Escape TV: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

In this final installment of The Escapist's E3 2008 video coverage, Russ and Julianne interview LucasArts about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and share their final thoughts on E3.

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Y'know, the footage from Unleashed looks surprisingly awesome. Of course, it may be a bit lacking when it comes to story; the whole 'turn bad, turn good' side of things seems a tad shallow, but the gameplay (despite it essentially resting on only one or two new features) looks actually quite compelling. As long as they keep the enemies and environments varied, and not just 'outdoor scene #21, indoor corridor 24#'.

Looking forward to it. Was taken back a bit when I saw the apprentice killing BILLIONS* of stormtroopers, seeing as hes supposed to be dark an all, but hey, if I was vaders pet boy id kill everything and anything too.

*hyperbole

I was suspicious until I saw the 1/2 second clip of the protaganist makin out. No, that's not true, I can't back that up.

ohhh im gonna be sad to see these end, this was the best coverage of e3 and the most entertaining and thats saying something seeing as i watched it on g4 and gametrailers. also want to make it known that i heard about the best games of the show from you guys, not any other source. im excited for velvet assasin and for lord of the rings conquest. thanks guys!

"....I used to come for the naked chicks....." Nice one.

RE: Opening and ending

You two suck at being on camera. Do it more, it's funny. This is the exact same anti-regular media approach I get from the whole of the Escapist, a semi-professional fun.

Although you might wanna cut down the actual amount of time spent on such, a whole three minutes of fluffing around for a 5 minute video is pretty silly.

I dread the upcoming "Yes We Am" features.

yer only thing im not digging is how you can toss soldiers from one side of the level to the other....i wanna be able to see them splat without having to squint lol.

Am I the only one who finds these new Star Wars games just a little 'meh'?

I mean, you can throw Tie Fighters around...It's sort of like playing Supes against normal criminals.

BobisOnlyBob:
RE: Opening and ending

You two suck at being on camera. Do it more, it's funny. This is the exact same anti-regular media approach I get from the whole of the Escapist, a semi-professional fun.

Although you might wanna cut down the actual amount of time spent on such, a whole three minutes of fluffing around for a 5 minute video is pretty silly.

I dread the upcoming "Yes We Am" features.

Well you're Mr Anti-Fun, aren't you?

I like the looks of the new Star Wars game. Could it be the first good one? (*Gasps* Did he just say that?) I've seen little footage of it so I don't spoil it over the hype. The only thing I don't really like is the fact you turn on Vader. I wanna be evil and killed by, say, ObiWan. Plus, if you can throw around Star Destroyers and kill Rancors, then how come DV can barely do this and you're his apprentice?
Ok, I'm thinking too much about this again.

The one thing I found odd was the behavior of the enemies being tossed about; I've been following the whole Euphoria thing, and how AI characters will try to grab onto each other, or onto the environment, to keep from falling (or being force thrown, etc). The bit in the video reminded me of the Penny Arcade strip about the same. The one guy is getting tossed around, and the guy on the ground, who at that moment is NOT the focus of the very angry Sith, grabs onto his buddy flying around in the air, getting pulled up after him? Fair enough to say the guy in peril tried to grab the guy on the ground, but that's not the way the animation looked to me.

The only other thing I'm hoping for is severed limbs. I can't remember which prior game it was (Maybe JKII?), but it was a toggle you had to choose "I want limbs severed" or "I want bodies not to fall apart after being sushi'd". There's just something about putting a giant laser sword through an enemies non-cortosis-fortified armor, and them not being chopped in half, that just ruins my suspension-of-disbelief. Ya know?

The euphoria engine doesn't really interest me in the slightest (just annoyed me in GTA IV), but the game looks like Devil May Cry with force powers and a story that takes itself seriously (but will fail). Seems like it's worth a purchase to me.

Geoffrey42:
...them not being chopped in half, that just ruins my suspension-of-disbelief. Ya know?

I hear ya.

Looks like it could be a top notch game. The gameplay in the video looks quite reminiscant of Too Human oddly.

Glad to see Star Wars isn't being forgotten about as time goes on. Yes there's been a lot of games for other consoles and the PC, in the far flung past, but now the technology is better, so it's good to see they still want to make a better game out of it. Ton of untapped matieral there as well, like all the books. Might just be me, but the most interesting matieral for games is always the stuff you didn't see in the movies being played out on rails, but the inbetweens and things that were happening 'far far away'.

Looking forward to it.

I think Force Unleashed will be a great experience, but it's going to be marred by not having lightsaber dismemberment. So you play Vader's secret assassin apprentice and I can't cut people's heads off with a lightsaber. What's the world coming to.

I guess we can hope it's a code like in Outcast. Imagine beating someone down by flinging his own severed limb at him with the force.

Slycne:
I think Force Unleashed will be a great experience, but it's going to be marred by not having lightsaber dismemberment. So you play Vader's secret assassin apprentice and I can't cut people's heads off with a lightsaber. What's the world coming to.

I guess we can hope it's a code like in Outcast. Imagine beating someone down by flinging his own severed limb at him with the force.

