I am posting a quick review of The Force Unleashed II that was written by Kano Verda. Thanks for the work, Kano.

Also, between the two screenshots are spoilers about the story. Be sure to skip over them if yu aren't interested in getting spoilered.

--Muz

The Force Unleashed 2. We all know it as the continuance to the story of Galen Marek or as we all know him, Starkiller. I have been stoked about this games release since I saw the first teaser during the Scream Awards on Spike TV last year and last night I found myself waiting in a line of 60+ people to receive my Collector’s Edition copy. Of course with my super geek abilities I was the 2nd person in line waiting.

12:01am EST. The Force Unleashed 2 was in my hands.

With the Collector’s Edition, when you first open the box you find is the Mimobot USB drive in the shape of Starkiller. On this childish yet still awesome USB drive is an Interactive Digital Art Book, 5 TFU2 computer themes for PC and Mac users, as well as the Game Script. The Digital Art Book has some pretty cool images included and the themes are typical TFU2 wallpapers that you can find by doing a quick Google search. The Game Script was my personal favorite part of this USB drive because to see the dialogue and the way they arranged it is pretty interesting to me but overall the USB isn’t anything to get too excited about. After exploring these contents I moved on to the game.

Seeing as I pre-ordered TFU2 from GameStop I received a special Maulkiller skin and silver lightsaber crystals. These items are unlocked with a code and were accessed quite easily; they made the pre-order worth the extra stop at the GameStop. Moving on to adding the Collector’s Edition downloadable content. I will not be able to review these items yet because they still cannot be downloaded. No word has been released as of yet when the problem will be fixed but it has kind of pushed me into a rage and I have sent multiple e-mails to both Lucas Arts and Sony. I find it strange that the GameStop content code works but the Collector’s Edition code included in the box will not work. I am anxious to see these extra features and unlock the bonus items that I paid for. Now let’s move on to the game itself.

===SPOILER ALERT===

The story picks up on Kamino with Starkiller being trained to hate those he once loved, in other words Juno Eclipse. We also find out that Starkiller is nothing more than clone in this game and is being haunted by his own memories. Lord Vader sees this as a weakness and a failure at the cloning process. Because of Starkillers memories he knows that the next thing coming is his death at Vader’s hands. This can’t happen so Starkiller proceeds to make his escape from the Kamino Cloning facilities. If you played the demo of the game you know all of this already and the first level is basically the demo with a few more guys to slaughter.

After your escape your first task is to rescue an old friend that is being held at a gladiator arena and force to fight for his life, that old friend is none other than General Rahm Kota. After fighting your way through an amazing looking area filled with Imperial Troopers you find yourself in the middle of the arena with Kota and telling him that he can sit this next fight out, what you face can life a Rancor in a single hand and devour it. Not going to spoil that one for you.

After that fight you see a cut scene that brings the most infamous bounty hunter in the galaxy into the story. Boba Fett has been tasked by Lord Vader to find Juno and use her as bait to lure you into his clutches. It isn’t a big roll but it will do. Soon you find yourself on Dagobah, looking into the entrance of a cave, the very same cave that Luke Skywalker will be looking into in Empire Strikes Back. A kind green friend we all know makes an appearance and lends a few helpful words to Starkiller, enhancing he need to find Juno.

Kota then leads you to The Salvation, a rebel ship that Juno is aboard. The ship falls under attack and you are forced to rush to her rescue on the bridge. Along the way you will be facing new enemies with some interesting powers to say the least. This is another thing I don’t want to ruin. Anyways, Kota calls for the rebels to attack Kamino while you are still on your way to save Juno. When the ship drops from hyperspace the Empire is waiting.

After struggles and fights you see Fett leaving the Salvation with Juno and did I mention the ship is falling apart and the attack on Kamino is failing. Using the Force Starkiller crashes the ship into the cloning facility and proceeds to make his way into the building.

It is here that you will face Vader in an epic battle that both times playing has lasted me around 20 minutes. In the end Juno is tossed from a window and presumed dead, the rage causes you to get the better of Lord Vader and as he is kneeling before you Kota calls for a stop. Vader is needed alive to stand trial. This is where you decide, good or evil. I will leave the ending up to you.

===END SPOILERS===

As of right now I have beat TFU2 on both the easy and medium difficulty settings. Over the last week I played the original Force Unleashed game to get myself back into the mindset and it also allowed me to compare one big thing, game length. The new game is considerably shorter than the old. I slid through the game with a half coffee driven brain and completed it in 4 hours and 47 minutes. That was the easy time. On medium and you need to remember this is my second run through the game; it took just an extra 17 minutes. Overall the length was kind of disappointing. Game play on the other hand is a different story.

The controls are extremely close to the controls of the first game so once you start you have that comfort level already there also you already have most of the powers that you had when the first game ended. The usage of the 2 lightsabers makes the game so much more enjoyable on a visual level on multiple levels, the best one being that in TFU2 you can sever arms, legs, and heads. That’s right, the saber is more like a saber in this game rather than a glowing baseball bat.

As I moved through the levels, the game had the overall same feel as the first one except with added powers and features, my personal favorite being the ability to use Mind Trick. With this you can cause an enemy to either attack his friends or to commit suicide, it is always fun to watch a Stormtrooper leap off the edge of a building while screaming’ “I can’t take this anymore!”

There were several glitches I noticed during gameplay including enemy characters “twitching” into another place on screen, sound being off queue or not there in areas, and lightsabers getting stuck in the air when throwing them at attackers. To a very strict gamer they would most likely find a lot to complain about with this game but me, being the geek that I am, I enjoyed the story and had a great time playing.