Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - first look

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You are Darth Vader's hit man. And you can throw spaceships with your brain

Okay, put the fanboy hat down for a second and let's be real: in your heart of hearts, you think Luke Skywalker is a whiny pansy with bad hair and Darth Vader is a towering bastion of too-cool badassitude. The good guys? Boring. They use their Jedi powers to do what, exactly? Dress in dingy bathrobes and maybe correct a bad X-wing parking job. They never even mind-control their way into a round of free drinks at the cantina or a hot night with a pair of Twi'lek babes now and then.

The bad guys, by comparison, know how to party. They spew lightning from their fingers, carve punks into chunks with their lightsabers, and force choke the crap out of anyone who gets in their way - then they blow up your planet. Face it: the Dark Side boys have more fun. And that is why Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which casts you as the by-any-means-necessary, Jedi-hunting secret apprentice of Darth Vader himself, looks to be the most pleasurably destructive Star Wars game in history.

On second thought, that statement is not exactly correct: the guilty pleasure of being a total bully on a galactic scale is only one of many causes for the game's promising condition. Another is the fact that your character's Force powers are beyond the scale of those seen in previous Star Wars games. You have three base powers: a Force Push, Force Grip, and Force Lightning. But as they get stronger and you learn to combo them, watch out. Check out this video:

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Okay, put the fanboy hat down for a second and let's be real: in your heart of hearts, you think Luke Skywalker is a whiny pansy with bad hair and Darth Vader is a towering bastion of too-cool badassitude. The good guys? Boring. They use their Jedi powers to do what, exactly? Dress in dingy bathrobes and maybe correct a bad X-wing parking job. They never even mind-control their way into a round of free drinks at the cantina or a hot night with a pair of Twi'lek babes now and then.

The bad guys, by comparison, know how to party. They spew lightning from their fingers, carve punks into chunks with their lightsabers, and force choke the crap out of anyone who gets in their way - then they blow up your planet. Face it: the Dark Side boys have more fun. And that is why Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which casts you as the by-any-means-necessary, Jedi-hunting secret apprentice of Darth Vader himself, looks to be the most pleasurably destructive Star Wars game in history.

On second thought, that statement is not exactly correct: the guilty pleasure of being a total bully on a galactic scale is only one of many causes for the game's promising condition. Another is the fact that your character's Force powers are beyond the scale of those seen in previous Star Wars games. You have three base powers: a Force Push, Force Grip, and Force Lightning. But as they get stronger and you learn to combo them, watch out. Check out this video:

Eric Bratcher
Eric Bratcher
I was the founding Executive Editor/Editor in Chief here at GR, charged with making sure we published great stories every day without burning down the building or getting sued. Which isn't nearly as easy as you might imagine. I don't work for GR any longer, but I still come here - why wouldn't I? It's awesome. I'm a fairly average person who has nursed an above average love of video games since I first played Pong just over 30 years ago. I entered the games journalism world as a freelancer and have since been on staff at the magazines Next Generation and PSM before coming over to GamesRadar. Outside of gaming, I also love music (especially classic metal and hard rock), my lovely wife, my pet pig Bacon, Japanese monster movies, and my dented, now dearly departed '89 Ranger pickup truck. I pray sincerely. I cheer for the Bears, Bulls, and White Sox. And behind Tyler Nagata, I am probably the GR staffer least likely to get arrested... again.