I have a hard time deciding an actual quantifiable feeling toward this game in the form of a letter grade. There are so many feelings toward this game, and they’re all so varying, that I can barely put them together in one thought. If someone asked me to sum up the experience of playing Force Unleashed, the answer I think would depend on my mood at that time.

Since completing the game on super easy mode, using cheats, I have gone back to play it once, and I did much better only because after finishing, I realized that every one of the reviews I’ve read on the game so far was wrong; this is not a button masher. If you can smash down on the buttons controlling force powers and lightsaber slices and finish this game without dying, you’re a freak. The combat really does depend on whether or not you have the specific move or ability to exploit any given enemy’s weakness. If you do, they go down after a short while. If you have spent your points elsewhere, leveling up a totally different power or buying whatever you think sounds cool, you might have issue with some of the enemies. While unlockable combos and special moves may work very effectively on certain combatants, pretty much anything can be taken down eventually, if not very quickly, by simply using all your basic abilities in tandem. A creature might fall apart if you use move A, and it has the special ability to just not give a shit if you swing a lightsaber at it, but ignoring both of these and hitting it with lightning, a force push, and then the lightsaber will almost always bring it down. I can’t define such a game as a button masher, but it’s not as reliant on its leveling system as it would like to be.

The game itself is too hard on the player. I remember distinctly the infamous scene from all the trailers where the player character pulls a Star Destroyer from the sky and smashes it into the ground. I also remember that the directions on screen when you actually get to do this little event are completely wrong. The segment is impossibly difficult to figure out, and in an age of simply turning to my computer while the game is paused to figure out if anyone has any advice on the subject, I found that players all over were expressing disgust toward this particular challenge, and I had to discover its secret on my own. Once again, the directions on screen were not only unclear, but wrong.

It seems to be designed to challenge the player with very few rewards. There are 32 unlockable costumes in the version I played, and they’re ridiculously hard to gather up. You would think that after getting to the end of the list, you would be able to play as Darth Vader or at least Darth Maul (both of whom appear in the game). No, you can definitely unlock the Emperor and run around tearing shit up as the blur of CGI robes that fought Yoda in the Senate chamber, but Vader is nowhere on the list. To me, this doesn’t even make sense, considering the fact that you start the game as Vader in the prologue level. He’s certainly ready to be played as, but no, apparently you’d rather play as Bail Organa or the Stormtroopers that got their heads smashed in by Ewok traps.

Very little in the game keeps the players’ desires in mind. You wanted to pull down the Star Destroyer, and they made it insanely hard and confusing to boot. You’ll want to see some cool unlocked costumes, but the majority of them are simply bullshit. You wanted to blast shit apart with the Force and see the world crumble around you, but there’s little to be done beyond what is made painstakingly obvious. The puzzles are unintuitive, romantic subplot is strangling, and almost all other expectations are left wanting.

However, this game is more than just any science fiction romp. Yes, there are some disappointments to be had by those expecting condition A and item B, but I think it’s impossible not to try to consider the experience as a whole based on its established universe. Yes, the game focused on combat and that combat is shoddy at best, but the game is also based in the Star Wars universe and needs to be thought of in the same manner as the films, if only for a moment. George Lucas had his usual bullshit requirements, like a funny / dumb sidekick droid, a romance, and a bla bla fucking bla, but thankfully for fans, the old man’s influence left the whole remarkably unscathed.

Sam Witwer, an actor I now particularly admire, provides the voice and likeness of Starkiller, our protagonist. His character’s eventual redemption and switch from Sith badass to Jedi hero is clear and expected from the very beginning, yes, but he pours himself into the role like he’s playing Hamlet. He makes watching the development not just tolerable but believable thanks to the fact that he’s acting as if he’s taking part in what the game actually is: the missing Star Wars movie. There was a great story to tell here, and while it was given to us in a different medium and surrounded by half-assed gameplay, it is not to be dismissed. Fans of the Star Wars universe should definitely experience this game. While it is a chore at times, and the rewards are not for the casual player, the kind of people that enjoy Star Wars despite the movies will love it. Every beautiful cut scene is accompanied by your favorite music from the films, and it really does come across as a better movie than game, and that movie is better than any of the original or prequel trilogy.