SW: The Force Unleashed – Ultimate Sith Edition Eyes On

With the Force Unleashed moving more than six million copies world-wide since September 2008, it is clear that the game has an impressive following. The up-coming Ultimate Sith Edition not only brings the action to the PC and Mac for the first time, but will give PS3 and Xbox 360 owners the opportunity to continue the saga of Darth Vader's young apprentice.

Over at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany I was given a one-to-one demo and had a quick chat with David Collins from LucasArts, whom I met last year at an Activision event. Collins was quick to remember New Zealand and NZGamer.com - so things were off to a good start immediately. The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition still contains the original game but now includes two additional levels, or chapters, that carry the story through some dramatic events. It will basically give you the chance to partake in some of the most memorable sequences from the original trilogy of movies – but turn them completely upside down.

Now a quick word of warning as it is difficult to talk about The Ultimate Sith edition without throwing in some info that may be regarded as spoilers. But without giving too much away, the additional chapters pick up the story from the “dark side” ending of the original game. One of the new chapters that we got to play takes place on the familiar planet of Tatooine, where the secret apprentice, who is now known as StarKiller, has been sent by the Emperor to hunt down and kill Obi-Wan Kenobi.

To those who have clocked the original game, you will realise that the Force Unleashed allows you to re-write the events that we know in the films and create an alternative storyline. The extra content in the Sith Edition takes this to a whole new extreme and you can expect to do battle with other familiar characters like Boba Fett and even Luke Skywalker as well.

To illustrate how the game alters the Star Wars timeline, we visited the planet Hoth – the setting for the other new chapter in the game. As fans will remember, this is the planet we witnessed in the Empire Strikes Back which opened with the Empire's attack on the Rebel's Echo Base. Now what if we took the side of the Empire and saw the battle from the other point of view? As StarKiller you will lead the attack on Echo base and take part in the assault first hand. As you can imagine, your actions here will have a rippling effect that will change the events from this point on and create an almost “what if?” scenario in the classic Star Wars series. What if Luke never managed to leave Hoth? What if Boba Fett doesn't manage to capture Han Solo?



Talking to Collins, he described how in the original Empire Strikes Back – there was an entire scene that was omitted from the final release of the movie. Apparently George Lucas had written a sequence where the Wampas (we saw one of these abominable snowmen type creatures smack Luke Skywalker around in the film) are numerous in their numbers and have been causing havoc around the Rebel base. In fact, prior to the Empire locating the Rebels, the Wampas had begun to tunnel around the Echo base and had started to infiltrate it in order for easy food and perhaps just a nicer home than their crappy snow caves. Agreeably, this wouldn't have added anything to the movie, but the Force Unleashed's Hoth chapter includes some aspects of this into the storyline, creating a new touch of true fan-service to the player. You can expect a wealth of intriguing side-stories and references all through-out the Force Unleashed and the Ultimate Sith Edition.



The Tatooine chapter will be available for download very shortly for Xbox 360 and PS3 owners who already own the Force Unleashed game. Lucas Arts were unable to comment on whether the Hoth chapter would follow suit but it only stands to reason that it will eventually (although it might be a painful wait for some). Basically those who already own the Force Unleashed, waiting is the only sensible option rather than purchasing half the same game again. But for those who haven't experienced it yet (and for PC and Mac users) it really is the perfect time to take the plunge. The additional chapters can be accessed at anytime as well straight from the main menu so players don't need to struggle through to clock the main story first. The Ultimate Sith Edition will also incude additional content such as stylish new costumes for StarKiller and extra character models that allow gamers to play as one of many legendary characters including Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku, Jango Fett and.... er, C-3PO ?

NZGamer.com would like thank Activision, Capcom, Microsoft NZ, SCENZ, SEGA, THQ and Ubisoft for making this trip possible.

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