“It’s about kicking butt with the Force.”

LucasArts is once again going to take you to a galaxy far, far away… and this time it’s a place where you can truly discover the power of the Dark side...

LucasArts knows what its Star Wars fans want from a videogame. While there have been many titles based in and around George Lucas' iconic sci-fi film saga, this one - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - goes some length to give you a couple things that every fan has surely dreamed of at some point. Firstly, the chance to control Darth Vader and his Force powers and lightsaber without restraint or caution. Secondly... well... actually, isn't the chance to use the Force and a lightsaber without restraint or caution enough?

"Don't underestimate the Force."

It's easy to underestimate the appeal of this gameplay element until you see it in its full glory. The development team behind The Force Unleashed is quick to demonstrate the possibilities of having a character who can abuse the Force in ways no other Star Wars game has shown so far, by putting you in the black boots of Darth Vader in the very first level as he and the Empire invade the Wookie world of Kashyyyk.

"The first level is basically a tutorial," says Adam Khan, senior PR Manager, LucasArts. "We want you to start off super powerful as this iconic character." To this end, your first experience in the third person action adventure will be storming through the nature-dominant world with John Williams' The Imperial March booming in the background, Tie Fighters zipping past and Chewbacca-looking beings rushing to attack.

It's an impressive array, but not as impressive as what you can do during this whole scene. Vader is capable of mercilessly impaling Wookies with his lightsaber, telekinetically picking up the poor creatures with Force grip and then nonchalantly dropping them off precipices, throwing them through constructions, rocks and trees and watching everything subsequently fall down on the poor victim, or any combination of the above, to name but a few attacks at your disposal from the start.

A Star is born

No doubt about it - thanks to this extravagant introduction to the game, you actually feel like Darth Vader, with the wealth of power at your disposal tempting you to do things befitting of a Dark Lord. But it also serves to drive the story, which takes place between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope, following Vader's discovery of a young boy who has incredible Force powers. Taken in as a Secret Apprentice, the game then has you control this twisted Padawan and his rather overzealous abilities in an effort to hunt down remaining Jedi and kill them.

This gives LucasArts the excuse to let you play with the Force as demonstrated in the opening level which had Vader toying with Wookies the way a ruthless child would their plastic Star Wars figures. "The vision for the Force is... the Force unleashed," explains Khan. "It's the Force amped up, out of control, really over the top - and that's what all the decisions in the game are going to be based on."

Khan shows this by guiding the agile Secret Apprentice through an early level, where guards and Storm Troopers alike are swiftly cut down with a lightsaber and thrown into the depths of space through glass sealed airlocks. He superhumanly dashes through corridors, pulls down an electrical cable from a wall to make a maintenance robot explode and, most impressively, yanks a Tie Fighter down from its holding bay to smash into a gang of antagonists. It's certainly Star Wars, but with an untamed and feral glint in its eye.

Even accidents can happen with the Force

The secret to achieving this level of controllable, uninhibited chaos is LucasArts' excellent use of complex physics engines (euphoria, Digital Molecular Matter and Havok) to make it into something impossible to do on previous generation systems. It may well look like the Star Wars we know and love, but PlayStation 3 is working hard to make sure everything you interact with acts like it should, too.

For example, if you pick up an enemy with the Force, they may lose their balance or try and grab hold of something - whether that's an object or a teammate - to try and tether themselves. Some may try to run from you or lose their balance, others may jump out of the way of a barrel you've thrown at them, and so on. All these touches are courtesy of some advanced programming which adds the same level of unpredictability to their actions as the Force does to yours. At the same time, materials in the game behave exactly how you expect them to. Glass shatters, wood splinters, metal bends.

In a hilarious example of all this working together, the game plays out an impromptu scenario where the Apprentice picks up a panicked guard with Force grip and launches him into a double door. The metal of the doors bends but refuses to yield all the way, leaving the poor guard stuck in-between them, legs flailing helplessly. "That's actually never happened before," laughs Khan.

Force of habit

Whether they're aimed at doors, space or other people, being able to use anything as a projectile is something LucasArts is keen on exploiting. "One of our core design philosophies is that you have infinite ammo in every level," says Khan. "You can pick up pretty much anything in the world and use it as a weapon or manipulate it to a high degree. Another of our core design philosophies is that a Jedi should never have to look for keys.  So any door I can affect with Force Push, I can batter down."

That's not to say there isn't some subtlety in using the Force - there are also Force puzzles to solve along the way, such as manipulating objects in full 3D to progress. There's also the chance to upgrade your powers and combine them. Khan divulges that later in the game you'll be able to perform feats such as the Force Lightning bomb, which involves picking someone up, loading them with lightning and then throwing them into a group to explode.

There are also a number of context sensitive moves for certain enemies and bosses which require you to press the right buttons at the right time after or during a particular action sequence. One boss has this happening against a fantastic backdrop and scenario - battling in a broken piece of space station falling into a planet's atmosphere, tilting the environment and dangerously heating the glass floor on re-entry.

No more Forced puns... for now

It's all looking to be a rather superb slice of Star Wars entertainment that offers something fans have been clamouring for since the first time they saw Darth Vader choke a fool for fun. And the best part is you'll probably play it differently to your friends given the sheer amount of leeway the Force gives you. "You get a lot of these divergent play styles, so we're trying to create an environment where you can play however you want," explains Khan.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is looking more than worthy of its name - and soon you'll be able to find out for yourself just what it feels like to throw someone into a wooden frame, only to watch the structure collapse because you used a little too much... well, Force. And then laugh maniacally about it afterwards, safe in your Sith Lord cloak of sheer cool.

"It's about kicking butt with the Force," says Khan. "From beginning to end, that's what's got to be fun, from when you pick up the Wireless Controller and start playing, to when you put it down."