Star Wars The Force Unleashed

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a next-gen Star Wars video game that takes place between the films Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Being the centerpiece of the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed multimedia project, the game is to be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii as well as the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS. LucasArts is working in conjunction with Industrial Light & Magic, Pixelux Entertainment, and NaturalMotion to create a next-gen Star Wars experience. The game will showcase Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), an extremely detailed and realistic material physics engine developed by Pixelux, and euphoria, a realistic bio-mechanical A.I. engine by NaturalMotion. The Force Unleashed was originally slated for release in November 2007 and was delayed to the Spring of 2008, but it was once again delayed to the Summer of 2008.


Story

You will play as Darth Vader's secret apprentice and will help him exterminate the last of the Jedi. The story revolves around "redemption." The game will span several years.


Characters

The Secret Apprentice
"The young man has a knack for the Force and a dark slant to his attitude - making for a less-than-typical lead character for a Star Wars title." ?IGN
"While your character is plenty evil-looking and wields a red lightsaber, company reps were quick to point out that he isn't a Sith at all. In fact, concept art shows the character wearing a sort of shackle on his wrist that Vader apparently uses to control him?" ?GameSpot
In the game, the player shares a love interest with Juno Eclipse, an Imperial who pilots your ship, the Rogue Shadow.

Darth Vader
By the end of the game, you will supposedly have a deeper understanding of Darth Vader and how the events in the game affect his behavior in the original trilogy. Vader finally came to realize that the Emperor had tricked him into turning towards the dark side, but he "thinks" he knows it's too late to go back, so the only thing he can do is destroy Lord Sidious with another apprentice?i.e. the player.


Gameplay

You start off as a Dark Side Adept with the majority of powers at your disposal, from Force Push to Lightning. Throughout the game your powers can and will evolve to legendary strength. The choices that the player makes will affect the outcome of the game resulting in several alternate endings including the "true" (canon) ending. Shaak Ti is one of the major Jedi that the player must face. Vader is the only one who knows that the apprentice (you) exists. In order to keep it that way, he orders you to wipe out all witnesses. Everyone is the enemy.
In the February 2007 issue of Game Informer, it was confirmed that you can unlock new outfits.


Voice cast

Nathalie Cox ? Juno Eclipse
Cully Fredrickson ? Rahm Kota
Sam Witwer ? Secret Apprentice
Matt Sloan ? Darth Vader
Cam Clarke ? Obi-Wan Kenobi
Mary Newman ? Princess Leia
Zeb Drees ? Secret Apprentice (Child)
Kari Wahlgren ? Aayla Secura
Adrienne Wilkinson ? Maris Brood


Sequels

As revealed at Celebration Europe, LucasArts is currently planning the next installment of The Force Unleashed storyline as well as other sequels.
"All these characters are going into the continuity, they?ll all be canon, and they?re all part of the Star Wars galaxy. So I can imagine that there will be other follow-ups with those characters. We?re already starting to toss around ideas about the next storyline and how some of these characters can resurface and have major roles in a sequel."
?Haden Blackman


Official Trailers

The first Official Trailer premiered on Entertainment Tonight and was featured exclusively (7/12/07) on the official home for Star Wars on Yahoo!, featuring an amazing view of what's to come as far as gameplay and story line. The trailer later appeared on the game's official website. Little has been revealed about this new action game from LucasArts. This all-new story revisits characters and locations that fans are familiar with, but also introduces new ones that add more rich depth to the Star Wars canon. You'll meet Maris Brood, an apprentice of fan favorite Shaak Ti, and come face-to-face with General Kota, a grizzled veteran who has much to teach. You'll set foot on Raxus Prime and see Felucia, a planet only touched upon in Episode III (also in Star Wars : Empire at War Forces of Corruption and in Star Wars Battlefront II), up close and personal.


Characters

Vader's apprentice.
Maris Brood
Jabba the Hutt
Juno Eclipse
PROXY
Rahm Kota
Palpatine
Shaak Ti
Darth Vader
Secret Apprentice
Yoda
Princess Leia
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Bail Organa
Jedi droid maker
Creatures
Rancor
Bull Rancor


Events

Great Jedi Purge


Locations

Coruscant
Jedi Temple
Felucia
Haroon
Kashyyyk
Naboo
Raxus Prime
Tatooine
Yavin 4
Nar Shaddaa
TIE Fighter Construction Facility
Bespin


Force Powers

Force Grip
Force Lightning
Force Push
Force Repulse


Organizations and titles

Galactic Empire
Emperor's Shadow Guard
Imperial Navy
Stormtroopers
Heavy stormtrooper
Jedi Order
Order of the Sith Lords
Alliance to Restore the Republic (Rebel Alliance)


