Force Unleashed 2 Review

Dec 20, 2010 by walid

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

Recently I played and finished Star Wars: Force Unleashed II. In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, the world is re-introduced to Darth Vader’s now fugitive apprentice, Starkiller-the unlikely hero who would ignite the flames of rebellion in a galaxy so desperately in need of a champion. In the sequel, Starkiller embarks on a journey to discover his own identity and to reunite with his one true love, Juno Eclipse. Once again fighting not be a pawn of Darth Vader, the dark lord is attempting to clone his former apprentice in an attempt to create the Ultimate Sith warrior. The chase is on, Starkiller is in pursuit of Juno and Darth Vader is hunting for Starkiller.

This is where the problem lies in the game, because Starkiller is simply looking for Juno Eclipse, the game simply doesn’t have enough material to cover what I would consider a full game. In comparision the first installment of The Force Unleashed lays out the story nicely, with each Jedi hunted down bringing Starkiller closer to end game, finally breaking Darth Vader’s hold over him. Each level is laid out to consume roughly about the same time as each other, and is finished off with a massive boss fight, usually the target Jedi you were hunting. Now I’m a big fan of star wars, I have read many side stories in the universe of star wars (although I haven’t read the novels), and any fan out there can fill in the bits and pieces that the creators miss using their own imagination, For example the parallel that Starkiller is going on a journey similar to that of Luke Skywalker in the Empire Strikes Back, where he has to find himself before he can truly face Darth Vader, but this story could have been so much more. More characters of the rebellion could have been introduced, more characters from the empire could have been introduced, more powerful bosses could have been waiting for you at the end of each level, more focus on the growing strength of the rebellion (in similar fashion to the first game). The main problem I saw with this game is that there was no real progression for Starkiller, he simply had to hack and slash his way through a heap of storm troopers, (which is fun but can get a bit boring if there is no significant boss fight) until he made his way to Juno. Some of the original characters are back, for example Starkiller’s Jedi mentor General Koda, Juno Eclipse, and in a small part princess Leia, and of course Darth Vader. A cameo role for our little green master Jedi Yoda is also introduced in this game which I found quite refreshing.

Now I know I have spent a good chunk of this review talking about where the game can be improved, I can tell you what this game does bring to the table is epic battles. From the get go, the battles are huge, with the creators of this game throwing you into the throng of battle immediately. I particularly enjoyed the opening battle sequence with starkiller falling out the sky head first dodging Tie fighters and cannon fire. All the force powers that were in the first game are back with the inclusion of a new power, Force Fury. This is an awesome power to have, it simply cuts through absolutely everything without taking any damage. The graphics of this game are awesome as with any game on the Xbox 360 or PS3 and the controls are easy to master, X to attack, A to jump, B for force push, and Y for lighting (for the 360 platform) and the left and right triggers used for block and force lift respectively. The cut scenes are well done and smoothly rendered, these scenes help you fill in much of the story as you progress from level to level. The game also introduces some challenge games outside of the main story line and depending on how quickly you finish the challenge, a new achievement is unlocked and bonus cut scene is shown. The cut scenes are comic based but done well enough to further fill in the pieces of the main story. The difficulty of the game has four levels easy, medium, hard, and unleashed. I finished the game on medium quite easily. On this level of difficulty expect to finish the main game in roughly 6-8 hours of gaming. I will definitely be playing it again on harder levels to get my worth out of this game. Overall its an OK game, and worth a go if you’re a fan of platform gaming or an avid star wars fan. As I mentioned at the start my biggest problem with this game is length, if they had included perhaps 2-3 more levels I believe this game would have been excellent as it would have truly explored Starkiller’s journey from Darth Vader’s apprentice to hero of the rebel alliance. I did hear that there is a DLC available for this game, which I will be searching out and giving it a go. I do hope that the creators of of the franchise have an ace up their sleeve for the final installment (if there is one). I have included some screens for people to enjoy.