To think a games value is now based upon the number of limbs you can cut off in an hour over the actual gameplay.

Anybody else notice that he was carrying a long lightsaber in an off-hand style? (blade towards the back). In previous games (KOTOR I and II I believe) there was a shortened version to be used in the offhand, and using the blade in an offhand manner would actually lessen the damage he could cause... but that's just me being anal. Great vid and looking forward to the game :D

wordsmith:
Anybody else notice that he was carrying a long lightsaber in an off-hand style? (blade towards the back). In previous games (KOTOR I and II I believe) there was a shortened version to be used in the offhand, and using the blade in an offhand manner would actually lessen the damage he could cause... but that's just me being anal. Great vid and looking forward to the game :D

If I recall correctly from prior articles/videos on the game, the designers put the blade behind him as the solution to some sort of camera issue (something to do with the blade being in the way up front, or never being visible, or some such). Seems to me that the only time you need a stronger swing when using a lightsaber is when dealing with A. other lightsabers or B. other weapons that are resistant to lightsabers. Such things happen a lot in the world of KOTOR, but less often as we get into the world of Unleashed. When chopping up your garden-variety stormtrooper, the strength/speed of your attack is more a matter of courtesy, since the armor and flesh aren't offering much in the way of resistance.[/nerd]

Not sure if I dig the saber combat style, but it looks pretty decent.

I'll be buying the Wii version though. (and grr that there's no PC release)

jellis186:

Slycne:
I think Force Unleashed will be a great experience, but it's going to be marred by not having lightsaber dismemberment. So you play Vader's secret assassin apprentice and I can't cut people's heads off with a lightsaber. What's the world coming to.

I guess we can hope it's a code like in Outcast. Imagine beating someone down by flinging his own severed limb at him with the force.

To think a games value is now based upon the number of limbs you can cut off in an hour over the actual gameplay.

Yeah... I mean, Lucas Arts isn't going to make an entirely family unfriendly game, ever. I realize that it's unrealistic to some extent, but just like fighting games, it's generally accepted that you don't just cleave your enemies in twain, it'd be too easy, and a little hard to survive a system like that.

Meh. This looks good, but until they make a star wars game starring Darth Mobius I will never get truly excited.

jellis186:

Slycne:
I think Force Unleashed will be a great experience, but it's going to be marred by not having lightsaber dismemberment. So you play Vader's secret assassin apprentice and I can't cut people's heads off with a lightsaber. What's the world coming to.

I guess we can hope it's a code like in Outcast. Imagine beating someone down by flinging his own severed limb at him with the force.

To think a games value is now based upon the number of limbs you can cut off in an hour over the actual gameplay.

You are reading into my post wrong. The point I was trying to make was that if you look at how lightsabers behaved in the movies and other mediums. Then applied that to the game. The result is a game seem that much more inline with its source material. Granted I was a bit sarcastic about it.

Are their other factors then that, absolutely.

The gameplay issues of having a weapon that can cut through anything.
The hardware issue of having a weapon that can kill any enemy in a single hit, hence needing more enemies on screen to compensate.
The marketing issue of having your game rated Mature instead of Teen.
etc.

The designers made their choices, and we get to see how it plays out.

Russ, Julianne, and crew:

I very much enjoyed your E3 videos. I think it's important to remember that all-in-all, this industry is about entertainment, and your take on E3 was quite so. I look forward to you covering more events in this manner. Cheers!

On a side note, am I the only one to think it would be &%*^ing terrifying to be "knighted" with a lightsaber? I mean with a sword you use the flat of the blade, so you're fine, but a lightsaber? There wouldn't even be any resistance if he lowered it too much, just breathes too heavily and he'd lop your arm off.

BobisOnlyBob:
RE: Opening and ending

You two suck at being on camera. Do it more, it's funny. This is the exact same anti-regular media approach I get from the whole of the Escapist, a semi-professional fun.

Although you might wanna cut down the actual amount of time spent on such, a whole three minutes of fluffing around for a 5 minute video is pretty silly.

I dread the upcoming "Yes We Am" features.

Way to be a douche. When you've got an online gaming empire better than Escapist and make better videos starring yourself, then you can complain about the videos this place makes.

I like the fun the guys have! It's not boring like half the other clips - shows Escapist is fun and their staff have fun too. Besides, Julianne is cute!

Having played the demo now, I think the game's a world of potential fun. I hope the graphics are a bit more polished, but I'll be getting this without a doubt.

these things need less talk more game

Melaisis:
Y'know, the footage from Unleashed looks surprisingly awesome. Of course, it may be a bit lacking when it comes to story; the whole 'turn bad, turn good' side of things seems a tad shallow, but the gameplay (despite it essentially resting on only one or two new features) looks actually quite compelling. As long as they keep the enemies and environments varied, and not just 'outdoor scene #21, indoor corridor 24#'.

You can also "bad turn good turn bad again" at the end there, but yeah I see where you're coming from. Still don't understand why the story was so hyped up in the first place, besides tying the original trilogy to the new one.

Lol. I used to come for the naked chicks. That was hilarious.

On another note, this game actually looks pretty good. At least its not Legos again...