Star Wars: The Force Unleashed DLC Diaries (Jedi Temple)

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 play the DLC for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed — Jedi Temple.

Heading to Coruscant, a populated Empire world, Galen and company are in search of something within the Jedi Temple, after the apprentice saw a vision of his father on Kashyyyk…

While the ship managed to arrive at the temple without incident, there was an Imperial garrison directly below. So, obviously, I jumped down into the middle of them. Some went over the side of the platform, others were smashed with crates (or each other), many were cut down with my lightsaber… There were a variety of Troopers, and to top it all off an Imperial Purge Trooper! I had some upgrade points, so I grabbed Aerial Strike and Force Focus during the fighting, and once the coast was clear I used The Force to lift some statues and enter the temple.

There were more Imperials inside the entryway, and once they were killed I lifted a door open on the right side and followed the hallway down into what Rahm Kota called a Padawan Training Chamber. Now, I’m not entirely certain why the Jedi decided “fighting an infinite amount of Force-wielding murder droids” was suitable training, but this was a long time ago in a galaxy far away. I’m not sure what amounts to ethics over there.

Eventually, I realised that I could destroy the several things that were spawning the droids, and was free to leave the chamber. By “eventually” I mean “literally four entire minutes”... But a door on the opposite side of the chamber allowed me to go back into the main hall, at an angle where I could use The Force to bend a bridge into place for later use. As well as letting me kill some Jumptroopers who happened to be hanging around nearby.

Going back the way that I had come, I crossed the entry hall to where some rubble gave way to a short hall and another door. I was immediately fired upon before the door had lifted a single centimetre, and what followed was a frustrating fight full of Shadow Troopers, Scout Troopers, Jumptroopers, and throwing model planets at people. Honestly, I actually ran away with an indeterminate number of enemies remaining, because my objective was down a hole and crumbling corridor.

Said objective was to Force Push a statue until it fell down, allowing me access to the bridge that I had previously moved. Unfortunately, back the way that I had come were two Purge Troopers that hit me with rockets the instant I showed up! Running from them, I also had to contend with Scout Troopers sniping away at me, but I finally escaped back into the entry hall and jumped across the gap.

The next hallway led into a chamber which held a Holocron. Activating it, a hologram of Kento Marek appeared, claiming that Vader was right, Galen was in control of his own destiny, and while the Dark Side was strong, the blood of a true Jedi flowed within him. Quite how this pre-recorded hologram knew any of this is anyone’s guess. Kento went on to tell me to face the Jedi Trials and look within — and I suddenly appeared in a void, standing on a floating platform. Before me was an orb on an illuminated line, the Trials of the Mind.

But first, I grabbed upgrades: Lightsaber Throw, Aerial Blast, Aerial Shock, Aerial Throw, Aerial Slam, Saber Mastery, Force Focus, and Force Affinity. Moving the first orb along the line was pretty simple, but the next two vexed me something fierce. The PC version of this game has an issue where using The Force on objects makes them rise at the same time that you are moving them, so making the orbs go downwards was a painfully long process, and should the orbs stray from the lines for more than one second you had to begin again. It took me five full minutes, and I wish I was joking.

The next section involved moving some platforms with The Force to allow me to jump to other ones which was very simple. Landing in what appeared to be an arena, I was confronted by Starkiller, the Emperor's assassin! We fought, he destroyed the platform beneath us, we fought some more, his mask was knocked off, but we couldn’t see his face… I mean, this was supposed to be part of the main game, and I believe it is in the Wii version, so spoilers if you’re reading this before you finish the game with the Dark Side ending? It’s implied that it’s an evil version of Galen, at least, because in the final part of the fight the name “Dark Apprentice” appeared in the health bar, whereas for the rest of the fight it was just black.

Once Starkiller had been defeated, Galen awoke on the floor of the Jedi temple. Kota asked if I had found what I was looking for, but Galen said whatever it was was gone now…

FINAL THOUGHTS

Quite an enjoyable section, though I can see why it was removed from the original game. No, not for spoilers or gameplay reasons, but because it kept crashing on me. Seriously, I played the entire rest of this game without crashes, but this one optional mission crashed multiple times. Also, those damn “follow the lines” puzzles, with the Force issue apparently caused by running higher than 30fps…

Join me next time for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed DLC Diaries (Tatooine)!