Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Title
Developer
Publisher
Genre
ESRB Rating
Demo Release Date
Full Release Date
Platforms

Official Website
Demo Download Size
Review Date

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
LucasArts
LucasArts
Action
Teen
21st August 2008
16th September 2008 Buy Now
Xbox 360 (Reviewed), PS3, Wii*, PS2*, PSP*, Nintendo DS*, N-Gage*
http://www.lucasarts.com/games/theforceunleashed
905MB
27th August 2008

What did I think before playing?
I have been looking forward to this. I have some friends that worked on it plus the premise and promise of being a badass with the force sound cool.

What is included?
What feels like a mission early in the game, possibly contrived for the demo which lets you try out some of the early force powers. You can see in the menus that there would be more moves to pull off later in the full game after unlocking them.

What did I think afterwards?
Pretty good. The graphics are nice, the sound was as you would expect and there are some impressive moments in the action. What I didn't like was the tricky targeting system which meant facing your desired object and hoping it was selected. That becomes difficult when there are several enemies coming at you in a bunch whilst running past a stack of crates. Pin pointing the guy or box you want is hit and miss. Being able to cycle through targets may have helped. It made the game that much harder and I died several times during my two play-throughs, (more so the second time on Hard.) I also didn't like the use of quick-time events. I've never been a fan of them and one pops up right at the end of the demo when fighting a mini-boss. I understand why it is there, but I thought the encounter could have been better.

Would I buy the full game?
I kinda feel like I have too, but the demo didn't quite live up to the hype for me. I'm sure I would get used to it when playing the full game and perhaps the more impressive powers you unlock will make things a little easier.

Demo Pros
Good length, you get to mess around with the force including destroying Tie Fighters.

Demo Cons
The opening cut scene has a stutter near the beginning every time. That doesn't bode well.

Demo Rating 8 / 10

Thoughts after playing the full game?
If I play the full game I will put comments here about whether I feel the demo was representative of the final product and if I am happy with the purchase.

Sales Figures
If I can find sales information about a game after it has been released I'll add that here. It may be useful to track demos to sales performance.