*Minor Spoiler* Opening Crawl
"The galaxy is on the brink of civil war. Inspired by the sacrifice of DARTH VADER's secret apprentice, a ragtag rebel alliance plots to overthrow the evil GALACTIC EMPIRE. Imperial forces in relentless pursuit of the Rebels have captured the Jedi Knight RAHM KOTA. Its general lost, the Alliance fleet has vanished. While the Empire searches for the Rebels, Darth Vader has put a dark plan in motion that will bring an end to his apprentice's legacy...."
The Force Unleashed 2 begins with Vader arriving on the planet Kamino. He has been very busy, trying to perfect a clone of Galen Marek (aka Starkiller who died at the conclusion of the first game). In this game, you play as a "Imperfect Clone" who escapes from Vader on a wild goose chase to find Juno Eclispe. There are four chapters of the game broken down into nine levels. They stream together in a vibrant fashion and provides a very short and rushed story. The first game spanned over a few months, in the sequel everything could have transpired in 2 weeks. Lacking proper introduction and having no fleshed out details, to the many fans the story will be a disappointment. The ending however is different, containing a well thought out exciting cliff hanger which will leave true fans screaming for a third game. (While the fanboys will disagree, the ending is indeed amazing) Having read the script the plot for this game looks and sounds great on paper. However, it isn't as compelling and immersible as the first game, which won the Writers Guild Award. The game is presented like a movie. The excellent voice acting and extraordinary cinematic make it worth while. If you treat it as a continuation of the first game, instead of a stand alone title, you may enjoy it more.
Gameplay 8/10
Lucas Arts has fixed most major issues in this sequel. The camera is less problematic, there are hardly any loading times, lightsabers dismember and decapitate, and contains less glitches and bugs. With an abundance of lightsaber combos, impressive visuals and epic boss battles, The Force Unleashed II delivers in this department. If you don't blow through the game on easy mode, it will last you between 6-10 hours. However the game is still short compared to others. The challenge maps (and possibly DLC in the future) add some sense of replay value. If you take the time to collect all the holocrons, read the data-bank entries, win every platinum medals in the challenge mode, and score every Achievement or win the Trophies you will have made the game worth your money. Otherwise you will feel ripped off due to the short story.
While there are only three somewhat repetitive boss battles, the intense graphics and epic finishes make them all the better. Except the Titan/Terror Walker which was a disappointment. In the E3 Trailer Starkiller stops the driod's laser with his bare hands, zaps it with Sith Lightning, cuts off its legs, stabs it several times before splittting the giant droid in two. In the actual game, the Droid has shields, which require you to lift four pylons to make a distrupter to bring down the shields in order to hurt the Titan. Afterwards you have to replace the batteries to turn the disrupter back on, all while fighting several annoying enemies.Verdict. 7.5/10 Rent if you are undecisive, buy if you are a loyal fan.
Let's just hope Lucas Arts continues to listen to the fans (a little more this time) and make The Force Unleashed III....pray they don't treat the third game like Return of the Jedi and have Ewoks ruining everything. Or that could just be DLC...(Rumor)
