Plotting Points by Tan(x)
Video Game Reviews by a Very Busy Math Teacher
Game: Force Unleashed 2
Platform: Xbox 360
Played For: 4 hours or so
Last year’s Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was a fairly decent game based on a gimmick. You played the role of Starkiller, a dark jedi trained by Darth Vader in order to kill the Emperor, and capable of using the force at a level unheard of in any of the six movies. The game worked out well due to the strong story and characters, variety of locations, and ridiculously over-the-top force powers. Despite his ability to, say, wrest a star destroyer out of orbit using the force alone (size doesn’t matter, after all) Starkiller ends up dying in the end, thankfully sealing off any possibility of a misguided attempt at a sequel. Or so I thought… but that’s when the clones showed up.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 begins with the revelation that Darth Vader has managed to clone Starkiller. In the happy world of Star Wars clones are not just genetic twins, but fully grown copies of the original person sporting a nearly complete set of memories and personality traits (in this case, the dominant trait that carried over appears to be “sulky.”) Star Wars clones really shouldn’t be called clones… maybe “duplicates” or “replicants” or “dubbs” would be more accurate. Our duplicate protagonist, who I will refer to as SK2 (because typing the word “Starkiller” makes me feel like a 9 year old boy with cosmic aggression issues) also comes with the super jedi powers of his predecessor, which I guess means he has “clone” copies of midichlorians as well.
As Vader prepares to unleash an army of cloned super-jedi on an unsuspecting galaxy (far, far away), our hero SK2 flies off on an unrelated murderous rampage looking for his previous girlfriend. Not interested in politics, war, philosophy, art or anything else, the completely unsympathetic SK2 kills storm troopers and imperial guards by the truckload, gets a brief tour of Yoda’s cave of darkness (he sees a bunch of copies of himself like any good narcissist should) and then ends up helping the Resistance inadvertently. In the end Vader kills the girl… but no wait she’s not dead after all… and the little issue of the jedi clone army just sort of disappears after SK2 murders a bunch of them. Oh, and Vader is captured by the alliance, necessitating a Force Unleashed 3 sometime in the future to ensure continuity with the movies.
Let’s try to be positive first. Unlike your typical clone, this game has a few improvements over its predecessor. Of immediate notice is SK2’s expanded ability to destroy his surroundings. I don’t know what variety of droid or little alien artisans spend all that time making Imperial architecture, but boy would they be mad to see how fast SK2 can now make a ruin of it. He’s like some evil god of Feng Shui, blowing up purposeless vidscreens, shattering air vents and smashing other clutter into its tiny constituent particles. Since SK2 earns extra experience for cleaning house, there is good reason to break anything and everything within reach. This doesn’t always make sense… why anyone would want to tear apart the engines or shatter the windows of the rebel cruiser they are currently riding is beyond me… but luckily in the Star Wars universe there is a pervading sense that none of this technological jumble does anything important anyway.
SK2 can use experience to upgrade his force powers as before, but he can also gain new powers for his dual-wielded light sabers (see, he has two now because this is a sequel.) While completely unnecessary for combat, new abilities on light sabers, like a random chance of disintegrating a foe with a strike, are a nice addition to any psychopathic jedi’s repertoire. Plus, upgrades change the sabers into a variety of pretty colors. A few of the force powers are also new, I think, although most of it felt familiar. There’s a jedi mind trick I don’t recall from before, allowing our hero to convince Storm Troopers to jump off bridges or open fire on their comrades… this is a game full of casual cruelty, as our hero always brings maximum force to bear on opponents who can’t possibly stand against him… and always in the pursuit of his own selfish whim.
There are far fewer levels in Force Unleashed 2 than in the first game, and most of them are pretty dull at that. There is, however, a visually splendid stage that takes place in a vast city hanging like a bunch of bats from the underside of a gigantic spiraling arch. At the end of that level there is also a boss battle against some kind of huge troll monster, which makes for a visual feast as long as you can shut out the stupid Lucasian dialogue between SK2 and his jedi master buddy throughout the encounter (here’s a topic for debate… which is worse, Lucas dialogue or the rest of the game’s soundtrack, which mostly consists of SK2 grunting with exertion or pain as he either dispatches foes or gets whacked by them.) In an otherwise uninspired game, this level stands out as the only small reward for your time.
Don’t expect much else… the game really isn’t that much fun. The developers must have sensed how linear and repetitive the gameplay feels… this is a game that was made better by being chopped down to half the length of a normal game (it would have been even better as a single level DLC for Force Unleashed 1.) There are only a few different types of enemies you will encounter, and each one can be dispatched with a corresponding and easy to determine tactic. Use your light sabers on dudes that are immune to force push. Use grabs and force lightning on dudes that you can’t hit with your swords. Bounce missiles back at droids that fire missiles. Repeat over and over. Enemies never learn new tricks, so once you’ve beaten one you’ve got them all.
Advertising for Force Unleashed 2 made a big deal of appearances by Yoda and Boba Fett, but neither of them are given much to do. Yoda barely says a word to SK2 and looks eager to get rid of him (an easily understood sentiment) and Boba Fett never really comes on stage at all. There are no new characters or ideas introduced, and previous characters such as General Kota or Juno Eclipse (okay, I like that name) are either misused or mostly absent. There is a new mission mode that tries to make up for the lack of length of the single player campaign, but it also feels skeletal and not very interesting to play.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed managed to be exciting and epic, full of new ideas and true to the original source material. The sequel is a zombie by comparison… it shambles where the previous game ran, it smells bad and is no fun at parties. As I write this review, the first inevitable DLC levels are being offered for sale, showing a crass disregard for the anemic product that already cost $60 of your hard-earned cash. Unless you think Star Wars 1-3 are better movies than Star Wars 4-6, this product probably isn’t for you.
