Star Wars Force Unleashed II

The first Star Wars Force Unleashed rode the wave of the hack n' slash genre that Capcom vaulted into perfection with Devil May Cry...but with lightsabers. Let it be known that I LOVE Devil May Cry'esque games, and I LOVE Star Wars so for me it was a marriage made in heaven.

But it was more than that, the first game had it all. Great characters, an interesting take on the Star Wars universe, and it made a wonderful tie-in with all loose ends wrapped up nicely at the end. It was a perfect little package with of course some gameplay flaws, (but if you were like me you played it SO much that you used those flaws to your Jedi advantage) and it was just plain fun.

I assume when they made it they didn't expect the game to do well so a sequel was really out of the question. Well it did well, really well! Fans saw past the complaints of the common game review and saw how much fun the game really was, and the game boomed. Sadly for the plot, the game didn't call for a sequel and really anything they did would end up being, to use the pun unintended, "forced."

Gameplay:

And forced it was...Star Wars Force Unleashed II feels rushed in every conceivable way. The first game you could upgrade a lot of different abilities for Starkiller, but they chopped that in half with the sequel and you only upgrade your force powers. You only get one new force ability and, admittedly it's really funny. Mind Tricking enemies is a gas because they do quite a few different things when you do it.

Lightsaber play is...terrible. They took away combos in favor of just mashing square. In the first game you could strategically use a set of combos that you spent your time upgrading, in the second game there are no noticeable combos. It's really a let down...On the plus side you can decapitate and cut off limbs in this game! And it STILL GOT A TEEN RATING!! WTF?

Enemies are a real let down too. The first game, a lot of reviewers complained that your force powers felt useless after the third level because you fought a lot of enemies that resisted one force power or another, or maybe all of them. They are dumb...because enemy variety that forces strategic battle adjustments means I am having fun and being challenged...not brainlessly spamming lighting everywhere like you can do in this game. That's right, I am BLAMING the game reviewing community for ruining the enemy variety of this game. You literally only fight stormtroopers through the whole game and it is quite boring...mind tricking aside. But I really think the think-tank of this game thought, "Yeah, they were right. Enemy variety is stupid! Let's make this game piss easy and only give the player the easiest enemy type, susceptible to ALL of Starkiller's god-like force powers!" And it was thus...

And even while all these shameful changes were made the gameplay is still fun to me. This is the kind of game I like best, so I can still enjoy the game multiple times...which is easy to do because the game is only 3 hours long. My point being is you really have to love the hack n' slash genre to give this game a pass, which I do for the most part. I lament at what it could have been of course, but I still can enjoy what it is.

Story:

Even with all the gameplay problems, the story is shockingly the most disappointing part. The first game was cleverly written, characters had emotion and wit, they were likeable too. With this game, there is nearly no character interaction, Proxy is entirely absent who was hilarious in the first game, Starkiller's love interest has more on-screen time as a hologram than her actual character, Kota's character has changed ENTIRELY for no reason and not in a good way, and Starkiller and Vader...are totally lame here.

Kota was the wise old fart Jedi in the first game...in the second game he barks orders and wants military strikes worse than President Bush. Also, he's a tactical moron as Starkiller in one scene comes up with the only obvious idea they can pursue while Kota struggles to form coherent thoughts. He's just a completely different person and I don't get why.

Vader in this game has really no likeable agenda in this game. His original plan to overthrow the emperor with Starkiller was a very ingenious plan that I could get behind. Here he wants to make a Jedi army....and it makes NO sense why. He decides to endlessly clone a Jedi with mega amounts of power whom turned on Vader on a dime for a hot babe and a rebel cause in his heart....and the cloning process retains the thoughts and memories of the original for the clone... Either Vader is the DUMBEST Sith in the galaxy, or he is a Rebel in secret...or the writers are the dumbest people ever of all time the end. I mean seriously, he is deliberately making hundreds of superhumans who are ALL bent on killing Vader and ending the Empire. Good job there Vader...I doubt the Emperor approved this...Furthermore, as a character here Vader is a one line wonder. All he ever says is how he's "going to destroy you!" You being Starkiller of course. He says it SO many times. I would love to see the script for this game.

And that brings me to Starkiller who in the last level says "I'm going to kill you!" to Vader somewhere near 27 times, and hearing it that many times in under 20 minutes really starts to wear on you. Aside from Starkiller's lines being utter trash, his character is totally panned in this game. He doesn't really know if he is a clone or not, Vader says he is, Kota says he isn't...It's pretty clear Vader is right considering all the Starkiller copies you run into who DO use force powers and Kota's ONE argument against him being a clone is "They've never cloned a Jedi before!" You know...except all those Jedi in the glass tubes up there...attacking me in the last level with force powers...yeah them? Dumbass. Still, the official word is out...and never resolved. His love interest doesn't care he is a clone...well actually we don't know that because she doesn't have any lines or thoughts on the matter. They didn't write them in, we just have to assume she's cool with it.

Also, they tried to play up that Starkiller "may go crazy" like all the other clones. This is mentioned once...and they never actually pursue that idea. Though, he does enter Yoda's psycho cave and see's bullshit...I'd say he's crazy! Also, piece of advice...NEVER ENTER Yoda's cave of crazyness! People be trippin' in dat cave.

Graphics:

It looks as good as the first game did, which is not bad and sometimes really good. There are only 3 different places to look at though which is a damn shame. The game is THAT short. But I have nothing against the graphics of this game, it looks just fine. And I love pre-rendered cinema's, that is all.

Music:

They use Star Wars music....if you don't like that then you are not a human being and don't deserve to live.

Conclusion:

If Force Unleashed II had maybe 2 more levels with story in between them this game wouldn't be that bad honestly. Some character development with Starkiller peppered in and it would have been fine. But they ignored everyone, decided to essentially not write a story at all, and just let Starkiller yell "I will kill you!" a hundred times and call it good. I guess the ONLY way to write a worse love story than George Lucas is to not write any dialogue between the lovers at all and let the audience believe they spoke through the force...which is what this game did.

And again, I did enjoy the game, it is fun to play. But it is not worth $60, and even the developers apologized by releasing a planned $10 bonus level for .99 cents since they knew the main game didn't actually have enough content. The game sold poorly, really poorly. There probably won't be a third game which is a real shame for a few reasons. The "story" of the second game leaves us extremely unsatisfied and in a quandary. Vader is captured...and they fly away. Clearly they planned to have a third game this time which is NEVER a good thing in video games.

The first game they laid it all on the line, did their very best because they didn't think there would be another game. This game they knew there would be a third game so they half-assed it and basically assumed what they didn't do in this game they'll do in the third one. What they didn't expect is gamers recognizing they made a bullshit cash-in and NOT buy the game. So...now we probably won't get a third game...hell they even cancelled the port of Force Unleashed II for the PSP. They didn't even bother. It is a really sad way to end it, and as far as I know Force Unleashed II is not canon to the Star Wars Universe but the first game is. So I can happily know that Starkiller died a hero as he should have...the end.

*Jedi waving his hand at me, "Star Wars Force Unleashed II is not the droid you are looking for." "Droid?" I respond. "Oh...um...well...FORCE PUSH!" The Jedi scrambles away embarrassed of his failed mind trick ploy.*