact the last game I can remember enjoying from George Lucas's epic sci-fantasy-verse I credit more to the magic men at Bioware than once great and former LucasArts. So needless to say I was skeptical about Thursday's demo release of SWTFU (shut "way?" the...nevermind). And I can honestly say I've never been so happy to be pleasantly surprised by what LucasArts has managed to provide, even in its small, sushi bite of a 10 minute demo.
I don't think you can pay game mechanics a bigger complement than when you replay a game simply to fool around and see what you can do with the tools provided. I immediately restarted the demo after finishing the first time just to see how much I could dent the surprisingly realistic metal panels on the walls. And while the physics and materials simulation work incredibly well (it ain't half bad to look at either) I think what really grabbed me about the demo was how many times I experienced what I like to refer to as "dude!.." moments. There were several times where I not only experienced something incredibly cool, but I felt as if what my character was doing was exactly what I would do if I were a kick-butt dark jedi on the force equivalent of shark testosterone. For example, I was strolling down a hallway when a stormtrooper jumped out from behind an SCSB (Super Colliding Super Barrel) and began rushing me. Rather than hacking him with my saber, I force grabbed the SCSB and pulled it toward me. The stormtrooper got nailed in the back just as he was right in front of me and went flying by, pinned to SCSB and barely missing my character's left side. Dude!...
Of course, as with all games there are some nits to pick off and toss and the angry crowd of Lucas-haters and Star Trek fans. The combat did feel repetitive, though the leveling system may overcome this by adding some cool moves and powers to the Apprentice's arsenal. The camera worked, but sometimes I felt like it was considering asking the camera from Too Human out on a date. The auto targeting also was a bit wonky, especially when trying to hurl Tie Fighters while instead simply throwing the shards of a recently exploded SCSB. And we really haven't seen much of game, so there's still plenty of room for LucasArts to prove its recent consistency with this franchise. Whatever the case, the game is at least looking to be one of the more fun uses of the Star Wars property that I've seen since a long, long time ago. And maybe if they let us unleash some force on an army of Gungans...
SWTFU (how did no one catch that) is due out in the States on September 16 for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, DS, N-Gage, 3DO, Super Famicon, and Commodore 64. (not really those last ones, but really on N-Gage...why?)
I don't think you can pay game mechanics a bigger complement than when you replay a game simply to fool around and see what you can do with the tools provided. I immediately restarted the demo after finishing the first time just to see how much I could dent the surprisingly realistic metal panels on the walls. And while the physics and materials simulation work incredibly well (it ain't half bad to look at either) I think what really grabbed me about the demo was how many times I experienced what I like to refer to as "dude!.." moments. There were several times where I not only experienced something incredibly cool, but I felt as if what my character was doing was exactly what I would do if I were a kick-butt dark jedi on the force equivalent of shark testosterone. For example, I was strolling down a hallway when a stormtrooper jumped out from behind an SCSB (Super Colliding Super Barrel) and began rushing me. Rather than hacking him with my saber, I force grabbed the SCSB and pulled it toward me. The stormtrooper got nailed in the back just as he was right in front of me and went flying by, pinned to SCSB and barely missing my character's left side. Dude!...Of course, as with all games there are some nits to pick off and toss and the angry crowd of Lucas-haters and Star Trek fans. The combat did feel repetitive, though the leveling system may overcome this by adding some cool moves and powers to the Apprentice's arsenal. The camera worked, but sometimes I felt like it was considering asking the camera from Too Human out on a date. The auto targeting also was a bit wonky, especially when trying to hurl Tie Fighters while instead simply throwing the shards of a recently exploded SCSB. And we really haven't seen much of game, so there's still plenty of room for LucasArts to prove its recent consistency with this franchise. Whatever the case, the game is at least looking to be one of the more fun uses of the Star Wars property that I've seen since a long, long time ago. And maybe if they let us unleash some force on an army of Gungans...
SWTFU (how did no one catch that) is due out in the States on September 16 for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, DS, N-Gage, 3DO, Super Famicon, and Commodore 64. (not really those last ones, but really on N-Gage...why?)
Dustin Anglin
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