Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3)

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LucasArts thinks The Force Unleashed is the greatest Star Wars game ever released.

Could Star Wars: The Force Unleashed be the greatest Star Wars game of all time, as Cameron Suey, the producer in charge of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, believes? Perhaps. Having seen the next-gen versions of the game for four hours straight, we're even more convinced that Suey, and LucasArts, might be on to something. That's right. The Force Unleashed may well turn out to be the greatest Star Wars game ever made. And that's exciting enough for us to get as giddy as a Wookiee with a can of flea killer.

Hyperbole? We don't think so. It looks that good. We're talking tech. Old-fashioned, nerd-pleasing tech. The kind that gets processor obsessives and graphics whores so hot under the collar their heads explode. The Force Unleashed is so impressive from a technical point of view that it should have all hardcore gamers, Star Wars fans or otherwise, salivating at the mouth like a Jedi-obsessed fanboy at a science fiction convention. If the Force Unleashed doesn't quite make the grade as the greatest Star Wars game ever made, it will certainly go down as the most ambitious whatever happens between now and its September 19 release date.

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At first glance The Force Unleashed looks odd. Jedi and Sith use the Force in ways we've never seen in the films or in previous Star Wars games. But, as the game's title suggests, this is the Force unleashed, and so it proves. The game's opening tutorial sees you play as a slow-moving, almost stalking Darth Vader, yes, Darth Vader, who has such overwhelming power that the poor Wookiees he slaughters on their home world of Kashyyyk seem like mere rag dolls. With powers like Force Choke and Force Push, as well as the ability to combine those with lightsabre attacks - Vader can lift a Wookiee high into the air with the Force then throw his lightsaber like a boomerang into the abdomen of the unfortunate furball from a distance, a move called the Sabre Impale - the giant Bigfoot wannabes never stood a chance. Absolute class.

But Vader's devastating Wookiee-killing power isn't the most impressive thing about The Force Unleashed's first level. It's Vader's ability to use the Force to destroy the game world. Almost immediately the game presents an opportunity to show off its vision for how devastating it can be. A wooden structure blocks Vader's relentless path towards a rogue Jedi hiding on the planets' surface. Vadar charges up a Force Push and unleashes it into the wall, which splinters and crumbles. Buoyed by this, Vader sees how the rest of the lush forest world stands up to his power as he makes his way inexorably onwards and upwards into the centre of the Wookiee encampment high in the forest trees. The Force makes quick work of shrubbery and obstacles, leaving wobbly bridges shaking in its wake. Lightsabre throws chop tree trunks in half like samurai slicing up bamboo. Huge boulders are lifted then thrown into the path of onrushing Wookiees. Any remaining are dispatched either with lightsabre slices or simply by picking them up with the Force and throwing them off into the jungle below. The game world Star Wars: The Force Unleashed presents somehow manages to steal the show. It looks like a playground of epic proportions.

Simply messing about with the Force powers looks like tremendous fun

The great dark one eventually catches up with his target - a Jedi hiding from the evil Galactic Empire. A face-off ensues. When lightsabres clash it's button-mash time. Eventually Vader wears down his opponent and triggers a spectacular finishing move, involving timed prompted button commands. These finishing moves won't punish you if you fluff your prompt - it will simply go back to the beginning and wait for you to get it right. The Jedi's distraught son turns up. Vader senses great power in him and decides to take him under his wing. And thus the game's plot (it is set in the gap between the two film trilogies) is set in motion.

We then skip forward a number of years and Vader's secret apprentice has almost completed his Sith training. To get over the line he sends him off on a mission to kill a Jedi called General Rahm Kota, who's been making a lot of noise on an outer rim ship yard. Many of the powers Vader enjoyed aren't available to the apprentice - LucasArts has employed a Metroid style 'give you everything in the first level then take it away' strategy. Throughout the campaign you'll unlock combos (there are over two dozen in the game), talents and powers, and level up your lightsabre. The apprentice is not the finished article, and he actually rekindles memories of Luke Skywalker as he goes off on his final mission before becoming a fully fledged Jedi Knight in The Empire Strikes Back.

The apprentice does, however, begin with a number of handy powers, including the Force Push, Force Dash and the Force Grip, a move LucasArts is extremely happy with. Here, you lift your target with the right trigger and then move it about across all three dimensions with the two analogue sticks. You can, for example, pick up a Storm Trooper and chuck him through a pane of glass. Or simply wave him about the air just for the laugh. The ST will struggle about as he tries to regain his balance and, once he does, will start shooting you from mid air. It's up to you to decide how you want to dispatch the unfortunate foe - smash him into the nearest wall or fling him bowling ball style into his onrushing allies - the choice is yours.

This ties in with LucasArts' design mantra that The Force Unleashed should be a game with infinite ammo. Everything is considered a weapon, from containers to Tie Fighters to metal pylons to allies and enemies alike. We see a ST used to smash open a door (LucasArts is also insistent that a Jedi never has to look for keys) and he gets stuck inside the small opening, comically flailing his arms and legs. With a Force Push the apprentice puts him out of his misery. He contorts a metal beam so that it takes out strafe-running Tie Fighters. It's the game's plentiful options and ability to surprise that impresses the most.

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