Expanding The Gaming Universe One Player at a Time

LucasArts-Star Wars:The Force Unleashed

At this years Comic-Con I attended the LucasArts panel where they highlighted Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game. The first thing to happen was a viewing of the trailer, for the 3 people in the room who hadn't seen it, followed by the introduction of the

project lead, Hayden Blackman. Blackman was alone on the panel but gave us insight to the game as he spoke for himself, his team and one Mr. George Lucas himself.
He started by telling us how the game came to be and that it has been in development since August of 2004. Around 10-15 people came together to come up with ideas for a new chapter in the Star Wars franchise, a process that took around 18 months to complete. They pitched ideas of what they would want to play, different main characters and timelines. One idea that they toyed with was following the story of Wookies, but it was canned for there was no way for anyone to connect with a character on an emotional level that couldn't even speak our language. "No drama," as the team said. They took in tons of community feedback and saw that the majority of the fans wanted to use The Force in the game more than anything else. The developers wanted to create Darth Vader's secret apprentice and stated that George Lucas was supportive in the ideas.

The story takes place between the "dark times" of the 3rd and 4^th movies. Lucas loved the timeframe because it was an area that's never been touched and is a very pertinent part to the series. Their next obstacle was creating the apprentice. They took 6 months creating the look of the apprentice as they looked back to Vader and the harsh conditions he would have raised his "secret" in and how that would define him. The team had no references to look at since they were building new characters and a whole new universe but looked towards the Japanese/Asian influences: Samurai style, the lightsaber on the back look. A question during the Q&A session was "if the apprentice is on Vader's side, why do we see him fighting storm troopers?" Blackman responded by saying there are too many elements in the story that would give away spoilers but to just remember he is the "secret" apprentice. There is also the introduction of Juno Eclipse, the apprentice's love interest and an Imperial pilot, as well as new art figures for Storm Troopers and Imperial Guards. There will also be familiar characters although not all have been announced.

As for technology, they were told to push and push hard until they were told to stop. There will be new ways to manipulate objects as well as people, including the "glass physics." It was explained all glass in the game will shatter differently depending on if it is an object or person being thrown through. All enemies will have nervous system AI. With this the characters react, defend or attack like human beings would. They are not scripted. If you push them, maybe they will fall, maybe not. Every encounter will be different and unpredictable.

As for game play, everything you see in the trailer, with the exception of bringing down the Star Destroyer, is all in game footage. Also, since the fans are eager to wield The Force as much as possible, you can play the entire game with just The Force or just your lightsaber. There will be combo attacks using a Force attack and a lightsaber attack; using a Force attack with another Force attack; and using a Light saber attack with another lightsaber attack. An easy mode will be made available so that everyone can pick up the game and play it.

The game will be available for Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, DS, and PS2. Our correspondent April Carlson had asked if all versions of the game will be similar. She was told the story will be same on each platform, but since The Force Unleashed was made for next-gen consoles, the game play physics will be different on handhelds and last-gen consoles because of hardware limitations. They also said the DS version will incorporate the touch screen. She then stated that since this game is Force and lightsaber driven this would be a great opportunity to utilize the Wii-mote. She was told a Wii version "has not been ruled out as of yet."

You can expect Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in the spring of 2008 and the game will be rated "T" for Teen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBlTLEC8pU4