Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was released in 2008 and was one of the most successful Star Wars games released both critically and from a sales stand point. A sequel was expected and it has finally come. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 is the continuation of the story of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice taking place between the 3rd and 4th movies in the series.
The gameplay is very similar with finishing moves still using a sequence of button combinations shown on screen and with the basic powers still being controlled by the same buttons. (B is force push, for example) The big difference is the addition of a second light saber that Starkiller uses. This allows for more combos and more destruction. The world is fairly destructible, about the same amount as in the first. There are some environmental puzzles to solve but none are too challenging.
Visually this game hits the mark, the graphics and ambience are superb and the cut scenes are fantastic. The animations on the characters are great and you can see emotion in the faces of the main characters.
The story is thrown together and doesn’t truly advance the story of Starkiller, most of the game focuses on Starkiller trying to track down Juno and protect her from the empire. The whole game seems like a prologue and just when I felt the game was about to begin it was over. That’s another issue with this game, the length is unacceptably short. It only took me a couple hours to beat and there are only a few levels. The first game was great for its numerous locales that contrasted one another nicely; there are only two real locales in this game with the rest happening on a ship in space. What we do see of the two worlds is impressive but it still is an underwhelming showing of the vast and colorful universe of Star Wars.
With the vast array of possibilities for this game it should have soared even higher than the first but it ends up falling far short in the story department. The gameplay is fun and wreaking havoc on tons of storm troopers is fun but I can’t help but feel disappointed over the throw away story and the lack of locales. The game does lead into another sequel so hopefully the story will pick up in the third installment but if this is any indication the story is stuck in stagnation.
Overall the game if fun to play but is too short, too one dimensional in its story, and is overall not the sequel I was hoping for.
Pros
-Fun gameplay
-Awesome Force Powers
Cons
-Too short
-Thrown together story
6/10
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