Too often we forget the human cost of those thousands of hours of playtesting that went into the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. No, I’m not speaking of all the hard work everyone on the team put in (you know who you are and you’re all just amazing).
I’m talking about the stormtroopers. These chaps took crates to the face, sabers in the gut and lightning up the wazoo. They bounced, exploded, got defenestrated and had TIE fighters thrown at them. They were choked out by their boss, suffered the ignominy of the helmet/laser-gate interface and endured being thrown down bottomless access tunnels.
Thousands and thousands of times.
And did we ever pause for a minute to consider the consequences of our relentless march towards entertainment excellence? We did not.
Happily, over at Penny Arcade they’re taking a step in the right direction. Gentlemen, this is a fine thing you do. Remember, under that faceless armour is an individual. Well, a clone. Or maybe not. You know, around this time in galactic history I’m not sure.
I wonder, do clone troopers and regular troopers get on? Are there clone-ists? Or do the clones sit around being all ‘Hey, we’re made from the best soldiering genes money can buy. You’re all just a bunch of farmers in rubbish armour.’ I bet they do. Those wankers.
