Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 Game Review

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 will impress on first glance with it's fluid character animations and beautiful graphics, topped off with fabulous backdrops that help bring the Star Wars universe to life. This however is sadly as good as it gets, a short campaign with an average storyline fail to capture the imagination of what a Star Wars story should be, as well as a lack of depth and re-play value make this a game really just for the fans.

The Force Unleashed 2 is the same as it's predecessor for the most part, it's the Force like you've never seen it before. The result is extreme supercharged versions of what we are used to seeing in the films. The experience goes from a typical hack 'n slash to a Force-embued beat 'em up where you can create some of the most devastating and destructive action sequences in a video game. Through your playthrough you will take on many situations that seem Force-exaggerated, move vast objects with the power of the Force, as well as dismembering whoever is in your path. Dismemberment is one of the welcomed new touches that makes the game feel and look much more like a game from the Star Wars universe, it is also sickly satisfying and fans of the movies will be very pleased with this new addition.

In the Force 2 you play as Starkiller, Darth Vader's secret apprentice who died at the end of the first game. According to Darth Vader you're a clone of the last game's hero and after failing his tests you break out of captivity before he can kill you. Your mission is to seek out and find Juno Eclipse.

The story is average at best, bumbling along allowing the introducing of previous hit characters for fan service. The first game felt like it filled in one of the gaps in the Star Wars universe, this however feels like it is just a game made with the Star Wars license to pull in some extra dollars. The game ends before it gets exiting and even loyal fans of the movies will find it hard to enjoy.

The game does impress in one area, it's a visually stunning game and really manages to capture the massive scale and sense of grandeur that the Star Wars movies are known for. But as good as it looks you can't escape the feeling of repetition when exploring a world which looks artificially extended. The repeated buildings and environmental proportions make it feel like a copy/paste job. This really feels lazy on the developers side giving the amount of unique environments and settings the Star Wars universe has at it's disposal. It's a shame to see such repetitive environments when you can clearly see the artists have allot of passion for the Star Wars franchise.

Combat hasn't changed much apart from the introduction of dismemberment, which feels and looks great. Watching a Stormtrooper fall to their death after you use the Force to push them from a ledge is satisfying the first few times and the Jedi mind-trick is quite fun but really it's nothing more than a button masher and there is not enough depth to make the player feel a lasting satisfaction.

Lucasarts wanted to address the variety issue from the first game. The Force Unleashed had a ton of creative enemies who varied greatly in appearance, just not in combat. Lucasarts decided this time around to focus on less varied appearances and more on the combat. But sadly the game really just boils down to working out if an enemy can either be killed by the force or a lightsaber, there really isn't much more to it.

I'm not normally worried about a games short length, i believe it's better to get a short full experience than a game which adds extra boring missions into it just to extend it's length but The Force Unleashed 2 is not a very good game. The short story doesn't capture any imagination or show any creativity and the combat which is not unique feels repetitive and boring at times, i just wish there was more exploration in the beautiful settings the game takes you to because i was really interested in knowing more about the cultures in each place. For a game which lacks imagination and doesn't do anything unique or exiting it is far too short and i can't help but feel the game is being pushed by the Star Wars name.

One of the other problems with the Force 2 is that Starkiller starts out as he ended the first game and because of this he feels too powerful, this takes away the rewarding feeling you had in the first game. You can level up your Force powers with the experience points you earn through combat but just as with the rest of the game there is a distinct lack of depth which removes any real fun from the game.

Overall it was not a good experience and one that i would like to forget about quickly. There was only 1 good thing the game had going for it, beautiful graphics, but even this was ruined by the lack of exploration and variety in environments. The combat felt like nothing more than an average brainless button masher and the short story make the game a huge disappointment. To be honest it will be hard to sell even hardcore Star Wars fans this game because it's just not great.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 is only for hardcore fans, it's not good 6/10