The first Force Unleashed was good, not original or amazing, but good hack n slash fun, it was.
So a sequel wouldn’t be surprising, given it was the fastest-selling Star Wars videogame at the time, even if the first one actually had a proper ending and a definitive fate for the main character, Star Killer, so how do you continue the story?
Since i’m about to discuss the story of the first game and spoil the ending, i’m gonna have to make it extra CLEAR.
As in.
SPOILER WARNING
SPOILER WARNING, again.
You have been warned.
The answer is ….clones, of course.
Yeah, Darth Vader cloned you from Star Killer’s DNA, in an attempt to hold proper control over this one and refine it as the perfect apprentice, but since it has the same memories as the original Star Killer, he knows that Vader will betray him as well, so he escapes and goes an a quest to forge his own identity, clashing with both the Alliance and the Empire.
If this already feels subpar and a writer forced to work around a game not really intended to have a sequel to begin with.. you’d be right. It feels rushed, messy, unfocused and underwhelming, and it is, like the whole game overall.
Doesn’t help that this Starkiller clone comes off as a prick because he just wants to find his love interest, even when the Alliance loudly and continuously asks for his help and clearly needs it. I get why you wouldn’t make him likeable like that immediatly, but he comes off as a cynical idiot.
Thankfully for the Alliance the two things become for him the one and the same, how convenient.
But still, i can say that his quest feels ultimately pointless or moot, since despite all that he sees, even after seeing Vader throw dozens of clones that look like him.. he’s isn’t convinced that is true, and that maybe it’s manipulation from Vader, bullshit that he says to control him like a puppet.
I can understand the other characters surprised to see Starkiller back despite having heard of him sacryficing himself, but not so much Starkiller’s clone, with all the info that clearly spells it out he’s… that, one of the many clones of Starkiller Vader bred to perfect a more docile version of his former apprentice.
Yes, he’s in denial, obviously, but it’s kinda counterproductive to the whole message of “doesn’t matter if you’re a clone or not, you’re important, yourself, and you’re not an object” when he clings to the memories of the real Starkiller and basically takes his place, with his allies unaware of the fact. Yeah, it’s a bad script, and very rushed.
Especially since the game’s canonical/good ending is blatant sequel bait, aside from undermining all the tension it tried to build, and it feels incomplete, like they stopped at the second act.
According to various reviews, the Wii version is oddly the better one as it has a better story and it feels actually like a complete experience, i’m not reviewing that and i haven’t played it, but i won’t be surprised, given how the then current gen versions are usually meant to be the “main ones” yet feel rushed.
One problem is that you start the game with already all the abilities you would have had in the final part of the first game’s campaign, in one instance where you could actually do the Metroid thing and have a story excuse for it. But they didn’t do that and so you start being already too powerful and too well equipped to deal with the enemies, so it feels trivial to power up yourself along the way, and it will take some time for more varied and challenging enemies to show up.
Reminder: by the end of the first game Star Killer was already way overpowered, more than it’s written to be.
And this isn’t set up as a Dynasty Warriors type hack n slash or Senran Kagura, but neither was the first Force Unleashed, it’s just that this one it’s really badly balanced,.
There are some minor tweaks, like better targeting and the Force Grip ability, but are barely noticeable and kinda expected since it’s a sequel and the idea should be to make them better than the previous one, but there’s no variety in the levels aesthetic and the enemies’ variety overall has been reduced.
Seriously, aside from two short levels, it’s a very drab looking game this one, very drab locations.
And one of the two is 3 minutes tops of you going around Dagobah collecting tems, then a cutscene and you’re off to the next level.
Even with what the game has… it doesn’t do very much of substance, and you’ll kinda get ready for this thing to end halfway through, as far as gameplay is concerned, because you’ll soon learn how to quickly deal even with the advanced units with excessive ease, and you’ll soon grow bored of fighting the same enemies in level that feel longer than they should with what they actually have to offer.
Again, the random level on Dagobah doesn’t count.
You accidentally identify too much with the clone protagonist, as you wander around wondering why the hell are you doing this, to what end, besides the fact “i figured i had to, since i did play to first one from start to finish”… and that sums up the feel of the overall game, just an obligation for the sake of contracts or a sense of completition, not because we really care.
