Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Diaries Part Five

This is my ongoing exploration of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. This time I will continue Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Having rescued Princess Leia Organa from Imperial forces on Kashyyyk, we had set course to rescue her father on Felucia…

Landing close to an Imperial camp, I watched the Troopers fighting the locals for a moment, before deciding to stick my lightsaber in. I only did so because it was a wide open area, and my Force throwing arm is strong — also neither side appeared to be winning. There were two new enemy types: Imperial Evo Troopers, and Dark Felucian Warriors. The former fired an unblockable energy blast, the latter was just a Felucian with a darker skin tone.

An Imperial-constructed walkway with a large number of shields attempted to block my way, made more difficult by the inclusion of Purge Troopers, but it only delayed me slightly. What delayed me more in the valley I entered were my attempts to reach a Holocron, which I eventually gave up on. However, I wasn’t allowed to exit the valley as an AT-ST landed in a drop pod close to me, so I had to destroy it to continue.

Unfortunately, in the next part of the valley were more Troopers and Felucians — and another AT-ST! Once they were all dealt with, I went up a hill to find an Imperial facility built over a pit. There were tentacles held in place by chains, and an elevator in the centre, leaving me wondering what the purpose of it was.

PROXY told me that I had to power up some generators on each of the three platforms surrounding the pit, so I headed for the closest one on my left. The crane platform was smothered in Troopers, but in moments the generator was powered. For good measure I threw my lightsaber at the chain holding the tentacle, then crossed the bridge to the central section after clearing out the Troopers. Oh, and upon breaking the chain I was told that the creature in the pit was a Sarlac.

Heading right, I repeated the process of murder, electricity, and chain breaking, then went across to the final platform to do it again. In the central column I used the elevator to enter the Sarlac’s stomach, which turned out to be full of gantries, barrels, and other things that exploded when angered. My comm link to Juno Eclipse and PROXY was unstable, so I just had to follow the Imperial construction. The worst thing was that the Sarlac was trying to eat me, as I was grabbed by tendrils and sucked into digestive sacks when I wasn’t careful. Thankfully, the tendrils could be cut and the sacks had Tesla coils near them to stop those from opening.

Reaching what I took to be its lungs, I was surrounded by Felucians. However, every few seconds a massive gust of wind ragdolled everyone, so I was able to deal with them fairly easily. Making my way through the lungs was time consuming, but when I did I was expelled to the surface! Troopers and Felucians fought each other, plus they were joined by a new contender — a Rancor! Once everyone was dead on the ground, I hopped up to an Imperial gun nest to kill the two there, and further down the path were more Felucians and another Rancor!

At the end of a path was a tunnel leading into the Rancor Graveyard, which was where Senator Organa was! He was happy to see a friendly face, as Maris Brood had gone mad — a fact she disagreed with. It wasn’t madness, it was The Dark Side, as proven by her wielding dual lightsaber batons coloured red. I told her to step aside, so she did. But only so that her massive Bull Rancor could get past!

My usual strategy of “throw exploding flowers at them” didn’t help me, since there were no exploding flowers. Worse, Maris was attacking me too, and she could cloak. Now was the perfect time to grab some upgrades, so I improved my Lightsaber Throw, Saber Mastery, and Combo Mastery. Then I grabbed Sith Throw and Sith Saber Smash, while hoping I’d remember to use some of these fancy moves that I kept buying.

Indeed I did, winning the fight and pushing the Bull Rancor into the ground before fighting Maris herself. Her cloak was pretty useless since the camera kept focusing on her, so I backed her into a corner and wailed on her a bit. She begged for mercy, saying that the planet had corrupted her after her master abandoned her. If I let her go, she would turn her back on the Dark Side… Not that I had a choice, since she ran off without giving me the option to stab her. Organa said that I shouldn’t have allowed her to go free, though I countered that she wasn’t really “free” while she was tormented by memories of what she’d done.

In the mission summary, I completed the “Release the Sarlacc” and “Force Points” bonus objectives, killed 152 assorted enemies, and collected 11/15 Holocrons.

In the following cutscene, Organa denied wanting to fight the Empire, but if Galen was to lead them, they might have a chance. So, he was going to find out how many Senators would stand with them, and get some weapons and starships sourced. Meanwhile, Galen was going to “meditate” on what to target next. So on the Rogue Shadow, he called Darth Vader and asked him where to attack next. Vader suggested the shipyard over Raxus Prime which was building Star Destroyers. He also suggested that I quell any positive feelings I might be having towards the Rebellion, before signing off.

