3/5 ★ – peacebrendanp's review of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

I started this game for a number of reasons. For one, I was on a Star Wars kick recently. Secondly, I have been wanting something to play while traveling, and given I don't have any newer handhelds, I figured the PS Vita could fit the bill. The package offered here is something pretty impressive for the time it came out, yet definitely hindered by age. The story itself follows the main beats of the PS3 version of The Force Unleashed, however, there is quite a bit different with the PSP version. The campaign has entirely different missions that are exclusive to the PSP version, and entail entirely new enemies that were not in the other versions. There are moves that are made specifically for the PSP version as well, and you can even upgrade your move-set as your progress through the campaign. There is even a "hub" of sorts that you enter between missions to customize your character, lightsaber, and upgrade your abilities. It's all really impressive for a PSP release. There are even specific modes that are exclusive to this version of the release. There's a multiplayer mode, as well as a couple of different arcade modes that allow you to replay scenarios that occurred in the movies. I went through almost every mode, but only really completed the campaign. All-in-all, this was a decent game to casually play from time-to-time. However, it has definitely been aged and marred by the PSP controls. For instance, there is really no camera control, which creates instances of being unable to see exactly what you are hitting. Enemy-targeting is nearly non-existent, which creates situations where you are hitting nothing, or right next to an enemy. There are also not nearly enough enemy reactions when you are hitting them, which causes the game to feel pretty stiff during combat. You can really just level up your lightning power and kill enemies quicker that way than getting into 1:1 combat with specific units. Even then, the leveling in not well balanced, in the sense that I don't think it would be possible to fully or almost-fully level up your character by the end of one playthrough. Obviously, the PSP could not handle the physics engine that the main-line entry uses, so that is lacking here as well. However, boss battles are here, and they can have some cool finishing moments, but they feel stiff, stale, and like a grind as your are working your way through them. There's also some small annoyances, which aren't that big of a deal. Such as, you can play as different characters in the arcade mode, which is really cool, but your move-set from the main game is carried over. So, this results in Obi-Wan being able to use a lightning attack, and even then, as you progress through some of these modes, there is no way to level up powers outside of the campaign. So, unless you move through a second playthrough, you could get stuck on an arcade level. I won't go on any longer. There is an impressive amount of content here, and I was surprised to see how different this version was to the main version of the game that exists. It was a fun little one-time playthrough, but I'm okay with not picking this up again due to the elements of the game that are held back by the PSP (I didn't mention this earlier, but the FPS can drop into the single digits at times). As I did with my Chrono Trigger playthrough, I just want to shoutout the PS Vita. It is such an impressive handheld for it's time, and I love the formfactor (even though it causes my left pinky to go numb after playing for a while). Console Played On: PS Vita (PSP Version) Game Played: 11/2024 - 12/2024 Review Written and Published: 12/21/2024