The Force Unleashed

I have felt a tremor in The Force. There is unrest in Unleashed. Stormtroopers are using Anti Force Fields!! Anti Force Fields? It sounds a bit odd, doesn’t it? But is it really so odd and too far fetched to exist in the Star Wars universe? Some reviewers of The Force Unleashed think so and have gone so far as to say that this feature of the game is shoe horned in and goes against 30 years of Star Wars tradition. Are they right?

When Episode I came out, and subsequently II & III, Star Wars history became a bit flimsy to say the least. So does it matter that Lucas Arts have allowed this new addition to the Stormies armoury? After all these Anti Force Shields didn’t exist in Revenge of the Sith or A New Hope and, perhaps strangely, The Force Unleashed sits firmly between these episodes on the Star Wars time line.

When A New Hope took place there weren’t any Jedi left for the Imperials to worry about so no wonder Anti Force Shields weren’t being used. By the time Luke pulled his socks up and learnt to use his lightsaber and levitate stones properly the Imperials had probably forgotten that these shields had ever existed. Problem solved. Enjoy the game.

Not enough? It’s interesting, delving deeper into Star Wars lore, that Force negating creatures exist in the Star Wars universe. These creatures are called Ysalimari. They first appeared in the Timothy Zahn trilogy of books, a trilogy that followed on from Return of the Jedi. The Ysalimari render any Force user’s power useless and they were harnessed to great effect by Grand Admiral Thrawn, the sole surviving Grand Admiral of the Imperial Fleet, to great effect. Maybe Thrawn thought the creatures less cumbersome than an Anti Force Field generator or that they were better company. Perhaps it was just the fact that the Anti Force Generators were just so "last generation".

You think the chronology of Star Wars is difficult? Just try working out who’s on litter duty on the Gameov3r FORUM