Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

77%
Game Brain Score Based on 148 reviews
  • story
  • graphics
  • gameplay
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Game Cover
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed still provides a highly entertaining experience despite its few issues, and the Switch port does a great job of bringing the stellar title to newer audiences.

"Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" is a single-player action game with an interesting plot, where you play as Starkiller, Darth Vader's secret apprentice, tasked with hunting down and destroying the Jedi. The game boasts awesome visuals and motion controls using the Joy-Con, allowing you to experience the full Force and lightsaber combat. Additionally, it offers a local multiplayer mode with 27 characters to determine the galaxy's most powerful Jedi, and lets you defeat Jedi Masters on iconic Star Wars planets like Cloud City and Kashyyyk.

  • Nintendo Switch
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

77%
Audience ScoreBased on 148 reviews
story31 positive mentions
grinding2 negative mentions
  • Engaging story and excellent voice acting that brings the Star Wars universe to life.
  • Fun gameplay that allows players to use a variety of force powers and lightsaber techniques, providing a satisfying combat experience.
  • Visually appealing graphics and environments, especially for a game of its age, with some impressive art direction.
  • Frustrating targeting and camera issues that can detract from the overall gameplay experience.
  • Repetitive combat and simplistic level design that may lead to a lack of long-term engagement.
  • Frequent quick time events and glitches that can disrupt the flow of the game and lead to frustrating moments.
  • story68 mentions

    The game's story is generally well-received, featuring an engaging narrative centered around Darth Vader's apprentice, Starkiller, and the origins of the Rebel Alliance, with strong character backstories and voice acting. However, many reviewers criticize the linearity and brevity of the missions, noting that the overall plot feels underdeveloped and lacks depth in certain character relationships. While the visuals and interactive elements enhance the experience, some players feel the gameplay does not fully support the story's potential, leading to a somewhat disjointed experience.

    • “With beautiful visuals, fantastic story, great character backstory and depth.”
    • “The story is well written, and fits very nicely into the Star Wars canon.”
    • “The engaging story and excellent voice work help bring it to life, despite the slightly dated graphics and relatively simple gameplay.”
    • “From a story standpoint and a role-playing standpoint, that's very underwhelming.”
    • “The whole game feels more like a group of brief individual missions strung together with a few cinematics than it does a full-fledged story... far too short.”
    • “There's also not enough cinematic time to develop the sub-stories that the overall plot raises.”
  • graphics34 mentions

    The graphics of the game are generally praised for their quality and visual appeal, with many reviewers noting stunning visuals and impressive effects, particularly for lightsabers and force powers. While some levels and environments may feel less engaging, the overall presentation is considered attractive, though not groundbreaking compared to top-tier titles. Despite some criticisms regarding aging graphics and camera issues, the game's artistic design and cinematic elements contribute to a satisfying experience in the Star Wars universe.

    • “The visuals (aside from Raxus Prime) are superb; the soundtrack, blaster sounds, and lightsaber hum are all terrific.”
    • “This game has a fantastic graphic engine; it looks pretty good, characters are reasonably detailed, as well as the environments.”
    • “I loved the originality, graphics quality, and tremendous fun this game offered.”
    • “The engaging story and excellent voice work help bring it to life, despite the slightly dated graphics and relatively simple gameplay.”
    • “Graphics aged poorly, motion controls are awful, too many QTEs.”
    • “If you are a Star Wars fan you have to buy it, but if you are going to buy just because the PS2 version was amazing, just don't do it. I would say the PS2 version was actually better than this one; of course, it's the same plot but gameplay was different. The way he defends really sucks, you can't walk while you are defending (as you could do in the PS2 version).”
  • gameplay28 mentions

    The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players praising the fast-paced action and engaging story, but criticizing the mechanics as inconsistent and often frustrating. Issues such as poor camera control, lackluster fighting mechanics, and a feeling of being "gimped" by game design detract from the overall experience. While some find enjoyment in the hack-and-slash elements reminiscent of titles like God of War, others feel that the gameplay fails to support the otherwise strong narrative and visual presentation.

