Lucasarts has just announced that there will be a playable demo of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed available this Thursday on both the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Although I had high hopes for the game when it was demoed for me back in April (article) I still had some reservations about how it would play. It looked like it controlled well, but there didn’t seem to be much to do, even with the incredibly over the top force powers at your disposal.
But getting my hands on the game at E3 made me see the light. The game is just incredibly, incredibly fun. Forget the lightsaber, it’s all about picking enemies up with the force and using both analog sticks to throw the poor guy around and just break him. One of the best moments during the playtime was in a corridor with windows lined on one side, facing out into space. Trying to force throw a metal crate at a row of stormtroopers who were futilely trying to shoot me, I completely overshot…. instead smashing out the window behind them, which proceeded to suck all the hapless soldiers straight out into the void. After a mini whirlwind of objects and debris flew around for a second or two a metal security gate slammed shut, sealing off the window, but that was it for me. I was sold.
It doesn’t hurt that both the story (which I’ve seen more of than I can talk about!) and music made it feel like a genuine old school Star Wars, and is much better than that apparent abomination that’s currently in theaters.
We’ll see in a month whether the boss battles are any good, or if the game remains as fun throughout its entire playtime, but this demo is going to go a long way towards making people excited about the game. It will contain one whole level that appeasrs to be the same shown at E3, which has a great spacecraft hanger that’s a lot of fun to play around with. Let’s just say Tie Fighters blow up real nice when you throw them.