The force is strong, and as Darth Vader's apprentice, yours is extra powerful. You can bend metal doors and force grab Stormtroopers with a wave of your hand, send a 360-degree force shockwave to repel all invaders and even shoot lightning from your fingertips. I was treated to a 45-minute preview of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game and I must say, I was suitably impressed. The game takes place some two decades after episode three - The Revenge Of The Sith - after Anakin Skywalker falls to the dark side and becomes the malevolent Darth Vader. Take it as Star Wars 3.5. Darth wants to challenge the Emperor and has found a secret apprentice - you - from the Wookie planet of Kashyyyk. As the young recruit with raw force power up to your eyeballs, you are sent by Darth on secret missions to hunt down Jedis in strange planets with giant mushroom plants and even infiltrate Empire ships, which explains why you end up fighting Stormtroopers as well, who have no idea you are Vader's disciple. The game makes use of two very interesting technology - Euphoria and digital molecular matter (DMM). The former lets the characters in the game automatically react in natural ways to their surroundings. For example, if you throw a stormtrooper down over the bridge, he will automatically try to grab at the railings or flay his hands. The thing is, you can repeat the same action and the victim reacts in different ways.

DMM simulates the physical properties of objects. For example, if you force push a metal door, it bends but if you do the same action to a glass door, it shatters to pieces. You start off with force push and grab, but as you progress you gain more powers like the shockwave repulse and force lightning. The cool thing is that you can even combine powers - so yuo can charge up an object with force lightning, then use force grab to get it and hurl it at the enemy like a lightning grenade. And you get absolute control where you throw the objects, and are also able to switch to a camera mode that follows the object or humanoid that you just force threw. There is also your light sabre, which you can use to slash enemies and automatically deflect lasers. Your character has a green health and a blue force bar which depletes as you take damage and use force powers respectively. You can replenish your force simply by not using it. The fights take place on many different locations - starships, abandoned battlezones, jungles, just to name a few. With so much power, dispatching the minions is simply child's play but wait till you meet the bosses. I saw one battle where you are chased by a gigantic jungle rancour - one serious bad, bad monster. To win the fight, you have to jump up into the air, slash him with your light sabre, run away before you get smashed, then return for more. Some monsters are resistant to force powers like force push and lightning, so when all else fails, you have to rely on your trusty light sabre. One cannot help but wonder if the apprentice will fall to the bright side of the force, just as Anakin dropped to the dark. The Force Unleashed looks like a fantastic game, so get your light sabres ready for its launch in September.