The Force Unleashed underwhelmed people across the galaxy last year. Although it’s ever so fun to grab and throw storm troopers off balconies, the incredibly repetitive game play and shockingly badly boss fights, designed to show off the DMM physics but which ended up showing the limits of both this new technology and the imagination of the game designers, saw the game get reamed in the press, and have rather low sales for a new Star Wars franchise. Force Unleashed 2 seeks to address some of those concerns, but does so only half heartedly.
The story involves the clone of Starkiller, bought back from the dead by Vader and trained as a dual lightsaber wielder simply because it looks cool. Breaking out of your prison and escaping the Kamino cloning facilities, you rush off to find your old mate General Kota in an effort to find the love of your life, Juno Eclipse. Your journey takes you from Kamino to the Trade Federation homeworld of Cato Nemoidia, Dagobah, and then back to Kamino via a Rebel Frigate ship.
The locations look amazing. From the rain falling in Kamino, to the wealthy majesty of the upside down bridge cities of Cato Nemoidia to the fog covered swamp of Dagobah, the game looks less like a game and more like a Star Wars movie. I have to make special mention of the Frigate ship, which although empty at first creates a legitimately spooky feel, at least until the first wave of new enemies arrives.
However, for a game which is meant to be a sequel, there are less locations than the original, and when Dagobah is essentially an interactive cut-scene with no action to speak of, you feel cheated. The game will take you a little over 5 hours to complete and although there is an unlockable “unleashed” hardcore mode and at least one alternative ending, the short and rather contrived story and limited locations make a second play through an option only for the serious fan (or seriously bored).
The action of the game is still the same – you simply button mash your way through room after room of enemies. This time though, you start with nearly all your force powers, and there is also dismemberment, which on top of the force push/grab mechanic, is damn fun to do. There is a little more Arkham Asylum finesse to your button mashing for flourishes and kill moves. It’s almost as if the designers had something special in mind for these moves, but then that got left out of the game.
There are variations to enemies this time around to make things more interesting, but they’re rather easy to dispatch once you’ve figured out some can only be hurt by lightsaber, and others can only be hurt by certain force effects. The fact these appear in groups together on the same levels gives you a little more pause for thought, but when you realise the guy you’re sabring isn’t getting hurt, you simply mash the force buttons instead.
Two new enemies appear in FU2 and need require special mention. The little scamping robots in the Frigate level, although they do little damage and are easy to dispatch, are almost annoying as Halo’s Flood. And while the Rancors are gone from the game, the new carbonite and fire droids are almost as annoying and repetitive to battle. You take their shield away with a button mash minigame, use lightning or saber throw, and then quicktime event to dispatch them when their health is low.
The infuriating boss fights are still present, and while it’s much easier to not fail now, they still seem designed to prolong gameplay instead of creating fun. The boss fight with the Gorog on Cato Nemoida is straight out of the God Of War handbook, and admittedly would have been fun if I hadn’t played it in every adventure game since God Of War. The Terror Droid on the Rebel Ship is annoying because not only do you have to contend with the Flood-bots, you’ve got to do a force puzzle to pull things out of their sockets, and then put things back into the sockets to complete the battle. It just seems so pointless.
There is an annoying jumping puzzle right near the final confrontation stage that will make you curse and throw your controller, and once you think it’s done, there’s an additional bit to extend the gameplay out even more. When I saw this bit, I turned my Xbox off in disgust. Seriously game designers, if you’re going to make jumping puzzles in 3D action games, you need to get your camera perfect. Otherwise they just upset and frustrate players. And if you’re going to make the player restart, make it at the point they fell, not where the level starts.
And if you insist on making a jumping puzzle like this, make it lead to something awesome. The final confrontation is so repetitive for the most part that you’re thankful for the simple button mashing quicktime events it feature, and positively ecstatic when presented with the only “light / dark choice” moment in the game.
Conclusion:
The fact this game is named “Force Unleashed 2” is a misnomer. There have been minor tweaks to the game play, little change to the animations of any but the main character, rampant re-use of assets and props, and at a little over 5 hours of game play, you know this project was rushed out to make the most of the fading light that is Lucas Arts Star Wars franchise. It really should have come as an add-on for the original game, and not as a full priced, stand alone product.
However, despite the story being rather lame, the game being too short, overwhelmingly repetitive and frustratingly annoying in most of the boss fights, I can’t say it’s a completely terrible game. I found myself happily mashing buttons for 5 hours straight. Because not matter what the rest of the game does, it’s still too much fun to pick up a flailing Stormtrooper and fling him off a ledge to his doom.
Pros:
Playing with physics is always fun
flinging stormtroopers to their doom is always cool
The environments look amazing
Cons:
Too short
Too repetitive
Too derivative
65/100
FULL DISCLOSURE:
At Krome Studios in 2007, I worked as a tester on the PSP, PS2 and Wii ports of Star Wars The Force Unleashed.
I did not work on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 at all in any capacity.
