• 27Dec 11

  Star Wars: The Force Unleashed I and II for Wii

  Here's the deal. After playing The Force Unleashed 2 I simply HAD to revisit the first game, feeling as if I had a worse experience despite the higher rating. First off, the graphical quality of both games are basically the same, so any superficial enhancements that could possibly have been implemented into the sequel were not. The story for each game has about the same stakes, however because neither is particularly outstanding, the first story was simply my preference.
  The mechanics of The Force Unleashed do an excellent job of making one feel like a Jedi with raw power. The use of the nunchuck to raise and lower objects whilst holding them up with Z is simple yet very effective. Guiding the object (or enemy of course) by simply tilting the analog stick and releasing z while holding the stick in whichever direction one wants to THROW the person or object is even easier. Yet the simple mechanics of force grip make being a Jedi accessible, easy, and outright fun. The flick of the nunchuck to force push is both logical and makes one feel like a badass pushing everything to and fro or off a ledge. Force lighting (or choke for Vader) is simply the c button. The Force Unleashed 2 keeps the flick of the nunchuck to force push and adds shaking the nunchuck while holding a button to execute force storm/lighting which is pretty cool. But now we get to the frustration. In TFU2 force grip has been moved to the wiimote, which would be fine except for the fact that it's for all intents and purposes broken. Half the time flick the wiimote in a direction simply doesn't work, and if it does you cannot direct it towards and enemy. Which begs the question: why change the great force grip mechanics from the first game? Hmmm. Well moving along. I really enjoyed the first game especially because of the afforementioned Jedi-badassness (it's a word trust me). My enjoyment was in part due to the excellent camera and lightsaber play. First off the d-pad is a great place for camera movement in any wii game, period. That said, in an action game when it is highly important to be able to SEE where the action is and who is about to be sliced with your character's lightsaber, an accessible camera with great movement is essential. In TFU the camera simply does its job. Turning the camera easily and it auto centers on the back of the character, should one NOT choose to rotate the camera. Either way, the camera is working for the PLAYER. And now, the lightsaber. I simply LOVE the lightsaber mechanics in TFU. The only way I would have enjoyed it more was if the wiimotion plus had been out and supported 1 to 1 swinging (Skyward Sword-esque I suppose). Anway, the lightsaber isn't finicky and it swings in the direction the player swings and most importantly it's powerful and makes you feel like a powerful Jedi. Yes I said it again. You can also activate and deactivate the lightsaber with the push of a button (a). Combos are performed by rhythmically swinging left to right and/or up and down, while a thrust can be performed by simply thrusting the wiimote forward. Now for TFU2 *sigh*. I honestly have to say in all the game I have ever played this was the most frustrating camera I have ever had to deal with. First off I don't understand why the hell somebody decided to map the rotating button to plus and minus. The worse part is that when the camera is rotated it IMMEDIATELY auto-rotates to center. So if for example a boss fight is going on and the player wants to run around the boss you can't see the boss unless you literally sit there and fight the camera trying to turn away. I mean not only does the first game have a better camera, but even has lock-on!!! What the hell?! The second game could have at least had lock-on with the atrocious camera, I mean come on. The lightsaber strikes have been moved to the a button, which is a little annoying seeing that the wiimote is basically a lightsaber already, but I guess people are lazy, not me I hate it. Getting over that however, the inability to attack and move the camera at the same time gives me rage. Yes rage. Of course there's the c button to auto center, but the damn camera already does that, so basically the player is expediating the process of the camera and doesn't really have any control. So basically what I'm trying to say is that the control mechanics of TFU are vastly superior to the clunky and un-Jedibadassness that is the TFU2 control scheme. That within itself took all of the enjoyment out of the game for me. The first game sets out to make players feel like a powerful jedi and does that. I give the game an 8.5 because hell it was enjoyable and that's what games should be based on. Not graphics or length etc. Yes these are all factors, but FACTORS for calculation one's enjoyment from that game, not aspects that should be rated in and of themself. TFU2 when its annoying control scheme wasn't in the way WAS in enjoyable, but definitely did not feel like the original at all, but more like and attempt to establish a love-hate relationship with me. Yes specifically me. While TFU was a great game for me and everything made sense control-wise, the second game didn't do anything for me. I cannot understand why it got a higher rating than the first here. But it's Gamespot, so...yeah ha ha ha...any comments?

  P.S. I love Star Wars.

  • Posted Dec 27, 2011 4:02 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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