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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Preview
Written by Chris Buffa on Thursday, August 21, 2008
Darth Vader took us into the throne room and abused us with the Emperor watching. We kind of liked it.
Power up your lightsaber and abuse the Force in THQ's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for iPhone. Much like its console counterparts, you play as Darth Vader's apprentice, a bad ass with a red lightsaber and a penchant for all things evil. Throughout your adventure, you'll visit various planets annihilating all sorts of creatures and even Imperial Stormtroopers, except you don't control your character as you would the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. It's all in the power of the touch screen.
Since the iPhone doesn't have a d-pad, THQ elected to put the game on rails, meaning you don't have direct control of the apprentice. Instead, you complete various challenges and watch as he moves from room to room. However, that doesn't mean you won't cause lots of damage. Whenever you encounter an enemy, you can attack by drawing symbols on the screen. For example, to block laser fire, you make a horizontal or vertical line (based on your positioning). To pick guys or objects up, you draw a loop, and then a line to toss them in a direction; to send them left, you can place your finger in the middle of the screen and then slide left. Of course, you can also harness the power of Force lightning to electrocute your foes and Force push, and if you want a new perspective, you can play both horizontally or vertically by holding the iPhone in the desired position.
It's a neat concept that should prove enjoyable while torturing the game's non-player characters, though we could see it getting old. All that finger poking, sliding and slashing is bound to grow monotonous, especially if there's some issues with the touch screen recognition; not saying there is, but that would kill the game. However, THQ promises at least three to four hours of action, so that could be the sweet spot.
Similar to the other versions, the game has impressive 3-D cut scenes and graphics, by no means as attractive as the console editions, but cool for iPhone. In addition, it features similar music, but it's not nearly as cool sounding, more artificial than orchestral.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Force chokes its way to iPhone September 16 and we can't wait to rip the galaxy a new one. Let's just hope its unique controls don't make it Bantha Poodoo.