    • “I haven't been a Star Wars fan in years, so I didn't get as much from the story as a fan of the series might, but the technology and the gameplay in this game is... out of this world, for lack of a better cliché.”
    • “Gameplay moves fast and has very few frustrating hangups.”
    • “Gameplay is action-oriented and thus fast.”
    • “Beyond the hype and beloved franchise, terrible gameplay leads to a disappointment.”
    • “Another thing that sucks big time is the fighting mechanics; often you'll find yourself dying, and it's not obvious at all how it happened. You're slashing here, slashing there, and all of a sudden, you see 90 percent of your life went away. No explosion, no nothing, you died. This happens very often, particularly in Jedi fights, where the mechanics are the most horrible.”
    • “The camera perspective leaves much to be desired; during regular gameplay, it just simply has occasional issues (i.e., not staying on enemies when you lock onto and/or attack them), but the boss battles are where it really gets terrible.”
  • music7 mentions

    The music in the game is widely praised for its excellence, with a classic soundtrack that enhances the overall experience. Players appreciate the sound effects, including lightsaber hums and blaster sounds, which contribute to the game's immersive atmosphere. While some reviews mention that the story is decent, the strong musical elements significantly elevate enjoyment.

    • “The visuals (aside from Raxus Prime) are superb, the soundtrack, blaster sounds, and lightsaber hum are all terrific.”
    • “Another great thing is the sound and music - this definitely improved my enjoyment.”
    • “The music is awesome and most of the boss fights are fun.”
  • humor3 mentions

    The humor in the game is appreciated for its lighthearted moments, often stemming from interactive environments and amusing force powers. Players find certain tricks and interactions genuinely funny, adding an enjoyable layer to the overall experience.

    • “The interactive environments are very engaging, and the enjoyable force powers combined with a good storyline make for a great experience, with some humor thrown in.”
    • “You can break doors and push enemies, but some of the 'tricks' really made me laugh.”
  • optimization3 mentions

    The game's optimization is praised for maintaining the unique graphical elements from the Wii version while delivering solid performance, making the use of force powers enjoyable and the overall story engaging. Players report a seamless experience with no performance issues.

    • “Solid Jedi/Sith performance.”
    • “All unique graphical touches from the Wii version are preserved, force powers are fun, and most of the story is interesting, resulting in perfect performance.”
    • “All unique graphical touches from the Wii version are preserved, force powers are fun, and most of the story is interesting, resulting in perfect performance.”
  • emotional2 mentions

    Players consistently highlight the game's ending as a deeply emotional experience, emphasizing its impactful nature without revealing spoilers. Additionally, the DLC is praised for enhancing the experience with new costumes and extra levels.

    • “The ending was very emotional (don't worry, no spoilers). The DLC is also good with costumes and extra levels.”
  • grinding2 mentions

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, particularly due to the requirement of achieving 500+ kills for various trophies and the frustration caused by non-abortable cinematics that interrupt gameplay, especially during challenging battles.

    • “Some of the trophies are also unnecessarily tedious - such as requiring 500+ kills for each of several different offensive force move combos.”
    • “Non-abortable cinematics: most (but not all) of the cinematics in this game cannot be aborted, and if they directly precede a major battle that you're struggling with, the inability to skip the cinematic can get tedious in a hurry.”
  • stability2 mentions

    The stability of the game has been criticized for numerous glitches and game-breaking bugs, including issues with auto-saves and unlockables that fail to register properly. Players have reported problems with triggering combos and inconsistencies in treasure collection, leading to a frustrating experience overall.

    • “Everything from glitches, game-breaking bugs, messed up auto-saves, combos that wouldn't trigger, and unlockables that magically relocked themselves (yet couldn't be collected again on your save file).”
    • “One - too short, and two - some glitches prevented me from getting the extras throughout the game (I got all the treasures, but the game didn't count two of them; even on replay, I couldn't get them).”
  • replayability2 mentions

    The game suffers from low replayability due to its simplistic level designs, weak combat mechanics, and reliance on quick time events, which contribute to a lack of engaging content and dull boss fights. As a result, many players find it difficult to recommend the game for repeated playthroughs.

    • “Simplistic level designs, weak combat, frequent quick time events, and low replay value make this one hard to recommend.”
    • “Simplistic level design, weak combat system, and quick time events make boss fights dull, resulting in low replay value.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

69% average critic score

Videos

Similar Games