Sentient species

Aleena
Felucian
Gamorrean
Human
Hutt
Rodian
Togruta
Ugnaught
Wookiee
Zabrak


Vehicles and vessels

All Terrain Armored Transport
All Terrain Scout Transport
CR90 corvette
Imperial I-class Star Destroyer
Oevvaor jet catamaran
Rogue Shadow
TIE/ln starfighter
Unstable Terrain Artillery Transport


Weapons and technology

Lightsaber
Tonfa-style lightsaber



In an interview released exclusively by IGN, Haden Blackman reveals more about the upcoming Star Wars game.

Based on the announcement of an action figure wave revolving around the content of the game, and an article in the March issue of Game Informer it is known that it will feature characters named Maris Brood a scantily-clad Zabrak woman with twin green lightsabers that appear to look like tonfas, General Rahm Kota, an elder Human "Samurai" Jedi with a blue lightsaber, and Juno Eclipse, a blonde Human female Imperial officer. The figures include a battle-damaged Darth Vader, Palpatine wearing a robe with alternating dark and light brown deco using Force lightning, an Imperial Guardsman wearing armor resembling Carnor Jax and armed with a red lightsaber, referred to by Hasbro toy catalogue and computer databases as an Emperor's Shadow Guard, a younger Human male Jedi with a blue lightsaber, and stormtroopers wearing armor that resembles a cross between phase II clone trooper armor and stormtrooper armor. One is referred to as a Heavy Stormtrooper.

The March 07 issue of Game Informer features the unveiling of this game and confirms the title. It also confirms that Shaak Ti, in control of rancors, will be one of the game's bosses.

Force powers in this game are going to be over the top. When you Force push somebody, it's going to like a cannonball hit them in the gut. As for Force Usage, there will be a bar, but it will constantly regenerate. Some powers have unlimited uses such as Push, but more advanced powers such as Repulsion will take a couple of seconds to recharge. The control scheme will be akin to Psi Ops.

In addition to toys, it will have a companion book and a comic. Although the game will have multiple endings, the book and comic will follow the sole canonical ending.

When the game is finished, it is estimated to feature over 1,000 new special effects.

The official website has been redesigned (7/12/07), featuring a darker atmosphere and further information about the game.


Game technology

The Force Unleashed uses 'Ronin', a game engine developed by LucasArts. It integrates the physics engines Havok, euphoria and Digital Molecular Matter.


Euphoria

The use of euphoria, from NaturalMotion, will give characters advanced bio-mechanical AI, allowing characters to realistically respond to changes in the environment.

"Well, you probably Force pushed a stormtrooper or two as Kyle Katarn in a Jedi Knight game, right? Imagine if that stormtrooper was able to stop his progress by grabbing onto a railing and then proceeded to grab a gun beside him and fire back at Kyle?all this because his biomechanical AI simply knew that that's the best thing for him to do. That's euphoria in action."
?Haden Blackman


Digital Molecular Matter

DMM creates truly interactive environments that behave as they do in real life. Materials in games usually break in predetermined ways. DMM calculates the breakpoint in real-time. It simulates what would happen to a material when broken, shattered, cut into two, snapped, splintered, pushed, squeezed, etc. It is exclusive to LucasArts until September 2008.

"Now, imagine that Kyle pushes another stormtrooper into a building with so much force that you'd expect the stormtrooper to make a permanent dent in the wall. That happens with DMM, and no matter how many times you throw that stormtrooper into that wall, it will look different every single time, and still always look authentic. In fact, if you hit him hard enough and the building is dilapidated enough, the whole thing might collapse on the stormtrooper, because DMM also takes into account the actual physical mass of an object and the ways in which objects are constructed. Even with euphoria in place, there's no getting up from that!"
?Haden Blackman


Industrial Light & Magic

ILM is partnering with LucasArts to deliver movie-quality special effects in real-time for the game.

"In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the team is striving to raise the bar to deliver movie-quality effects. As much as possible, we want gamers to feel as if they are living the adventure unfolding before their controller, and with the added processing power of the next-gen platforms it is now possible to bring movie-quality effects and lighting to games. One of the advantages that we have at LucasArts is that we're a part of the same company, Lucasfilm, which owns Industrial Light and Magic (just in case you didn't already know). And for the first time in the histories of the two companies, LucasArts and ILM are teaming up to co-develop tools that will enable Star Wars: The Force Unleashed to feature polished effects, the likes of which have only been hinted at in previous games."

Brett Rector