Great graphics, fun combat most of the time. Way way too short. Consider just renting it.

User Rating: 6 | Star Wars: The Force Unleashed X360
I really bit into the hype building up to this game. I thought it was going to be the next great Star Wars game since the release of KoTOR.

Unfortunately, that feeling starts to end very quickly once you finish the first level.

Let's start with the graphics, they are good graphics, the animations are fluid though some things look rather silly, especially when mobs running towards you fall as if they are running on ice for no apparent reasons. The cutscenes are usually ok, though the facial animations on the game's protagonist can sometimes look very goofy.

Combat in this game can be very very fun at times. Especially in the first level when you are mowing down stormtroopers and rebel soldiers as if they were nothing more gas vapors standing up to a hurricane force wind. Though that feeling does quickly fade, especially when the enemies start blocking or absorbing many of your attacks as well as giving the enemy AI some rather cheap knockdown moves. The Apprentice tends to over animate especially when getting up, the few seconds it takes for his getup animation to end makes it really easy for mobs to knock you back down again. Being stuck in a corner with mobs that perform knockdown attacks is usually a one way ticket to the last checkpoint. Combat can stay fun, just don't expect to be the force of nature you are in the first level throughout the game. Start practicing your ability to dodge and move rapidly.

Story in this game is usually pretty good. You are Darth Vader's secret apprentice. There are some typical (bad) George Lucas plot points in here. You are the hero, you have to have a love interest. Luckily the developer's don't cram Lucas' formulistic approach to storytelling down your throat. and the romantic side story is kept very small. I won't spoil the ending in any way for you, but I felt the end of the story served to very much trivialize two supposedly very powerful beings in the Star Wars universe and takes away from the power and fear they possess/create in the original trilogy. Voice acting in the game is good as should be expected from almost all Lucasarts games so you shouldn't need earplugs and subtitles for the cutscenes. Also there are two endings to this game. Unfortunately unlike the Jedi Knight games, these endings are not determined over the course of choices that you make throughout the game. Instead it is a choice you make at the very end of the game. So you can simply reload your last checkpoint, make the other choice and you get to see the other ending. So don't worry about it during the your play through the game, play however you want, it has no affect on the ending.

I did run into a few bugs with this game as well. For some reason the last level's progress screen stayed bugged for me. It made it so that i could not pick up the holocron achievement because the game would not keep track of the fact that I had collected the ones in the last level. Also there were instances of clipping bugs where my char would fall through the geometry and be stuck, causing me to have to reload my last checkpoint.

All in all this game could be really good even though it does have some frustrating points in the combat system. But a game can't be too easy so that's forgivable. What is unforgivable for me with this game is how incredibly short it is. A full playthrough will probably only take you 8-10 hours. Your second or third playthrough will be even faster. This game may actually be the only one I was able to finish faster than Heavenly Sword on the PS3.

My recommendation? Rent it, don't buy it. Grab it if you want something to play over the weekend. You can rent it on Friday, play it on Saturday and probably return it completed on Sunday. Paying fifty+ dollars for it will only serve to frustrate you, especially since the game has no multiplayer and little replay value.