The demo for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released on Xbox Live today, so no doubt many people hurried to sign in and see if the game is as good as it looks. After playing through the demo a few times, I was  surprised when I realised the game had left a sour taste in my mouth when it was all over. There are various little issues that kept popping up during my experience which really got on my nerves.

The main issue I had was the camera, and boy was this a bitch. You can click the right thumbstick to flip your camera over to where your character is facing, or at least I think so. Whenever I click it during combat things start to go horribly wrong and I can’t figure out where the hell I’m facing. Towards the end of the demo you face an AT-ST, and god was I pissed when I died because the fucking camera was looking at the most pointless of locations while stormtroopers and an AT-ST turned me into Swiss cheese.

The second most irritating issue was the lock-on. If you want to pick up a specific object, it’s sometimes tricky to get your targeting on that particular thing, this is mainly due to there being several enemies and other objects right next to it. There is no target scroll, so you have to kind of twist the camera about while getting your ass shot just so you can pick up that object. Also throwing objects at people is great, but sometimes it’s actually quite tricky to hit people with it unless the impact causes an explosion. Upon realising how awful my throwing aim was, I sort of just gave up and decided to ‘launch’ my enemies into space instead of throwing shit at them. Why throw a big rock at someone when you can just pick the person up and throw them instead, right?

There’s also a meter under your health for your force powers. Basically this recharges over time, and it depletes very easily. I found it really irritating that just when I had a chance to do something cool, I realised my power meter is depleted so I have to block for a while and let it recharge. Speaking of block, it’s fucking lame, it really is. You can deflect most things with the lightsaber block, but while doing so you stand still and can’t perform any other actions. Considering how open the areas are in this game, enemies will chip away chunks of your health because you have no real way of closing the distance quick enough. All you’re doing by blocking is buying yourself some extra time to sit and think about your next move.

It’s not all hate though, so don’t worry. The controls scheme is well laid out, I had no trouble at all learning them as I went. All the pretty graphics and physics you saw in those videos are in the demo, so yes you can lift up a TIE fighter and throw it at something. Combining force powers is good fun, for example lifting up an enemy and then using force push, shame that force meter holds you back though. The QTEs are easy as pie to pull off, but they’re satisfying to watch. You can cut the AT-ST in half towards the end of the demo with a QTE, give it a shot. Still, this demo has let me down slightly. The game isn’t as great as I was hoping it to be but that’s not to say it’s a complete failure. Still looking forward to the full game, and worst case scenario I’ll just rent it.