"Short is the story of Unleashed, it is" as this game can be beaten in as little as 5 hours. I had high expectations for this game and the one thing that bugs me the most about it is the length. If there was just a little more I would have been more satisfied with the overall product. Now that I have gotten that out of the way let's talk more about the game itself. For those of you who have played the first installment of this Star Wars adventure then you know the premise of the story. However for those who are just getting into this tale, well....you continue the story of the protagonist Starkiller as he fights his way to the "truth". Starkiller, once the secret Apprentice of Darth Vader is now under the impression that he is indeed a clone and that the true Starkiller died at the end of the first game. Whether or not this is true is up to you to find out. I loved the first game and being the hardcore Star Wars fan that I am, I did like this game but the first is better. There are several things about this sequel that leave you wanting and only if the creators kept a few things from the old and added them to the new, things would have turned out a lot better.
You literally jump right into the thick of the story as the extremely beautiful and well crafted world of Unleashed is presented to you. The graphics for this game are much better than the previous and the few planets you do visit look amazing. However, there is not much exploring that can be done as this is no widespread trip around the galaxy as presented in the first game. I wish that was not the case as adding more exploration to each world would have in turn added to the immersible quality of the game as well as increased it's overall length. You can't deny that this game is stunning and that the voice acting is stellar to say the less; but both of those things are muted by the lack of immersive gameplay that you experience. The combat can be somewhat repetitive as well and the inconsistent difficulty throughout the game is also noticeable. Boss battles range in difficulty and are long just for the sake of being long. I found that the final battle against Darth Vader was actually much easier than let's say the battle of Starkiller versus the Gorog. I have completed two playthroughs of this game, one on medium(normal) and one of hard. On medium this games plays rather easily and fast; however on hard I struggled with boss battles and died a lot of times trying to make it through. After finishing it on hard I doubt I will try the Unleashed difficulty as I can only imagine how frustrating it would be.
Starkiller is extremely powerful, one might even say stronger than Darth Vader when it comes to the force but I guess that is the whole dynamic around Unleashed. You have many of the powers which Starkiller attained in the first game, so you are given a lot of power to start off with. I know for some that may be off putting but being as this is the sequel to a continuing story it is only right that you have all the powers which you would have gained already. I do think though that the upgrading system, though simplified this time around did take away from the game as there was no longer that personal challenge to level up as fast. Finding Holocrons didn't seem as important as before and therefore this installment lacked that experience that many of us liked in the first game. The developers simply needed to keep more of the old formula and just re-jig a few of the missing parts, they didn't succeed in doing that and because of that the game suffers.
I found the acting and the visuals to be the best parts about this game. I can't say enough about them as they really bring this story to life. The gameplay is fun and even though repetitive I didn't find that it took so much away that I was disappointed. Yes, this game could and should have been a lot better. Sometimes I wish I could talk to these developers. It's not about producing a game that appeals to hardcore gamers appetites nor is it about producing a game that appeals to most gamers. It's simply about producing the game that you should produce. With all the tools at your disposal and with the success of the first game this game should have been the best game of the year. Now I think it might just be the biggest letdown for some. Am I disappointed? Yes, to a certain point but I did enjoy the game. I will play this game again and I will not trade it in. Like I said before I am a hardcore Star Wars geek so even with this games short comings I found it fun and even challenging on the hard difficulty. If you go into this game with no expectations, then you will love it otherwise....I have a feeling you will be left wanting.
Whether it’s an Easter egg, a joke character, or just a little nudge at a competitor, developers love slipping the odd reference to other games into their own. Sometimes though, they go beyond just slapping a Dopefish on a wall or quipping about a ‘doomed space marine’, and we get to see our heroes stride into entirely new, often completely inappropriate new worlds.
Here are a few favourites, along the ones that caused the most ‘wait, what?’ blinking on discovery.
Plenty of video game sequels come out in a year, but others don't get that luxury. Here are ones we wish would see the light of day.
They could focus on the broken arch stone but i'd prefer they pull a bloodborne and make a whole new souls like game.
"So I recently moved home into a new flat and have recently been told we won’t have internet installed until the New Year, at the earliest. This has really knocked me back as I’ve been really into online games and being able to download any game I wanted to play without any issue. Now I’m limited to a very small library of games to play (I don’t commonly play single player games). Looking at the games I have to play, I have to think of how long these games will take me to play and how well it will occupy my time. Taking out my actual working hours and sleep I have 582 hours between now and the earliest possible chance of having internet. This doesn’t include time I will be spending with my beautiful other half or seeing family. So with these hours I have developed a list of games which I recommend and should fill these hours up very nicely."
Thats all, 600 hours. I spent 1980 to about 1998 playing offline...I laugh at your 600 hours...meh
Similar thing when i moved to college 3 years ago,waited 3 weeks for internet.All i played was Dragon Age origins(12 playthroughs+7 awakening with 200 + mods installed) and bfme 2 edain.
I've been primarily a single player gamer all my gaming life. It's a superior experience to me, by a large margin. But I look for more things like plot, character development and such in my games. So a title like murdered soul suspect that most agree is a crap game, I liked because of the plot.
That said, I get why others enjoy multiplayer. They play with friends, it extends the life of the game, scratches that competitive itch. But for me, when Ellie and Joel come across the giraffes in the last of us, I don't want to hear about what you're getting on your pizza.
I game primarily to relax and for the escapism of it. I love the feeling of being immersed in and transported to other worlds as a escape from the day to day grind on life.
The problem with online games is that I find nothing relaxing about competitive multiplayer games full of intense twitchy battles and I find it impossible to feel immersed in a game world when I can hear other gamers talking and hurling insults. Even when other gamers voices are muted the majority of online games are structured in a way that a meaningful narrative of sense of identification with your character are missing
The sad thing is no matter how troll proof you try and make your online game people will always find a way to 'play' the game in a way that wasn't intended and spoil it in one way or another for the other players.
Yeah there is no substitute for single player experiences. You really get lost in those worlds abscent of human interaction.
That said, I have been playing a lot of online for a year now and I have to admit the only time I get to trully enjoy gaming is when I play a single player game. BF1 while excelent in many ways is still more frustrating than joyfull. On the other hand R&C is a blast and constantly fun! I cant wait for tLG!
Long live SP!
While I would agree with all the single player players here (I'm also always about character development, plot, story, lore, world immersion and deep gameplay), I'd positively single out some Co-Op experiences like Dead Nation and Dark Souls/Bloodborne/Demon's Souls which add to single player experience while being online.
In the broadest of terms, for me the breakdown usually falls like this:
story, single player. fun: co-op, a "just how good am I" goes to competitive. So yeah, I can easily see that. While I don't really care about dead nation's story, it was still a blast to play with my wife.
Sucks for you. I love playing online and offline. Different kinds of experiences for different moods. It's unfortunate that you limit yourself so much to what you play
So basically what you're criticizing is the game's length?
I wouldn't say I was criticizing the game's length just stating my thoughts on it. This game is short it's to me the big thing that stands out as most games today are a little bit longer. I felt the developers went for longer boss battles instead of increasing the length of the game by developing the story more which in turn would have increased in immersible quality.