Psychosis Syndrome

I was very excited about this. A whole game dedicated to owning the crap out of people with the force. Heck yes. Well, it does exactly as it promises. And not much else. I haven’t finished it yet, but I’m getting pretty close.

The graphics are, well, pathetic, really. I know the Wii isn’t the most powerful console, but the graphics are comparable to the PS2, which is really quite disappointing. They’re not enough to ruin the game though.

There’s a fair bit of voice acting, which I like. None of it is by the real Star Wars actors, but the replacements are fairly good. Not brilliant, but by normal gaming standards, not too bad at all.

The controls I like. They’ve made good use of the unique capabilities of the Wii controller and nunchuck, and limited buttons. They’re not always as responsive as they should be, and sometimes they ignore my input completely, but overall, I’d say they’ve done fairly well.

The storyline is VERY linear. No variation, no options, no nothing. I dunno if it changes between now and the end, but I doubt it. I guess since it’s supposed to tell the story of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, between episodes III and IV, they have to, but still. I’d like some options.

You can customise your outfit, the colour and hilt of your lightsaber, and your force powers (all from fairly limited sets, and you have to unlock them all first) but it certainly is better than looking the same all the way through. There are many lightsaber colour options, but in game they all end up looking white when the action starts. The force powers are cool, but there are only a few base ones (push, grip, lighting and choke) that you can apply in combos and various ways. But, can you ever really get tired of throwing giant crates at a group of helpless stormtroopers?

The environments are fairly destructible. There’s not much you can’t use the force to throw at someone. Or, just the wall, if you feel that way inclined. The levels are as linear as the storyline though, and there’s pretty much only ever one path through.

The enemies are rarely challenging, which makes sense, being an all powerful sith, but they spice it up with some tougher opponents, like an AT-ST (the walking machines from episode VI), that require more creativity and skill to defeat. Also, I ran into some stormtroopers with jetpacks that just refused to die. I force lightning-ed them, I threw massive rocks at them, I threw them into the ground, I choked them, I chopped them up, and they just would not die. I was very angry.

Aside from that, the game is heaps of fun. It’s great to just walk through a level, confident in the knowledge that the next poor soul who you come across is going to die in one of many painful, force-induced ways. Personally, I can’t get enough of force lightning. ZAAAAAAAP!

So, uh, yeah. 7.5/10 is my current score for it.