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We check out what's in store for Star Wars fans in the upcoming anticipated game: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Star Wars fans are used to a certain degree of disappointment when it comes to Star Wars licensed video games. When Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was announced, those same fans had all got a little glint in their eyes, and when that image of the Apprentice of Darth Vader was shown brining down a Star Destroyer, they had even more hope that the Force Unleashed was going to something special.

Yet, there are still many people who are skeptical that the Forced Unleashed is going to be the next KOTOR or even anything close to it and rightfully so, not only is it the first "next-gen" Star Wars game but it is also a game that has been heavily promoted including a sort of cross-promotion of characters in Soul Calibur 4. Now with the game due out in a month, a demo has been released that the development team hopes will shine some light on the darkest side of this beloved franchise.

Taking the role as Darth Vader’s apprentice, Starkiller, the demo has players hunting down a Jedi Master by the name of Rahm Kota in a TIE Fighter hanger. Combat happens swiftly and number of powers can be used to take out both the Rebel and Imperial forces you encounter on your hunt. By using Force Lightning and striking with the lightsaber, Starkiller will imbue his lightsaber with the lightning for added punishment.

Of course, what fun is it to have the powers of the force without being able to pick up enemies and make them beg for their lives or just push the fodder out of your way with Force Push? Hey, you are supposed to be the apprentice of the Dark Jedi Master and the galaxy's biggest badass, at least after his whiny childhood, Darth Vader.

But if players want Starkiller to go the distance, while picking up enemies he can throw his lightsaber into them or use some Jedi mind tricks to pit his confronters against one another. Of course, force powers aren't limited to throwing around ragdoll enemies, the force can also move certain objects such as, monitors and girders that are dictated by an auto-aim system. Mastering these powers isn't the easiest thing however, sometimes lock ons are as accurate as they should be and moving objects and enemies around efficiently takes some practice as well.

Our preview demo ends with a boss fight against an AT-ST Walker that sadly, has to be defeated not by cleverly mastered uses of the Force, but by a generic QuickTime event. I have to say that this is kind of upsetting to see and I really hope that the rest of the game doesn't showcase more QuickTime events. Being able to bring down a giant assault walker through master moves would be far more rewarding... but I guess it's a way to go.

After all is said in done, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed just may be something Star Wars fans have been waiting for since KOTOR - a good Star Wars game. It certainly looks on par with this generation's graphic needs and by using the Euphoria physics engine the game makes using Force powers create the proper ragdoll effects.

While we don't yet know how many QuickTime events there are, I can't help but fear the developers might go overboard with them to match trends in action games today. However, this might not be the case at all and since I enjoyed this demo quite a bit, I'm going to give the developers the benefit of a doubt. If you're in the market for a good Star Wars game or even just a good action game in general, then Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is right up your alley. Especially since not a whole lot of titles are being released this month.