“Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2” was very well advertised and promoted, but it just doesn’t deliver as far as many gamers are concerned. It may have just been too much build up of anticipation or maybe the Force is no longer with Lucas Arts, but for more than one reason, the sequel just isn’t as strong as its predecessor.We’ll go through the pros first. The graphics are a little better than the original. For example, the environments are more engaging and the enemies can now be dismembered and cut to pieces by your lightsabers.
The Jedi Mind Trick is a nice new addition to your Force Powers because it allows you to confuse your foes into killing off one another or simply jumping to their doom if there aren’t any other enemies surrounding them.
The story is engaging and mysterious; you start out with your main character waking up from nightmares in a holding cell and being greeted by Lord Vader. He tells you that you are a clone of the original Starkiller from the first game and your visions are of failed cloning attempts that came before you.
Vader proceeds to put you through your paces, coaching you along until all but one of your enemies have been decimated. It is none other than the lovely miss Juno Eclipse, Starkiller’s love interest in the first game.
Vader pushes and pushes you to kill her, but you cannot. Lord Vader believes that you are a failed experiment just like all those who came before you, and so you are of no further use to him. Your character realizes what Vader is about to do and makes his escape.
The new Starkiller’s only drive is to find Juno and get her somewhere safe from the Dark Side. Without spoiling anything for you, let’s just say that the game is a sad attempt at expanding the story very much with only a few hours total game play, but it also leaves you wanting more at the conclusion of the game.
The cons include the fact that the game is too short to satisfy most gamers and there isn’t much buildup to combat, since you start out with more than half of your Force Powers already available.
Although the levels have a prettier face to them this time around and certainly convey the sense of grandeur and scale that Star Wars fans are accustomed to, many of the buildings look like they were copied and pasted from one level to another, and the levels feel sort of forced.
The enemies themselves become redundant rather quickly. The first game had several different species for you to pummel and slice, but this game is almost all Stormtrooper oriented. Don’t get me wrong. I like the whole Stormtrooper thing, and they do have a couple different versions of the good old men in white in this game, such as troopers that have special suits that seem to be enhanced by the Force, but it’s nowhere near enough variety to keep most gamers interested.
Once you figure out that soldier A can be killed easily with Force Powers and soldier B is dispatched best with the trusty old lightsabers, the intrigue and thought provoking pieces of combat are gone. The only other foes besides the troopers are the mechs and walkers, and they face the same problems as the rest of your waves of enemies. They are too similar, and once you figure out how to beat the first one, you are ready to take on all of its digitally copied and pasted clones.
All-in-all I give this game a three out of five. Good looks, sweet sound, mind tricks, and an engaging expansion to the story, no matter how short, only get you so far. A game such as this one, to be truly solid, needs to have a larger variety of both environments and enemies, preferably longer play time or at least a better replayability value, and tell a tale that isn’t so rushed and builds you up to its climax better and not break off just when it’s getting really interesting.