Star Wars: The Force Unleashed takes place between Episode Three and Episode Four, immediately after Order 66 was given to destroy all Jedi, the main focus of Force Unleashed is Darth Vader’s secret apprentice known only as Starkiller. As Starkiller it’s your purpose to prove yourself to Vader that you are ready to partake in his master scheme, to over throw and kill Emperor Palpatine. The Force Unleashed utilizes the "Havok" engine allowing a large capability with force powers making nearly everything moveable and a weapon with force grip. Not to mention having multiple enemies and objects reacting respectively and fluidly at the same time.

Although Star Wars: Force Unleashed is only around ten hours in duration the entire journey through eight levels, including the Prologue featuring Darth Vader himself as the playable character, is action packed and intense. Each level spans about two acts and is jam packed with an assortment of objects to turn into weapons, from the explosive pods of Felucia to TIE fighters in the TIE Construction Yard. The greatest and most innovative thing about Force Unleashed is that just about any object on the wall, on the ceiling, or even bolted to the ground can be force gripped then thrown. General game play begins pretty easy with a handful of basic powers, techniques, and abilities such as simple force push, double jump, dash, and force grip. Fortunately as the game progresses and Starkiller levels up he obtains points which can be distributed into various skills to gain new ones or improve current ones. Often at the start of a new stage skills and powers are gained. The best part of combat and force powers in The Force Unleashed is the ability to combine different powers with raw lightsaber combat to create new ways to dispatch your enemies. Some examples would be to force grip an enemy then use force lightening then throw the enemy, causing electricity to explode from the thrown enemy. Thankfully with each new power or ability gained a training module becomes available to give a better understanding and grasp of game play so that players won’t get lost in the confusion of how to use their new found skills. Each training module is followed by a challenge, often timed and having some form of restriction to what can and cannot be done during the challenge. An example would be if Starkiller had just gained force lightening then the training module would cover the uses and applications of force lightening then the challenge would consist of a timed objective where only force lightening can be used. Combat modules also become available as new enemies are encountered and stages are completed, allowing players to test their skills against a specific grouping of enemies

As Starkiller levels up as mentioned before points will be gained to distribute among three different areas, combos, force talents, and force powers. Force talents consist of fortitude, force focus, force affinity, vitality, resilience, battle meditation, saber mastery, defense mastery, and finally combo mastery. Then there are force combos which is a long list of lightsaber combos from flashy multi hit attacks to aerial combos. Lastly on the list is force powers which would be force lightening, force grip, lightsaber throw, force repulse which would be an all around force shockwave, and force shield which strengthens Starkiller’s lightsaber attacks and can attack enemies at higher levels. Often each level bring one point, or sphere, to each of the three categories but completing bonus objectives or collecting hidden holocrons can offer additional spheres. As skills grow stronger with more spheres applied to the talent or ability it will require more the next time around so it is wise to choose carefully.

The ability to have a decent selection for building Starkiller in this fashion allows players to tailor Starkiller to their play style, whether it’s an offensive, defensive, saber combat, or force power focused. In concerns with customization and tailoring a personalized Secret Apprentice there’s the ability to change the color of Starkiller’s lightsaber and insert a crystal which can grant different effects. Most of the colors for Starkiller’s lightsaber are collected through hidden holocrons though on occasion basic colors are gained through story progression. Each color, red, blue, yellow, gold, green, and purple all have three total cosmetic effects including the basic color. The crystals involved in enhancing the lightsaber can give the ability to deal more damage, siphon life from enemies on hit, have a chance to deal electrical damage, allow a higher chance to absorb more damage and deflect blaster bolts to name a few, these also must be gained through hidden holocrons. A final mention on customizing Starkiller would be the outfits obtained through each mission and specific holocrons, the outfits can be equipped on any of the stages.

Visual effects, animation, and combat play out smooth and detailed especially when possibly five or six enemies can get thrown around a room with explosions and force lighting going in every direction. Possibly one of the most interesting functions that show the "Havok" engine is the way that doors and pieces of metal bend and move as Starkiller uses his force powers against them. The way doors bend and warp to a force push or how the bars on a metal cage give way to a force push. Even without force push using force grip to pry open a door or bend a chunk of metal to create a ledge, the unique and precise control of force grip, using the left and right paddles to control forward, back, left, right, up, and down. A final note towards graphics would be the attention to detail and effort put in towards Starkiller’s multiple outfits and other characters outfits, one in particular would be the Felucian outfit which displays Starkiller’s battle scars covering his torso and other costumes that show dirt and grime among Starkiller’s face.

The Force Unleashed voice acting dialogue matches up pretty well with the respective character’s facial expressions and lip movements and draws you in a little more to the story unfolding in each cut scene due to the fact that these things are so well synced, making the characters believable and realistic. Sound effects are also well timed and considering that often multiple explosions or effects are going off at once is notable. The music in Star Wars: Force Unleashed comes obviously straight from the Star Wars movies themselves with a few new sound tracks to compliment scenes and stages that are not often seen.

Overall looking pass the short duration of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed there are a lot of awesome mechanics and features at play and a story that gives a better idea to what happen after Order 66 was executed. Devastating lightsaber combat and raw primal force power use like never seen before and an innovative control lay out for force grip and the ability to combine force powers makes for exciting game play regardless of how many times you’ve played a level since you can move through it differently each time. The ability to level up and distribute points into Starkiller’s abilities adds some replay value and also the fact that there are multiple difficulties and two alternate endings. The Force Unleashed puts players in control of the force in a way never seen before so if you’re a Star Wars fan or just want a good game with a lot of action it’s worth picking up.