Geoff Girardin

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. We return to follow Starkiller after he has been betrayed yet again by Darth Vader. The release of this game is no real surprise, given the talk that surrounded the release of it’s predecessor, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. A fantastic game, albeit with it’s downfalls. I start off Unleashed II with great expectation, both as a fan of the first game in the series, and as a Star Wars fan overall.

I must say that Unleashed II follows in much the same vein as the original,
feeling at times as though I am right at home, like nothing has changed, at times like some sort of downloadable expansion pack, and, unfortunately, sometimes as though it is a step in the wrong direction. The excellent pillars of the series return, excellent storyline (helped in part by being named official canon by George Lucas, thus making the games actually matter to fans), superb voice acting, exciting battle sequences, etc.

This marks the first game in the series with an appearance by both Master Yoda and Boba Fett, the former serving as the eccentric wise man on Dagobah and the latter serving as a hired protagonist. An excellent and well-done new point of gameplay is the ability to dual-wield lightsabers. That’s right, as you play the game, you are rocking two sabers. Two blades of futuristic death. Before I was able to play the game, I thought that it was merely an option, however, you play through the entire game with a saber in each hand, and it is glorious. Starkiller has never moved with such speed and finesse, and the new setup is an appreciated addition.

The new Force Powers are an excellent addition, as well. My personal favorite is one of the two Wii-exclusive powers, a move called “Force Rage.” As you slash-and-dash with your lightsabers, you will build up a small rage meter that is located next to your health/Force bars. Once it’s full you can press and hold the right D-button and point the remote at your enemies. After a second, the camera will shift into a bullet-time view of Starkiller slicing the enemies in half, limbs flailing everywhere. It’s really great, but does not satisfy my strong feelings about lightsabers in gaming.

Lightsabers slice things in half. They do not need to take a few hits before an enemy is killed, they are all-powerful lightsabers. However, personal preferences based on years of intense fandom aside, these are all excellent things about the game! The graphics, for being a Wii title, are solid, and the environments are very well done. They really tried to allow for the fun of destruction, so nearly every single wall and object can be destroyed, creating a huge, battle-torn location.

However, things are not all perfect, or even very good. Sure, the idea of dual-lightsabers is very, very good, but it should have been optional. I understand the emphasis, Force Unleashed II and dual-lightsabers, the recurrence and importance of two. Two sabers, two sides, etc. Sadly, the gameplay and movement is ridiculous. Understandably, as a Jedi, Starkiller moves quicker than the average human, but come on. All you see is a blur of whatever color you’ve chosen for your sabers. The thing is, it’s merely an over-done effect. You don’t do crazy-amazing damage with these “Blurs of Death”; you do normal, ineffective damage that gets you killed. If I’m playing as a “Killer Windmill from the Future”, I want to refuse entry of enemies into my “Farm of Happiness and Telekinesis”. But no, it doesn’t do anything extra except try to look impressive.

The motion controls, while claimed to be a heavily-focused area of improvement, were found to be… lacking. It should not be this hard to Force Grip something. I had trouble just picking up enemies  or boxes, let alone platforms that were required for advancement. There are two options for the Force Grip. Both start with you selecting an object by pressing and holding the C button. From there, you can either move the remote in the direction that you desire, or you can use the control stick. Using the remote doesn’t work, due to terrible camera angles making it near-impossible to figure out what direction to move, and also, the problem with tossing objects. Let’s say I pick up a box to throw at an enemy. I have to flick the
remote quite hard either left or right to throw it, and even then, there is very limited accuracy. But when using the control stick, which is much more accurate at direction than the remote, you cannot throw objects. A curious situation indeed.

There is also no Game Over screen. You can die as many times as you want, and you will nearly always respawn at the entrance of the room. Your damage progress is saved, so if you entered a room of 10 enemies, and managed to take out six before you got killed, there will only be four when you return. This feels as though it cheapens the game, I caught myself not trying at certain points because I knew there was no penalty if I died. Since there’s no penalty, then the game felt like a cakewalk, and this was on the Hard difficulty setting.

Gameplay and control schemes are a huge part of a game’s overall experience. Looking pretty is one thing, but if it plays like a rock, then it will be as fun as a rock. And Force Unleashed II is a rock. Sure, it looks great, seems interesting, is highly anticipated, but once you play through it, you notice that it isn’t all that it was expected to be. Instead, we got a cool-looking letdown.

Overall score: 5/10