By that time I was emotionally invested enough in the character to care about his past. But it doesn’t go into nearly as much detail as it could. You get in his head and Juno’s head, but nothing more. On it surface, it made for a decent narrative for an action game. But it didn’t reach the level of being too compelling. I enjoyed the story, but wished for more.

My comment about the “bridge” between III and IV wasn’t directed at your post, I’ve read it many places. I expected more of a connection than I got with Blackmen’s story. But it does connect nicely with A New Hope.

I actually agree with you about Galen vs. Luke. Galen makes for a more interesting character because of his past and the conflicts (no more details for spoilers sake) he goes through. Luke is a clean cut good guy, that doesn’t have much internal turmoil.

Thanks for the conversation. It will be interesting to hear more opinions next week once people (myself included) have the chance to play through the story.

Gamerdad, which system did you play if on?

But yeah, your knowing that I don’t read the other stuff probably makes my comment about this being a bridge between rather than being what you called it.

Did the books do ANYTHING with the 15 odd years Galen spends being raised/trained by Vader? Because, frankly, there’s the story here by cracky! This guy was raised by Luke’s father!! Since I end up liking Galen better than I do Luke by the end of the game, does that mean Aunt Buru and Owen sucked as parents? Or is it a case of the loyal badass adopted son versus the young whiney son?

Those are the stories I’d like to read about!

Yes indeed … quite the drought! Of course, also next week is Yggdra Union, a strategy-RPG game from the end of the GBA life that has been reportedly given very nice treatment in the port!

I guess I let me geeky librarian, star wars nerd shine through. Whoops.

Glad it isn’t filled with QTE. I’m curious to see how the PS2 lack of physics/huge install base does in terms of sales. Madden on the PS2 still held it’s own according to the NPDs. I’ve talked with PSP owners who are excited for the game… granted we (PSP owners) are excited for any game right now.

The saber combat is based on rhythm. Which makes sense but doesn’t recreate the pretty awesome dueling aspects from JK1-JKA. You can’t have “THE LADDER” here. But mastering the timing and mixing in the Force powers creatively IS key to the game and makes the boss battles more fun. (And you don’t end up with the JK-style jousting found online). Until you get to the God of War stuff just prior to the giant-thing’s death (or Force throwdown) and that felt fine to me because of the showstopping stuff they have you doing during the match the button moments.

The combat isn’t original or inspired really, but it isn’t quick-time based, DDR based really, and you can fight a bunch of different ways. You’ll even get different XP if you do – more Force points for mixing your powers well. I tended toward a zap it, slash it, repeat style but had to change that tactic frequently versus different bosses.

I haven’t read the books or comics and I don’t plan too. I’ve never been much for derivative ancillary licensed stuff for any property really.

Any Star Wars should enjoy the twists and nods The Force Unleashed makes. I wasn’t really looking forward to the game, but after the novel I’m interested to see how the story and action plays out on the screen.

My fear while reading it was that the exciting boss battles were reduced down to quick-time-events to provide the “dramatic touch” or really just to force a player to finish the fight one way.

“the game is reportedly short enough to play through in two or three decent sessions, no 25-hour epics here.”

Battles that are won by simulated DDR (i.e. match the keypress) are *not* in the JK tradition, but are the hallmark of console-centric action games. This game seems much more in the ‘Episode III’ console game tradition and not the JK tradition.

I guess we shall see …

I’m really hungry for a new X-Wing game. Rogue Squadron was always way too much of a compromise for me.