This is one you play and can’t wait to get to the end so you can move on to better games that actually have interest in entertaining you. Like it’s main character, it struggles with crafting his own identity and never really manages it.
Again, because you already start too powerful and you get exp points to get even more op as you go along, so combat doesn’t feel really challenging despite being the main gameplay offerings, and in this case it’s a problem, since it clearly wants to give you a challenge.
For the sake of review i played this one on Medium difficulty, i could have easily done in on Hard, but the standard difficulty should be difficult regardless, and i’m glad i did because i might have not seen some of the issues with balancing and OP protagonist.
It’s not all bad, though, and there some better fights to be had, the variety of enemies isn’t that bad and sometimes is combined well. I wanna stress that it’s not that bad of a game, i did enjoy some parts of it, but not many, and with the short lenght and repetive visuals and everything, it’s still not good.
There are skydiving/free fall sections and ones where you escape crumbling bridges, not terrible but they feel derivative, there because other popular games had them.
Boss battles aren’t much better, given how they heavily rely on QTEs more than actual combat this time around (way too many QTE), crossing the line between wanting to give these battles a cinematic feel and just being lazy.
The final boss battle with Vader is also a snoozefest, as the duel is continuously interrupted by Vader summoning some more clones…. so you can recover some health (yeah, smart one, Vader ol mate), QTEs sword clashes and having to move from platform to platform.
Not that i wanted the game to be longer, i really didn’t, and i was kinda glad to be done with it, even considering how short it is.
repetitive, with not much variety, AND it’s really short, like, this is 2-3 hours of content, like they stitched together 2 small DLC packs for the first game and tried to pass it as a “real boy”, but then relented because they clearly had to rush this out as soon as possible. Of course LucasArts sold it as a full priced title anyway. Of course.
And there’s still paid DLC scenarios, following the “dark side Star Killer” scenario seen in the DLCs scenarios for the first game.
There are some challenge missions you unlock as you play through the campaign, and at least they sound varied, from combat missions from conquest, survival. At least they sound so from the descriptions, i didn’t bother.
On top of everything, even on 360 (and i’m guessing on PS3 as well) the performance is iffy, i heard the PC version ran badly, but this isn’t that much better, as the game often chugs or stops for incredibly banal stuff, not always, but you can’t but notice when it does, as it often takes destroying some enviromental stuff or something exploding to make the game hiccup like a drunkard.
There are also some glitches, like once i saw the blaster impact effects coming from under a bridge, i guess one of those jetpack enemies got stuck in there and tried – in vain – to shoot me through the cement because their IA doesn’t distinguish if they have line of sight… at least in this case.
And once, during one of the sword clashes against Vader, i found a glitch that made the characters still do the QTE fine, but with their hands and swords “displaced” on the left of where they should be, not so much a collision glitch.
Also, in one instance it wasn’t me forgetting there’s a lone enemy that somehow i missed or forgot to chase the reason why the barrier didn’t go away and let me proceed…. i still don’t know what it was, because i waited some more and it “remembered” to work, i guess.
The story cutscenes are good, though, like, they didn’t skim at all on those, they look really good (as does the game in pure technical terms) and are probably the best part of the game, aside the extra costumes that let you play as a lightsaber dual-weilding Stormtrooper, Boba Fett, or Guybrush Treepwood.
So unless you get this for cheap on a Steam sale or something, or either really want to play all SW games, i wouldn’t bother, even with his short lenght.
A third game in the series was planned, but it was cancelled alongside Star Wars 1313 due to the Disney buy-out of LucasArts.
According to writer Haden Blackman, it was supposed to be a more open world like game and it would see Darth Vader and Star Killer team up against Palpatine…. so i dunno if it was for the best or worse, but to be honest, that sounded fun, but i doubt we’ll even see another Star Wars hack n slash game given the shitshow of EA’s Battlefront reboot series tainted the brand in the gaming sphere, and frankly since then it has only gotten worse.
Though, considering that, i’m surprised EA didn’t yet consider doing a “remaster” of the first game or a HD port-double pack (the Wii version of The Force Unleashed 2 was rereleased on Switch, somehow, though), it would be cheaper than a full on remake or reboot, but i guess there’s no beating (for now) the profits of suckering people via microtransactions on F2P gachapits.
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