Despite lackluster reviews of the former Force Unleashed game, Lucasarts knows when they have something good. The original Force Unleashed (FU for short) was a highly underrated game in my opinion, but was scathed by many review houses for some issues that could have been worked out with a little more development time. The game studio has had mixed success with video games based on the Star Wars franchise, as there have been some real doosies, offset by some of the most excellent games available.
Lucasarts has “unleashed” the second installment of The Force Unleashed, and hopes to win over gamers with improved gameplay features, and a continuing storyline. This review focuses on the PC version of the game, which also takes advantage of the Xbox 360 controller for Windows (reviewed here).
PC Game options
One cool thing about the PC version is that it uses both the mouse and keyboard, as well as an Xbox 360 controller (or other PC gamepad). The game automatically senses if an Xbox 360 controller is used, and changes the gameplay accordingly. The game has reminders about how to perform a certain action, and uses the correct key binding for the controller you’re currently using. If you have a gamepad plugged in and start using the keyboard, then the game automatically compensates. We’ve seen this behavior in nearly every “Games for Windows” title that also exists for the Xbox 360, and those games also connect to the same Xbox Live account. It’s great to play a PC game and have the achievements show up on your Xbox 360 leaderboard (Bioshock 2 or Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PC behave this way), but sadly Lucasarts doesn’t utilize this.
Below is a grid of the controls for the PC version using the mouse + keyboard, and Xbox 360 controller
| Control | PC | Xbox 360 |
| Move Left | A | Lstick |
| Move Right | D | Lstick |
| Move Forward | W | Lstick |
| Move Back | D | Lstick |
| Jump | Space | A |
| Force Dash | Shift | LB |
| Center Camera | C | R-stick |
| Force Powers Menu | Enter | N/A |
| Force Fury | R | LS + RS (click) |
| Lightsaber Attack | Mouse 1 | X |
| Block | Mouse 3 | LT |
| Force Grip | Mouse 2 | RT |
| Force Push | E | B |
| Force Lighting | Q | Y |
| Force Sense | Ctrl | D-pad Up |
| Target Lock | Tab | RB |
| Previous Target | Wheel Down | N/A |
| Next Target | Wheel Up | N/A |
| Rank Up | Esc (to menu) | Select |
Next we look at the differences between FU and FU2 and go over the PC graphics options…
Most PC titles allow granular control over the game’s graphics, and FU2 is no different. Depending on your system you can change the resolution or different graphic features to suit your CPU speed, monitor, or video card. The features available in the Graphic Details are:
- Dynamic Shadows
- Reflections
- Motion Blur
- HDR Rendering
- Depth-of-Focus
- Global Ambient Lighting
- High Detail Textures
- Anisotropic Filter (variable)
- View Distance (variable)
You have granular control over all of the graphic options
One thing that has dramatically changed about the game are the controls. Some of the physics issues have been resolved from the first game, but we still encountered weird glitches every now and then where objects would disappear, go through walls, or pop to a different part of the level. A major improvement comes in the way upgrades are handled. You can now upgrade your lightsaber and Force Powers on-the-fly within a level without having to configure them in a pre-level lobby.
Some of the other gameplay enhancements just make Starkiller more bad-ass, and thus the game more fun. Now you can wield two lightsabers at the same time, and can configure each to have a different color and power-up (extra damage, quicker healing, more focus, etc). Your lightsaber is made even more powerful with the addition of force power combos. For example, if you tap between the lightsaber button and Force Lightning, you can throw lightning with your lightsaber. The same effect can be had with Force Push. In addition, you can make any projectile a “lightning grenade” by charging it with Force Lightning before throwing.
How can FU2 feature Starkiller as the hero when the main character was supposedly killed off at the finale of its predacessor, you ask? Well, we’re starting to get into Science-Fiction soap opera territory here, but this Starkiller is apparently a clone of the original. It is unclear if Vader had clones just laying around or if the clones were started after Starkiller’s death, and is never answered in the game. A lot of the game’s story deals with the protagonist’s philisophical issues on whether he truly is a clone or not (according to Rahm Kota, a Jedi cannot be cloned).
Helpless damsel? Check. Identity crisis? Double-check.
Regardless of how Starkiller came to be, he still has feelings for Juno Eclipse from the first game. Our anti-protagonist escapes from Darth Vader and seeks out to find her, and thus begins our game. Along the way, Starkiller meets up with Rahm Kota, Juno, and Proxy.
Cameos
Darth Vader isn’t the only character from the franchise that fans will be familiar with. Boba Fett (and the Slave I) and Yoda make brief appearances, but only have a few lines, which are contained in cutscenes. You resume the on-again-off-again relationship with Rahm Kota from the previous installment in the middle of the game (about 2 hours in).
Yo-da! Yo yo yo yo Yo Daaaaaaaah!
