A Mistake From Start To Finish.
When The Force Unleashed was released to gamers in 2008 it had its share of flaws, but over the top action and interesting story made it a worthwhile experience. When LucasArts announced The Force Unleashed 2 it wasn't a shock given how successful the first was financially, it was a shock given how the first game ended. Less of a shock and more likely to leave a foul taste at the sides of your tongue was the reveal that the Starkiller you play as is totally a clone that's only concerned with finding his special lady friend now armed with not one but two lightsabers. But the weak narrative is only a part of the problem in what appears to be a board room baby.
Players again take the role of Gaden Starkiller who, wait, actually you're clone number 'one that finally hasn't gone mad' who, upon lasting a grand 13 days in isolation, is ordered to strike down former love interest Juno Eclipse. He can't bring himself to do so and, remembering Vader's previous betrayal, decides to bust out of the cloning facilities on Kamino. From there he embarks on a short quest to find Ms. Eclipse that'll take him to familiar locations like Kamino and kinda Dagobah.
The narrative is a far cry from the expansive and epic events of the first title. You're not going to destroy the last of the Jedi or create the Rebel Alliance. It's hard to go into detail on the story given how short it actually is when you cut out the nonessential events that take up good chunks of the games short length. For instance, upon travelling to Dagobah you'll have a little chat with Yoda, enter the Cave of Evil to have a vision and then leave. That's it. That's one of the 9 levels. Suffice it to say the story isn't going to wow you at all or even satiate your inner Star Wars geek with fan service. Ok, you might say wow when you get to the end and realize that's it. It's really just a shallow framework that serves only to facilitate... well making this game.
While the story certainly lacks any 'oomph', the unleashed force combat is still pretty crazy and over the top. It's still really fun to force grip a stormtrooper and gently nudge him into another so he'll grab onto him only to slowly glide them over a ledge and release force grip. Maybe too much fun. Or to charge up force push and send a squad of troopers soaring. It's also easier to have fun with force powers thanks to the refined targeting system. But you won't get a whole lot of chances to do that, not just because the game's short but because many enemies you encounter are the robot variety. The big tank-like robot variety. Pretty much all major non-boss encounters, except for those in final section of the game, are you against one or more such giant robot grouped with a handful of minor enemies. It's not long until you realize all you're doing is getting through corridors of troopers to these big robot rooms, wittling them down until you can start the QTE, doing the QTE and then going through another corridor.
It's also not long until you realize the force powers are the exact same as in the first game. The only addition being a Force Fury state that can be activated after being built by defeating enemies and Jedi Mind Trick. Force Fury does what you might expect, making you stronger and altering your attacks to clear out surrounding enemies. Oh and it also surrounds you into a goofy purplish blue aura. Jedi Might Trick on the other hand is a force power that causes non-robot enemies to either kill themselves or their each other. It actually turned out to be the most useful especially in situations where you're facing multiple lightsaber or force wielders.
Also returning are costumes and saber crystals. While the costumes are purely cosmetic the crystals can give you specific bonuses such as a chance to drain enemy heath, restoring force energy, or chances to disintegrate enemies. Since you've got two lightsabers you can have one effect on the offhand and another on the main hand. It's neat to mix and match even if it's the most efficient to use attacking restoring force energy on both and just spam force powers.
Thankfully there are some breaks to that core combat. Puzzles are few and only consist of lifting pillars or raising platforms so that you can engage in the other break from combat: platforming! In fact I'm not even sure you can call those puzzles. Still there's the platforming and should you fall into the abyss below while hopping across platforms you'll instantly spawn back to the spot you started to jump from. Also present are falling sequences, not unlike the Icarus Lift spots in God of War 3. You'll jump off a building or from a ship and plummet down, avoiding obstacles or destroying them with your force powers. Perhaps the most visually appealing scene in the game is when you jump off of a ship during one of these sequences before it crashes very dramatically. Even outside of the rendered cutscenes, The Force Unleashed 2 is definitely a good looking game
The first game in the franchise was a good game with a great story, held back by some technical problems. The Force Unleashed 2 fixes a few of those problems but doesn't evolve the combat in any significant way, in fact reducing it to a by the numbers series of engagements. Also changed is the level of story, reduced from an engaging tale of betrayal and redemption to an elementary damsel in distress stint. It's such a drastic change in direction and a huge misstep on LucasArts' side that I can't help but wonder why and how this game was ever released. The Force Unleashed 2 just isn't worth checking out.