PROXY kvetched that he hated “being him”, and Galen mused that Vader does too. Though there was no time to dwell on the matter, as somehow Juno had entered the room without anyone noticing! Vader was literally facing the door… She was upset that I’d still work with the man who branded her a traitor and tried to kill us, but Galen said that he was still Vader’s slave… She told me that I would soon need to decide the fate of the Rebellion…

Later, at Raxus Prime, I was to get to the processing plant on the surface where I could use the ore cannon to attack the shipyard. The place was still lousy with Rodians so I killed some, Force Pushed some girders out of my way, then murdered some more (and some Jawas!). A TIE Fighter (or more than one?) flew past firing at something that I couldn’t see, so I ignored it and crossed a chasm to kill some more beings by hurling them into the stratosphere. Dropping down a level, I used a tunnel which had been made in the garbage to find some Troopers fighting Rodians. They were soon joined by an AT-ST, and more Stormtroopers.

After clearing the area up, I jumped up to a ship and ran through the corridor which led me to an Imperial Dropbase. While Juno worked on opening the hangar door so that I could get inside, I murdered the snipers and other Troopers outside. I was annoyed by the amount of Purge Troopers, but then I was treated to more Purge Troopers when the hangar door opened! And an AT-ST!

After much death and destruction, I took the elevator up inside the Dropbase, and hijacked a dropship to get to the processing centre. Slaughtering my way inside, I found the tractor beam that maintained the cannon’s alignment, in the form of a large tower. So, I cleared the room with violence, then used Force Lightning on the five Tractor Conduits, causing the tower to topple! Then I just had to use The Force to disconnect two generators powering the Laser Gate and hop on an elevator down several levels.

Being greeted by multiple Troopers, I got rid of them before using The Force to unlock the door at the end of the hall. Now in the central ring, I cleared out a couple of handfuls of Imperials as I went around, before using an elevator to reach the top. But I was confronted by a lone Trooper with a lightsaber lance and a cool helmet, who could use The Force! But not to worry, as upon beating them they turned into PROXY! It had decided now was the best time to fulfil its programming and murder me. It used several hologramatic forms, including Maris, Rahm Kota, and Shaak Ti before changing to Darth Maul!

I really appreciated how the music changed to the fight music from that movie, but I didn’t appreciate how PROXY’s health refilled… Pinning it in place with its own “lightsaber”, I left it so that I could complete my mission. All that I had to do was use Force Lightning on the four Rail Gun Tracks, so I did the two behind me, before doing the two in front. Part of the circular gantry had been destroyed, meaning that I couldn’t just go in one direction all the way around… Oh, but I got to throw a lot of Troopers, at least!

Ore shot from the planet directly at the shipyard and it exploded, though a lone Star Destroyer escaped and headed directly for me, with fleets of TIE Fighters at its disposal. While I dodged blaster fire, Kota told me to use The Force to grab the Star Destroyer and smash it into the planet! So, I grabbed some quick upgrades: Force Grip, Resilience, and Aerial Shock.

This section took me 15 minutes, because after destroying one fleet of TIEs another would be within blaster range after 50 seconds. As such, I destroyed 44 TIE Fighters in the seven attempts it took me to yank the Star Destroyer down! Also, I may have not realised that I could just grab the TIEs and throw them at each other, at first…

A cutscene began where PROXY appeared from out of the rubble, but had been damaged in a particular way that wiped its primary programming, and so felt that it would be of little use. Galen instead helped it back to the ship.

In the mission summary, I completed the “Destroy The Imperial Tractor Beam Tower” and “Force Points” bonus objectives, killed 120 assorted enemies (not counting the 44 TIEs), and collected 9/15 Holocrons.

On the ship, Darth Vader said that he wanted information about Galen’s allies, but the apprentice said that he needed a little more time to ensure they trusted him. Vader told him not to wait too long to contact him before signing off. Juno was in the room, behind PROXY, and reported that they had reached Corellia, where Organa and his allies were waiting. Galen assured her that he was doing the right thing — for both of them — and they landed.

Bail Organa, Rahm Kota, Garm, and Mon Mothma were gathered, with Princess Leia stood next to her father. Organa made an official declaration of rebellion, vowing that one day the galaxy would be free! Using The Force to sense that was the perfect dramatic moment, Vader’s fleet of Star Destroyers, TIE Fighters, and ground troops suddenly arrived! Organa told PROXY to end the transmission, having been in the form of Leia, moments before Darth Vader strode in, ordering the prisoners to be taken alive, and thanking his apprentice. Then he chucked a table at him!

“You agreed to stay away!” Galen shouted at his master. “I lied,” Vader replied matter-of-factly, “as I have from the very beginning.” As he went to strike the killing blow, Obi Wan Kenobi jumped Vader! But it was PROXY, who got stabbed for its trouble. It was long enough for Galen to disappear from the cliff edge, though, presumably to his death…