Now, I’ve never really been the world’s biggest Star Wars fan, (please don’t stop reading) so I was naturally surprised by how thrilled I was by the demo, as well as how motivated I was to immerse myself in Star Wars literature, only to better understand the game’s scenario. This demo will convert the unbelievers, and it’ll do it with physics.

Played through this puppy on the Sith Warrior, middle-of-the-road difficulty, and though it wasn’t anything close to challenging, I could see new players being overwhelmed with the massive amounts of power they are immediately presented with. Right from the get-go you can choose from your various force-grip ‘n throw maneuvers, as well as force push, force lightning, and some fancy lightsaber trickery. Force grip is given the emphasis, as it’s used to complete tiny puzzles to progress through levels, and exists as your bread and butter in the practice of murder. Tossing crates, circuitry, and horrified men is what you spend most of your time doing, and to say that this is satisfying doesn’t do it justice. Other than that, all there is to say about gameplay is that Unleashed has a standard control layout, and the melee and movement all seem fluid and intuitive, as does the camera control.

Graphically, the game flows well enough. The framerate seems to sit at a solid 30, and I didn’t get any slowdown through the whole thing. The character models are… lacking, let’s say. Specifically, the apprentice himself is looking a bit haggard. Maybe it’s because I’m used to seeing him in his beautifully modeled Soul Calibur 4 glory, but the guy just looks a little… shitty. The cutscene to kick off the show was a little on the boring/ugly side, but Unleashed has inner beauty. You can feel the power the game is coursing through your console when you take a moment to watch the glass panes realistically shatter and fall, and when you watch the limb control on a storm trooper as he flies up to heaven a sharp ceiling. There are pretty things here.

Maybe it’s a spoiler if you haven’t checked it out yourself, but the demo’s finale comes in the form of a battle with an AT-ST. You can take him out with brute strength, or a combination of force powers, but in the end (at least for me) it triggers an old-school quick-time event that results in a clean slice right down the middle of the once-proud mech. Sometimes just being completely badass is just enough. You don’t need to worry about the bitching that quick-time events always drag with them; I forgive you, Lucasarts.

For a game that’s had a lot of speculation over the past year this demo was a tactical victory. Now we can all rest snug in our beds knowing that something worthwhile is headed our way mid-September.

The Force Unleashed Demo gets 3 excited Toms out of 3.