Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360)

Using the Force is great fun

That's Darth Vader. Right there, on screen, standing at the entrance to a village on the wookie planet Kashyyyk. Big, imposing, stalking, Vader stands out like a sore thumb against the lush green vegetation and giant brown tree trunks. And he's under our control.

With pad in hand (we've played both the PS3 and 360 versions of the game), we use the thumb sticks to move Vader, slowly, and pan the camera around to get a decent view of what LucasArts reckons will be the greatest Star Wars game ever.

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We experience mixed emotions. Firstly, pure delight, pure Star Wars fanboy excitement. Here is Vader, perhaps the coolest science fiction character ever conceived, with lightsaber in hand and more Force powers than even the great Yoda could hope to wield. But then our gibbering exuberance is tempered somewhat by another, strange emotion - confusion. This should be one of the greatest moments in our gaming lives, and while it rocks, it's also, well, pretty weird.

Perhaps this is something we'll just get used to, but for us, Vader's always been such a bad arse because of the possibility of what he might do, the subtleness of his menacing threat. Seeing him chucking a lightsaber around, flinging poor wookies off of treetop platforms and decimating entire structures with simple button presses somehow devalues what the dark sith is all about.

It's still great fun though, and an impressive first level. We've heard much about how LucasArts has fused three pieces of cutting edge technologies - Euphoria (of GTA 4 fame), DMM (Digital Molecular Matter) and the Havok Physics engine - and created something special. How gratifying to finally get our grubby mitts on the game to try it out for ourselves. So much of what you see is bendable or breakable. A giant wooden gate blocking your way? No problem. Charge up a Force push, let rip and watch the splinters fly. Replay the level, do it again, and the splinters will fly differently. Use the Force to lift a wookie off of its feet, arms and legs comically flailing, and smash it into a tree. If that doesn't bring the trunk down, slice it up with the lightsaber. The game world is juicy fodder for your red humming blade.

LucasArts has side stepped the onrushing Star Wars plot defence force by setting the game in between the two film trilogies.

Fun fun fun. This is the Force Unleashed, and we're accepting the invitation with open arms. But those of you thinking this might be Star Wars' take on Mercenaries 2, think again. The Force Unleashed might take in plenty of worlds (Kashyyyk, Felucia, junk planet Raxus Prime, Imperial TIE fighter construction facility to name a few) but it's not an open world game. Yes you can use a Stormtrooper to dent a metal door, yes you can bring down a Tie-fighter with the Force and a clenched fist, but, at least in the early levels we played, it's a linear game with delightful, well contained destruction. Fingers crossed the later levels grant the player a bit more freedom.

On to the secret apprentice then, the game's main character. So far unnamed (interestingly for fans he's referred to as 'Starkiller' once), this dude starts off as Vader's understudy and is sent on a number of Jedi hunting missions to prove his worth. He teams up with blonde bombshell pilot Juno Eclipse and the C3PO-esque android companion Proxy as he tries to strip the galaxy of do-gooding Jedis. Vader's plan is to build up his 'son's' powers to the point where he'll be able to help him sort out the Emperor and rule the galaxy himself. Bwah ha ha ha and so on and so forth.

LucasArts has side stepped the onrushing Star Wars plot defence force by setting the game in between the two film trilogies. Everything has been approved by LucasFilm's lore bods too, so, even if you do have a problem with Vader having a previously unknown secret apprentice thrust upon your encyclopaedic knowledge of the Star Wars universe, it's now canon, so there. And if that's got your knickers in a twist, get this - there will be multiple endings that depend on choices you make in the game, and some of them promise to rockzor your Star Wars sockzors off.

The Force Unleashed has the potential to be one of the best Star Wars games ever made

Our problem with the secret apprentice isn't a plot hole one, it's a, well, excitement one. Just look at his face. Pretty generic, huh? Even Darth Maul, rubbish as he was, had a memorable face. The Secret Apprentice's face wouldn't stand out in an empty room. From the cut scenes we've seen the voice acting is impressive, and, thankfully, not riddled with embarrassing, cliché-ridden one liners, or the kind of hammy dialogue Lucas himself overpopulated Episode 1, 2 and 3 with, but we're just not feeling it with this guy. We're not feeling a connection. We're crossing our lightsabers that when the game's released we'll see that there's much more to the Secret Apprentice than some fancy Force powers and an emo scowl.

It may not be a massive deal though. The Force in the Force Unleashed is so overpowered the secret apprentice is almost forgotten. We find ourselves distracted for at least 10 minutes during the Imperial TIE fighter construction facility level trying to get three Stormtroopers to desperately grab on to each other as we dangle them perilously close to the edge of a platform. It's a lot harder than it sounds.

Then there's the comic value in using the Secret Apprentice to smash Stormtroopers into as much stuff as possible. Closed metal door blocking your path? No problem. Smash it open with a Stormtrooper. A bunch of Stormtroopers causing you problems? Bowl them over like pins with a nearby crate. The most important question left burning in our mind as our time with The Force Unleashed nears its conclusion is whether or not the pure, unadulterated fun experienced exploring the game's undoubtedly impressive tech will last throughout the entire game. If it does, we can see a high review score coming. If not, well, you get the idea.

The Force Unleashed is LucasArts' first internally developed title for the next-generation consoles, but it's not a game that's been developed with hardcore gamers exclusively in mind. Boss fights contain casual friendly quick time event finishing moves, which are really starting to grate. We understand that they allow developers to present more impressive, cinematic set pieces, but they always leave us wishing we were doing the cool stuff ourselves. That said, there's the potential for a superb game here, one we desperately want to be realised. After we finished playing the game we wanted to play some more, which is always a good sign. Roll on September 19.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is due out for Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS and PSP September 19 2008.