Star Wars: The Force Unleashed — 15 Years Later

Video games had a big year in 2008. With the release of huge titles like Grand Theft Auto 4, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, and Mirror’s Edge, the video game landscape was rapidly changing. Not long before, in 2007, gamers around the world were treated to other important and influential games like Halo 3, Mass Effect, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Bioshock. Safe to say, this was a big flashpoint for the video game industry.

But this was also an important time for Star Wars. The release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie ushered in a new period of Star Wars animation. It also saw the debut of Dave Filoni, the beloved director, writer, and creative mastermind behind The Clone Wars series, Rebels, Tales of the Jedi, and Ahsoka. And that’s not even mentioning the debut of Ahsoka Tano herself. But one other Star Wars-related piece of media would go on to be influential, not only on Star Wars, but on all movies, TV shows, and video games: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

The Force Unleashed – 15 Years Later

I was nine when I first played The Force Unleashed. I was over the moon when it first came out. I eagerly waited for the game’s release, following every bit of news, preview videos, and gameplay demonstrations before its release. And when it came out, I gobbled it up enthusiastically, playing as much of it as quickly as possible. I’d even try and play it before I went to school, early in the morning, picking up even just 10 minutes of it before I left home.

The game centers around Galen Marek, codenamed Starkiller, Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. Starkiller is taken from his Jedi father at a young age and trained by Darth Vader to become Vader’s ultimate tool to defeat the Emperor. Having been taught by Vader all his life, Starkiller has incredible force abilities. But Starkiller begins to doubt his master’s true intentions after encountering other Jedi who warn him about Vader’s deceptive nature.

Starkiller is portrayed by Sam Witwer, who would also go on to voice Darth Maul in later iterations and become a well-known member of the Star Wars community. Starkiller and Sam Witwer’s portrayal has only escalated in popularity over the years, thanks to Starkiller’s insane amount of power and Witwer’s intense, passionate contributions to the series overall.

How the Making of The Force Unleashed Changed Entertainment

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was highly ambitious, pushing the technological boundaries of a video game. Many aspects of the game are worth praising and discussing, including its story, combat, characters, and visuals. But one part of the game’s production, in particular, helped change all of entertainment, and it has to do with the game’s facial capture technology.

At the time, performance capture was still a developing field. This was before Avatar, which came out in 2009. Today, we generally consider Avatar the leading property in performance capture, but video games began working with it a lot earlier. But The Force Unleashed took the technology to new heights within the gaming sphere. 

The Force Unleashed was an early instance of using facial capture technology to transfer an actor's expression to a digital character. With help from Industrial Light and Magic, the team at The Force Unleashed helped to further develop facial capture technology and apply it to video games. Arguably, the next notable game to adopt this technology would be LA Noire, which came out in 2011. Today, performance capture is much more robust and prominently used throughout all entertainment mediums.

A Critical Analysis of The Force Unleashed

Upon its release, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed didn’t receive very high critic reviews. It did, however, get major applause for its story and characters. The game was written by Haden Blackman who would later write Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison. This well-loved comic also made our list of best Darth Vader comics. And many agree that the portrayal of Darth Vader is one of the best parts of the game.

But the game was not without its flaws. Critics generally lambasted the game’s repetitive combat, lackluster boss fights, unwieldy camera, and relatively short story. While some may be a bit on the harsher side, some of these criticisms are fair, especially if one is to look back on the game now. Some of the boss fights can be annoying, as it can be tough to determine when you can actually attack the boss and when you cannot. Enemy types can also be an issue, as the variety of enemies with different weapons and abilities is limited, with enemies not really challenging the player to mix up their strategy.

The Lasting Legacy of The Force Unleashed 

Despite the negative reviews, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is still a large part of the Star Wars franchise and carries a large amount of influence. The Force Unleashed sold 6 million copies in a year, making it the fastest-selling Star Wars game at the time, and would eventually total over 9 million copies sold. It was enough to garner a sequel later in 2010 with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. Yet, even the sequel wouldn’t receive many high reviews either, with many — ironically — praising the combat, but this time around, criticizing the game’s story.

The game’s main character is still loved by many. Fans have also been requesting for many years to have Starkiller return in some way. The story is currently part of Star Wars Legends, but Dave Filoni has expressed interest in bringing Sam Witwer back in an important way into live-action. The closest we’ve come to seeing Starkiller and The Force Unleashed in Star Wars canon is Luthen Rael’s antique shop in Andor, where we see Starkiller’s cyborg armor in the background.

Finally, The Force Unleashed helped bring actor Sam Witwer into Star Wars. While Starkiller was the character that brought him into the franchise, he’s probably now most known for lending his voice to Darth Maul in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and briefly in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Not only that, but his encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars, the making of it, and its overall history is greatly valued by those who get to listen to his chats. Sam Witwer has become a greatly appreciated member of the community thanks to his many contributions.

Will fans get to see Starkiller again? The character’s future is uncertain, but there’s still a chance, especially with even more movies and shows coming out. And with Dave Filoni and Sam Witwer continually in the spotlight and ready to go at a moment’s notice, it’s likely to eventually happen. But even if the character is never to be seen again, the legacy of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and what it did for Star Wars and all of entertainment is still felt to this day, 15 years later.