Lucas Arts <3 Clones
The original Star Wars the Force Unleashed was a series of technical problems and was incredibly short but was able to deliver an overall enjoyable experience. When I first saw the trailer for the sequel I couldn’t believe that it was the same character and that it was coming soon. After beating the game in roughly six hours, I have to say that as much as I loved Star killer before I wish he had simply stayed dead. The Force Unleashed 2 has a few moments of good but ultimately feels like a clone of the original. Or is it?
The story picks up shortly after the events of the first, provided that you chose the light side at the end of the original. You play as a supposed clone of Star Killer who escapes his Dark master in order to be with the Juno, a female pilot that he fell in love with in the original. Along this journey, Star Killer is reunited with old friends who ask him to help with the rebellion that he started and to put his love interest aside. Unfortunately there is never a moment where Star Killer feels like the choice to constantly pursuing Juno and helping a galaxy fight the empire is a hard decision. This makes Star Killer feel like kind of a tool and not much of a hero he was in the first game. Furthermore the story has tons of plot holes, worthless cameo appearances and horrible pacing that make the story feel like the creators of the game were held at blaster point and were coerced into making anything they could come up with. Without spoiling anything, the end of the game practically screams “Finish the Fight 2012” and just feels unsatisfying. One positive thing I can mention is on the last boss encounter the story telling feels very good with the only exception being repetitive camera angles.
If you played the original then you have played the sequel. There is only one new power and a few cinematic runaway and destroy everything moments. The destroy everything moments actually feel really cool but there are very few of them. You will not be challenged and there is hardly any change to enemies design from the original. There is a surprising amount of back tracking and the level design feels copy and pasted in certain areas. There are 4 unique environments spread across 9 missions. The light saber combo system is a little deeper but because of your force powers and a few combos working on almost everyone there is no incentive to experiment. Unfortunately while I think you are incredibly over powered I also can’t explain how it brings a smile to my face for demolishing your enemies. There is virtually no replay value aside from achievement scoring. The game doesn’t feel bad; it just doesn’t feel unique or interesting. The menus are simple and there are hardly any extras. One thing that annoyed me was the continuing dependence on quick time events as the most action packed moments.
The presentation of the game continues the trend of being spotty. The animations for Star Killer, environments, and one particular boss look incredible. The best part is watching insane animation for enemies when affected by force grip. Explosions don’t pack any real punch and some special effects can look cheesy. The audio is good with the classic Star Wars sounds and the voice acting is top notch. While Star Killer may sound fantastic the writing can be occasionally terrible and will occasionally make you think less of him or General Kota.
Under no circumstance should you buy this game. However that doesn’t mean you should not consider a rent. The game provides a few fun set pieces and is actually stable enough to finish this time. This game has still much to learn in the ways of the force but it has mastered the basics.
