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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 is sort of considered the flagship title for the multimedia bonanza LucasArts has thrown at the public.

It’s been hyped to the extreme since we saw a trailer of a black-hooded man pull a Star Destroyer from the sky into what appeared to be a heavily populated area. It had featurettes and updates and the whole nine yards, something only Shadows of the Empire even came close to.

We had a bad feeling about this.

The Force Unleashed though does something so unique for a Star Wars game that it almost requires a Senatorial hearing – it delivered.

Overall it’s easily one of the best modern Star Wars games we’ve ever played in the past decade. The honor puts it in the company of the Knights of the Old Republic series, the Battlefront series, Rogue Squadron and Lego Star Wars. Other than that? Episode I: Pod Racer was pretty awesome, but that’s hardly a Star Wars game proper.

Any Star Wars fan knows that the vast majority of games with the moniker aren’t worth the discs they’re stored on, rarely is there a middle-ground.

The story really grabbed us from the yellow, scrolling introduction. It fit perfectly with what was going on with the movies, there’s nothing that strains credulity at any point and there’s some really neat concepts thrown around in the background.

Playing the scruffy lookin’ apprentice of Darth Vader was both a pleasure and an honor. Battlestar Galactica’s Samuel Witwer does an excellent job on delivering perhaps the most believable Star Wars dialogue ever written, topped off by a true-to-the-mood, perfect moment, fully orchestral Star War soundtrack.

That said, there’s so much wrong with the game that it makes it difficult to rationalize why we loved it so much.

Camera angles can range from cinematic and dramatic to absolutely absurd. For the most part, the third person camera angles are well-done. Although they can be frustrating at times, they’re rarely fatal, which is a welcome change from Ninja Gaiden II.

The light saber battle-cam the game switches to for boss-fights can be outstanding, moving in and out pretty smoothly with the action. It still manages make things harder or get in the way at that really important moment.

The fight with Shaak Ti and the fight in the “laser floor room” were especially difficult because of the angles involved. It proves itself pretty well in the fight with Rahm Kota and Maris Brood and is functional at best against the Dr. Octopus-inspired Jedi, Kazdan Paratus.

Starkiller’s face an expressions are amazing, not quite Gears of War quality, (still a bench-mark, two years later) but well executed and believable.

Unfortunately, everyone else looks like wax mannequins, especially those based on traditional characters – Leia and Bail Organa especially. Vader also looked… off at times.

As we’ve already said, what a story. It calls into question why George Lucas insisted on writing the prequels himself, when it’s clear that he has people at his disposal at LucasArts that can make stories more gripping, personal and interesting than he can.

Many games have parts that are there just to offer challenges to the player and The Force Unleashed only contains one such moment and comes off all the better for it. No part of the game felt forced. It didn’t feel like it was there just to be a part of the game, though eight hours later it does feel like a short game.

You play a Sith and never use anything as clumsy or random as a blaster. It’s light saber and force powers only. Would a long-distance weapon have made the game easier? Yes. Would it have been as fun? Doubtful. Would it have broken the mood and made us cognizant it was a game? Undoubtedly.

It’s obvious the game is built around the story, not vice versa.

It’s certainly had a lot more effort put into it than other Star Wars works. It really felt like Star Wars the entire way through, which is more than we can say for any of the games made to go with the movies.

It would have been nice to hunt more Jedi, without them necessarily being boss battles. If the expanded universe is anything to go by, every Jedi and their dog survived Order 66 by hanging out somewhere, so the possibilities are endless.

The already announced expansions give hope to some more Jedi hunting in the future and we hope it’s the case – flinging helpless soldiers and stormtroopers around is so fun that doing it in a new places can only be better, since four levels take place on the same two planets, though the levels themselves are different enough.

The list of things we love, the little moments that made the game is a long one, killing AT-ST’s, killing Rancors, slicing one’s way through Rodians, Force repelling people away for fun, the Lighting, textures, background, soundtrack, costumes and imagery are all worthy of pages on their own.

Even the quicktime events were worth their reward.

All-in-all, we loved it, despite its flaws. Let’s hope there’s more work of this caliber coming from LucasArts in the future. We heartily recommend The Force Unleashed to anyone with even a passing interest in Star Wars, but as much as we love and recommend it, there are simply too many niggling flaws to keep it from perfection.

Oh, and may the Force be with you.

Rating: 4/5