Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 Game Review

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.