Ever since the days of the Atari 2600, Star Wars games have been a mainstay on videogame consoles and have run the gamut of absolutely incredible to absolutely miserable. It has been a rollercoaster ride of hits and misses over the years in just about every genre imaginable from MMOs to Role Playing Games and Real Time Strategy to Flight Simulators to First-Person Shooters. So where do you go when just about every avenue has been exhausted? You join the Dark Side.

The Force Unleashed lets players experience the Dark Side of the Force, allowing them to experience the Sith side of things, to see what happens behind the scenes when most of the time everything we get to be part of is focused on the rebels and their battle to take down the evil Empire in one way or another. The story of the game takes place between Episodes III and IV where the Empire has started its conquest to take over the galaxy and explains quite a bit of the events that were previously unexplained. Players take the role of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, named Star Killer and use his ever increasing power of the Force to do the bidding of the Sith Lord by wiping out the remaining Jedi scattered across various worlds as well as those that would seek to stop the Empire.

As the game begins, a flashback mission starts and you get to fill the big black shoes of Darth Vader as you search for a rogue Jedi on the Wookie planet of Kashyyyk. Sauntering through the swarms of Wookies that rush at you, casting them aside with a flick of your wrist or a toss of your fearsome red light saber, you get a taste of what it’s like to wield the incredible power of the Force and allows you the chance to mess around with the various powers at your disposal without the worry of actually getting the least bit hurt. Once you reach your goal, the story kicks off in earnest and you are brought back to the present and into the role of the far less powered apprentice. You are introduced to your pilot, Juno Eclipse, a saucy blonde who looks like she would blow away in a light breeze, and your holodroid named Proxy, who has a habit of trying to kill you at the most impromptu times.

Throughout the game you will find yourself in various locations on your hunt for the Jedi. Ranging from the junkyard planet of Raxus Prime to the wild, rancor infested planet of Felucia. Unfortunately, you will visit many of the same places more than once throughout your adventure, limiting the environments you get to explore and making the game feel lazy in its design at times. When you do revisit the planets, the action does take place in different locations and different tasks are required but the atmosphere is the still same as are the enemies found there. Fans will recognize many of the characters and races you come across such as the Jawas and Ugnauts, the Rodians and Wookies, and the familiarity is oddly comforting, even when you are flinging them across rooms and into the depths of space.

With the game being titled “Force Unleashed”, it’s pretty oblivious the main focus is on the different powers available to you. You have the standard fare of grip and push, along with additional powers such as repulse and lightning, as well as combos you can use that fuse the force abilities with your light saber. More often than not though, using the same Force power over and over becomes the norm, since if it accomplishes what you need, why bother using something else? At times switching up the power helps in a situation that calls for a particular power, but once passed, continuing with the tried and true wielding of one power is usually more than enough to get you through any sticky spot that arises.