[Review] Star Wars – The Force Unleashed II
Posted in Fun, Geek, Media on November 30th, 2010 by MichaelI admit it. I loved the first game in the series. It was utterly cool to force grab a Stormtrooper or two and fling them off the walkway to their doom. In general, what made that game was the ability to wield the “awesome” powers that the jedi and Sith have.
So now in 2010 Lucasarts comes out with a sequel, trying to continue the story. But did they actually succeed?
I quickly jumpted back into the first game, also on the 360, to remind myself of what I liked about the old one. Then I quickly fired up the new one.
First perception? The graphics look much better than in the first one. More “lifelike” and in general more polished. The old Force powers are back and you are even given a handful of new ones (more about this later). The first ten minutes or so left me impressed with the desire to continue.
THE STORY
Now, not trying to spoil the story I can safely say it continues where the last game left off, nice to see that they found a (not completely stupid) way onward.
Having said this though, the story isn’t anything special. It does not “reveal” anything big and it merely tries to hit all the check marks along the way to a “Star Wars” ending. It does so though in style, with pretty explosions and well executed effects for the force powers.
THE GAMEPLAY
This is where the game has let me down quite a bit.
First and foremost I think the controls are horrible. They weren’t overly precise in the first game, but they are utterly horrible in the sequel. It turns down into button mashing and hoping you have enough Force power juice to take out that enemy.
In theory you should have a nice balance between your powers and your lightsaber skills. In reality though I mostly used push and light sabre combos when I encountered enemies that I couldn’t beat by using the Force.
Which brings me to the next, and much bigger problem. The difficulty curve on the game is harsh. From “easy” to “medium” (which they recommend as default) it is a huge step. What makes this even worse though is that the increase in difficulty mostly stems from more and tougher enemies, not from smarter Ai.
The AI in general is pretty crappy, they either swarm you or they stand aimlessly around occasionally taking a shot at you that can be easily deflected with the sabres. So most enemies really are just decoration for you to toss around. Fun for a while, but after a while it becomes boring and annoying.
In later levels it becomes so hard even on medium that I found myself ultimately lower the difficulty to “easy” and ending up just blasting through the game. I did not intend that, I actually ended up raising difficulty in between only to get my ass kicked. Now maybe it’s old age (I am not as young as I used to be) but I would say the problem in this game is balance.
VERDICT
Can I recommend the game? Yes and no. If you are good with frustration, can live with a small number of enemies and are willing to wildly button smash to get a story that is roughly on par with what George Lucas has punted out over the last two decades then by all means go for it.
If you just look for a fun way to toss Stormtroopers to their death you may be better off getting the old game or just wait until this game goes into the bargain bin.
Total rating: 5/10
