Starts out strong, has a rough middle, gets back on track and then blows up in your face.
Where to start... The basic story line is: you are Darth Vader's secret apprentice, off to hunt Jedi in amazing 3rd person. No one is supposed to know about you so your orders are destroy everything and everyone. Pretty good premise if you ask me.
Some things to get out of the way: This game is NOT a Jedi Knight (Outcast or Jedi Academy). All your weapons will be is a light saber and the force. This game is also NOT a role playing game in the sense of making choices via dialog and actions in the game. The story is linear 99% of the way through with one choice to decide the ending battle and cut scene if you win.
However, other than your own character, NOTHING will be fleshed out via the standard game videos. Your female pilot is extremely hollow, as is your amazing holographic capable droid. You will run into Princess Leia and her adopted father, the emperor and a few other minor characters from the star wars universe. The story will finally reach its apex when you either kick either ... or ... arse and then the final cut scene will ruin it. I really want to discuss this more as to why they are so horrible, but I don't wish to spoil it. The voice acting for the game is done well as is the facial expressions from the apprentice.
There is customization in what color your light saber and costume is, but they make no difference in the game play. You can put in a customization crystal into your light saber that changes the blade properties though, for example extra damage, lightning damage, better blaster deflection etc.
There also is a strong attempt at making you choose how you want to develop you characters attributes. As you progress through the game you will level up giving you the ability to distribute points to three areas. Force powers, saber combos, and basic character modifications. Force powers let you beef up you push, or lightning skills for example. Saber Combos let you have different attack combos for example: hit X, X, Y, and Y to not just swing your sword, but also do two strikes with lightning damage. Lastly basic abilities determine how fast your force power will come back, your base deflection and base combo skills, etc.
It seems pretty cool up-front, but unfortunately a player that varies how they attack and also searches out for 'Jedi holocrons' will be able to max out just about everything by the end game anyhow, so it s all for naught.
Enter the actual game play. There are four or five attacks you will use the whole game. Anything with Lightning is a must as it stuns most enemies as well. Mostly force grip and throw, a basic saber combo ending with a lightning blow, straight up lightning ala like the emperor, jump dashes and force pushes, and for when you get surrounded the force repulse. There are a lot more combos out there, and some might fit your playing style more, but that list right there can you get you through the game with ease. Oh, and DEFEND. If you don't learn how to defend prepare to get your trash handed to you multiple times.
Each level can be played separately, and you can go back to levels you have already played to earn more experience or complete bonus objectives you missed out on. Each level is broken into parts where it will quick save. If you die, you respawn at the most recent quick save. If you exit a level (either by switching or saving to come back later) you will have to start all over from the first of the level again. Unfortunately the cut scene will play again when you go to the level and skipping it appears to be random. You usually have to sit through at least 15+ seconds before it will finally let you skip it.
Most levels will have one place in that can be really annoying to get past until you figure out where all the enemies are hidden. And not saving up a person or exploding barrel to throw into a tough spot will make things harder than they seem if you look at a bigger picture of saving your resources for when you really need them.
The game can actually be fast paced, but usually you are asking for it if you don't pick your battles and eliminate enemies one at a time. As you fight your way through the game secondary objectives will show up. If you complete them you get a free upgrade to your character. There is also a goal for how many points you score in a single level, hit the goal free upgrade again. Then there are the Jedi holocrons...
Jedi holocrons are what will make you angry at the camera angles, annoyed with wall glitches, and show that the game is NOT a platformer... but to get all the holocrons be prepared to see all the rough in this game. Basically they are glowing cubes hidden in the levels that when you touch them you get a free upgrade, costume, or light saber crystal. Most levels have 15, two levels have 5. They are usually put out of reach or hidden on the outskirts of the levels areas thus forcing you to see how poor all the edges are in this game. Really, the developers kicked themselves with this idea.
This reaches me to glitches. While you are off finding random holocrons you will get stuck. With enough perseverance you can find your way out of just about everything... though sometimes it is by falling in the deep bottomless hole just to restart at the last check point. There was only one point in the game where the frame rate dropped so low it was really slowing down, so for the most part it stays pretty consistent and good looking.
The few levels in the middle of the game have major glitches where you can redo the secondary objective over and over to gain another level each time you do it. I won't give you more details than that for the sake of the story.
Another annoying factor is as you will eventually get use to the 3rd person camera, all the major boss battles move to a camera that overlooks the battle field. This was done for effect I'm sure, but it makes the boss fights behave a lot differently. They don't feel right and they force you to learn the game play all over again, which makes them somewhat annoying.
Also targeting can be fickle if the screen is full of enemies or boxes as well. And for some odd reason the camera will not let you target things below your typical feet level very well... though some levels work better than others.
BUT the biggest glitch I encountered was a way to corrupt my save file by playing my own music over the rehashed star wars tunes that haven't changed since before Star Wars became Episode IV: A New Hope. At this point, none of my bonus objectives would show up anymore, it wouldn't keep track of my level score and I couldn't tell how many holocrons I had. I could do nothing but abandon the desire to find all the holocrons and just finished out the game.
The game comes with some 'bonus' stuff to do in it. As you unlock the cut scenes you can watch them again at your leisure. There is also a training mode, for you to practice certain skills and what not. The training is actually pretty horrible and eventually turns into a mess of frustration than enjoyment as the developers cram you in a circular room with a rancor and numerous other enemies at the same time. After you beat the game you get to try out one more awesome skill that makes your saber attacks look really cool, but actually is completely useless. And during the challenge mode you will accidently use the wrong killing move numerous times, forcing you to restart.
There is also a concept art gallery and a databank. The databank is well fleshed out and star wars aficionados will love to read what has been put in it. This is where the hollow characters will be fleshed out, thus redeeming a lot of the emptiness of the in game videos.
For the X360 achievements, there is a combination of standard game progression achievements, beat the game light side / dark side and on every difficulty, kick some of the big mini-bosses a bunch of times achievements, coupled with a find every holocron achievement, all topped off with the worst puke sauce 'kill 500 enemies with a certain type of attack' achievements. And of course the cherry on the puke is 'Worst Day Shift Manager Ever' which still makes me laugh when I think of it.
The actual game play and main story can be done pretty quickly. My first play through on easy took 6.50 hours, but finding all the holocrons (without cheating) and reading the database almost doubled that. And my repeat play through was around 6 hours as well. So if you like to play through your games and master them, with 4 difficulties this will last you around 20 hours or more. Despite all its flaws, this is probably my guilty pleasure and will probably get played every time I feel in the mood for some star wars butt kicking.
In short the game is a pretty good ride while it lasts. Between glitches, pretty repetitive game play, and two piss-poor endings that probably couldn't have been done worse if George Lucus did it himself. Star Wars fans should take a look, and probably already have, but unless you love Star Wars I could see this as a pass.
PS. If you want to discuss why I hate the endings so much, feel free to PM me.