While Force Unleashed holds a lot of promise, it never even comes close to living up to its hype.
For starters, the Force unleashes in about eight to nine hours. This would have been okay if the entire game constantly put you in new locations and situations, but it doesn't. You end up visiting the same locales and fighting the same enemies over and over, which doesn't exactly make for exciting gameplay. Legions of Stormtroopers are to be expected, but I was about to lose my mind if I had to fight one more AT-ST or Rancor.
There were also several bugs that needed to be worked out prior to release but weren't. It would seem that the Euphoria engine gives the A.I. a sense of self-preservation, but doesn't equip them with much of brain. There are times you can literally stand out in the open and just pound an enemy with flying objects, and they'll just stand there and take it. One particular AT-ST remained so frozen that I blasted it with Force Lightning just to wake it up, because I figured a lightning bolt should get just about anything to move. Strangely, it didn't work.
Speaking of enemies, your worst one in this game is the camera. You're going to fight with it pretty much from start to finish, and it adds a layer of frustration that's almost impossible to describe. It's incredibly maddening when something out of your range of view is beating on you to the tune of three-quarters of you life bar, and you can't see where the enemy is to take him out. There are even parts of the game where you're getting hit from all sides, and the camera won't follow you around where you stand a fighting chance against the eighty or so enemies that are on-screen.
It isn't all bad, though. The graphics and sound are of the incredibly high caliber that you'd expect from Lucasarts, and the storyline is certainly worthy of the Star Wars name. Actually, the storyline and presentation is pretty fantastic, and even offers a few twists along the way.
The Euphoria and Havoc physics engines are a blast to play with, especially when you have a limited number of enemies on screen to toss around and can actually see how they react to certain situations. More than once I tossed a Rebel Trooper into a Tie Fighter just to watch it explode, and it's moments like those that save the game from being a total disaster.
While the game has its great moments, it also has a lot of problematic ones which makes my recommendations on Force Unleashed a little tricky. Fans of the series should definitely play it for the storyline, and anyone willing to put up with the bugs and shorter length will still find the game at least somewhat enjoyable. Just wait to pick it up used or until we get the inevitable price drop; it sure isn't worth the full price tag.