The First Game - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was one of the most innovative games of 2008 and combined familiar elements with new ideas. This is true in the story, the gameplay and the graphics.
Story: The story takes place, If you are familiar with the Star Wars series, between the two trilogies. You play as the secret apprentice of Darth Vader who is sent to wipe out the last remaining Jedi in the galaxy. The writers took the time to write a story that would not conflict with the story of the films and also offered some explanations for things that occur in the films. For example (spoiler alert), at the end of the game when after the main character faces off against Vader and dies it is shown that his family crest is the symbol that will later become the symbol of the rebel alliance, thus tying the two stories together. This attention to story is what has set Star Wars based games apart from the usual movie based game.
Gameplay: The gameplay has many elements of other good games of the time but combined them in a unique way. It has some of the elements of Assassin's Creed combined with the fighting style of Ninja Gaiden, and God of War. It also adds a new element, force powers. Now, you would think that it would be difficult to control telekinetic powers in a 3d world, but the controls work well. The powers (on PS3) use the analog sticks to move objects in all six directions.
Graphics: The game's graphics are amazing. But one element that sets it apart is the physics. The game itself runs on the Havoc engine but also uses DMM which stands for Digital Molecular Matter and offers better particle physics. The game also contains an advanced artificial intelligence program called Euphoria. This allows the NPCs to react better to your actions.Now there is a sequel to The Force Unleashed that is coming out soon. It will be interesting to see how, if at all, they add to the story of the first game without losing continuity. And it will also be interesting to see if they can improve on the game elements of the first one or will it fall short.
I don't think I've commented on the format you've been using for your blog, but it's really very well done. Using a template with each game you've discussed, really sets this up for comparisons down the road. It's well organized and well written. If I haven't said this before, I should have!
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Great film doesn't always = great games, but this one does. I think the designers paid attention to the game play in other GOOD games and used it here. It will be interesting to see how good the new one is: when is the release date?
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