Review: Star Wars: Force Unleashed II

By Mike Wheeler

Console: Xbox 360

Big, big Stars Wars fan. Always have been, always will be. All those wannabe film critics who hated the last three movies can – to paraphrase one of the greatest anti-heroes of all time, Bart Simpson – eat my shorts.

I will hear nothing against George Lucas, Lucasfilm, or LucasArts, his game studio – hell I even loved Star Wars: Empire and War. So now we come to the latter’s latest release Star Wars: Force Unleashed II, does it keep my faith in the story that started in that Galaxy far, far away. Yes, mostly.

In a nod to George Lucas’s original surname for Luke Skywalker, you once again play Starkiller, Darth Vadar’s prodigy, who awakens seven months after the original Force Unleashed, not quite knowing where he is and to whom he owes allegiance, or if indeed he is Starkiller or a clone. At its most basic, the plot is about Starkiller trying to find the truth about his existence while seeking his former lover Juno Eclipse.

Gameplay is pretty standard, as you go through each level. Killing the bad guys – whether they be stormtroopers, AT-ST Walkers, or even TIE fighters – is pretty straight forward. The method of the kills varies from the standard light sabres and electrical lightening that comes from the fingertips, to using the force to crush bad guys, or lift things and throw them at them. Your method of despatch works on most villains, although the odd one is immune to one of your powers, which you find out soon enough.

This game has a Darksiders feel about it, with the bad guys slowly getting harder to kill, and there are several instances where you battle a host of galactic bad guys at once, so you have to switch between different methods of killing to finish off a level.

Graphics are above average, with most of the action in a couple of settings. There was little trouble with the controls as far as aiming your weapon or moving around the various levels, which has been a problem in a couple of games I’ve reviewed recently.

Overall I didn’t find the game too taxing and it only took about seven hours to complete. If you’re a hard core gamer after a testing time, then this isn’t the game for you. However, if you like continual action, with little thought being put into the interplay, then this is pretty fast and furious and will keep you amused.

Being a huge Star Wars fan, I am still waiting for the day they have a fully immersive game that takes in the whole Star Wars universe and takes 100 hours to complete with some kick-arse bad guys, creatures, planets, allies and a whole host of different levels.  Alas, this is not that game.

Pros: Tonnes of action, great weaponry, nice graphics
Cons: Too short, can be repetitive

3.2 Shacks out of 5