Another cameo I was glad to see (or actually hear) was an easter egg. There is a level on Kamino’s inner arena that has several “hologram billboards” promoting several different things, and one of these kiosks is apparently a row of slot machines with a hologram of Jabba the Hut. The music playing on these slot machines is from Monkey Island 2, which made me smile from ear to ear.
You meet up with Kota and Proxy
At the very end of the game, you get to choose a Light or a Dark ending. This might be a little bit of a spoiler, but if you choose the Dark ending then you get a short, unsatisfying closure but you get an answer to if you are truly a clone. The Light ending is much longer, everyone survives, and there’s a set up to a possible third installment of the game.
There is a decent variation of gameplay within the levels. The main gameplay is running around a large interior, encountering and dispatching various enemies. There are a few “falling” sequences, in which you’re falling down towards a planet and must get through obstacles by using various Force powers, and these parts of the level are pretty fun. Another part of some of the levels is a rail-type sequence, where you’re on top of a vehicle and must prevent its destruction. Of course, there are two major Boss battles, which have their own type of gameplay: defeat a part of the boss, progress to the next part, repeat…
Even though there are gameplay variations in each level, there are only three different environments. One of these is on Dagobah, which you really can’t call a level besides the fact there are a few hidden cubes to be found. You literally walk through the swamp no more than two minutes before you are led to a cutscene with Yoda, which then takes you off the planet and onto the next level.
Look! You’re on Dagobah (for about two minutes)
Gone are the days of stormtroopers wearing anti-lightsaber armor (a major issue I had with FU1), but now there are enemies that require different ways in dealing with them. Stormtroopers can be easily dispatched with one swipe, but the problem is getting to them, as they are usually behind cover or at the end of many other enemies. Flying stormtroopers can easily avoid ranged attacks, so you usually just fry them with lightning and let their jetpacks go haywire. There is another type of “bounty hunter” character which has a special electronic suit that allows them to disappear and move around the room,and they’re too quick to reach even by dashing. You must short-circuit their suits with Force Lightning and then take them out.
Stealthy power-suit ninja: taste my lightning!
You will encounter two different types of Sith enemies… ones with lightsabers, and those without (who will block all of your force powers, and as such are only succeptible to lightsaber attacks). Both of these types of Sith can be easily wiped out by using the X+A grapple attack, which plants your lightsaber right in their six-pack. This is such a powerful combo that you’ll use it all the time, and the scripted animation gets really old really quick.
Interact with the environment: power up fuses and rip open doors
You’ll run into some mini-bosses as well, usually in the form of droids, AT-STs and other mechanical beasties. The strategies differ for each type, but becomes tiresome after a few of the same encounters. After a mini-boss is weakened then you can employ a finishing move by running up to it and pressing the “A” button. The finishing moves are scripted sequences that require timed key presses, and there is absolutely no variation in the animation. It would have been nice if Lucasarts had several different badass moves to break things up a bit, but as it stands, you’ll only be impressed the first few times they’re pulled off.
As mentioned previously, The Force Unleashed 2 has a lot of improvements over its predacessor. The controls are greatly improved, and the storyline is compelling, but perhaps not as much as the original game. The Achilles Heel of this game is that it is painfully short… as in you can finish it in 5 hours short. I thought the gamplay of the original FU was short at about 12 hours, but this is absolutely ridiculous for a full-priced game.
The PSP version of the original Force Unleashed was the only version of the game that received even acceptable reviews, and LucasArts abandoned the PSP version of its sequel right before launch. Many game-industry analysts speculate that this is due to Sony’s outspoken condemnation of piracy on their handheld platform. Apparently Lucasarts is giving a big ol’ “Eff You, Too” to FU2 on the PSP. The weirdest thing about this maneuver is that PC games are more notorious for piracy than the PSP.
These Terror Droids get real annoying real quick
The reason I mention the PSP version in this PC review is to illustrate a point. Studios like to blame poor sales numbers on piracy, but a large part of these financial woes could be that people don’t want to spend $50 for a five-hour experience. How can a studio expect to make money when every single review of their game advises consumers to just rent it. No studio can make huge sales numbers when the only copies sold are to GameFly.
PC users may be out of luck when it comes to renting games, but you can easily purchase it from Steam. Steam is very good about discounting their PC games, so I would definitely wait a few weeks when the price drops. Eight levels of fun (I refuse to acknowledge the Dagobah scene as a “level”) could be worth $25 or so, but a full-price game should come with a full-price experience.
I really disagreed with many reviewers’ ratings of the original Force Unleashed, as I thought it was a highly underrated, and the price was discounted greatly after about a month. The Force Unleashed 2 is just as fun (if not moreso) than the original, but my main harping point is its extreme brevity, which greatly impacts the story. Most gamers won’t be able to get beyond the low price-per-entertainment ratio.
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1 Comment
Untill they learn to code correctly I am not buying their games. In year where more and more people have more than 4GB in RAM and do NOT use swap memory because of SSD disks cannot play this game due to its swap file requirement. It didnt matter that I have 16 GB RAM and 64-bit Win7.