Customer Reviews

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I didn't expect too much going into this game. I played the first Force Unleashed on the console, and while that game had some problems, it was still very fun at times. However, Force Unleashed 2 fails to fix the problems of the original, and introduces a host of new issues.

I think my main issue with this game was its length. Even playing the game on hard, with numerous restarts due to technical issues, and having to wait through the annoying, unskippable logo movies, the game still was over in just a few hours. It felt much shorter than the first game, and was not even worth the discounted [...] price. The gameplay, while still pretty fun at times, got very repetitive, simply because I tended to use the same tactic (grip object or stormtroopers, lightning, and throw) on practically every enemy in the game. The saber combat, another weak area of the first game, was not improved at all. I found myself using the same attack over and over again (slash, slash, lightning). The longer moves were easily blocked or interrupted, and I had to force myself to use them just for the sake of variety.

I also experienced a number of serious technical issues, from pre-rendered cut-scenes frequently failing to play, to crashes during loading, to completely broken physics where stormtroopers would float in mid-air like it was in zero-gravity. In addition, the game is capped at 30 frames per second, making everything feel a bit choppy. These problems seriously detracted from what would already have been a mediocre game.

All in all, I've found the Force Unleashed to be wholly inferior to Jedi Knight 2 and Jedi Academy. It's proof that all the fancy technologies in the world like DMM, Euphoria, and Havok can't replace solid game mechanics and a strong story.

Cinematic Cut Scenes:
These were amazing. Some character expressions were odd - but overall it looked beautiful and flowed smoothly. Be aware - this game is not for a low end computer. The cut scenes need a computer with decent RAM and a good video card.

Story:
Although the cut scenes were beautiful and exciting - after seeing them once there isn't much draw to watch them again. It was also painfully short. They have a wonderful foundation for the plot and interesting characters with excellent voice actors. But they sacrificed story for action. Always a bad choice.

Music:
I was disappointed with the music. They recycled the music from the movies. I expected the Star Wars themes to make their appearance. But this game has no original musical material. Very sad - Starkiller should have his own theme. Especially since his character has such a dark/light internal conflict.

Combat:
Nothing is more fun than combat with force powers and light-sabers. There is something so fluid and graceful about Jedi combat that we are still not sick of it - decades after we first saw Obi-Wan fight Darth Vader.

But the combat has too many buttons (especially on PC) - it's not accessible and it's hard to use all the powers fluidly.
Batman:Arkham Asylum had combat that was accessible - and it took about one play-through to master - it made you really feel like you were as skilled as Batman.
I wanted to have that same sense of empowering the gamer...feeling like you really are a Jedi fighting Vader.

The combat is repetitive. Storm Troopers die very easily and Starkiller seems overpowered at the beginning. Upgrading force powers would be more fun if you noticed a large difference in them. Boss battles last forever and they aren't especially difficult. Of course that could vary depending on the player.

Challenges:
While the game feels easy - the extra challenges included are horribly punishing. It's hard to even get bronze level on many of them. This is bizarre especially considering the overall ease of the game.

Conclusion:
If you like light-saber combat and force powers this game will be satisfying. Especially if you own a console. On PC - it'll take a while to warm up to the system. But there isn't much in this game beyond your light-saber and force powers.

Or maybe it's "These are not the bugs you are looking for." I'm not sure which. :)

All joking aside, this game could have been great. It looks like Star Wars. It sounds like Star Wars. But the game is buggier than an anteater's lunch. There are graphics bugs where textures don't show up or show up "black." (A reload of the game helps this, but you shouldn't have to do this!) Cut scenes don't play or cause the game to hang. Saving games cause the game to hang. There are weird physics bugs - e.g. floating storm troopers. And talking about "flogging a dead horse," as the saying goes: you can chop up dead bodies time and time again before they finally hit the ground. Sometimes I didn't know if they were dead yet, so I just kept hacking away. :) There are crash bugs galore, and bugs that prevent further play. This last one is very inexcusable. Just to a search for "force unleashed 2 fuse bug" for this very nasty bug which prevents advancing to the next level/stage. I don't know how the gaming industry gets by with this! Did anyone actually beta-test this game, or was it just shipped without anyone actually trying to play it from beginning to end?

Some of the crash bugs seem to be during transitions from game play to rendered cutscenes. One in particular made me laugh because I was so engrossed in the game: it was the last cutscene after you fight Vader. You make an important choice, and then, as I excitedly waited to see what happened, I was greeted with an error dialog and my desktop. :) Fun stuff!!! The perfect time for a crash bug!

If I went to a movie and there were - for instance - scenes missing CGI effects, out of place music, color problems, or the dialog wasn't synched, I'd be exceedingly angry, demanding my money back from the cinema, but here we are, beta testing a game that shouldn't have shipped. And this is far from uncommon. It happens all the time. The gaming industry needs to grow up in this regard, and consumers need to voice their opinions by not buying games like this or demanding refunds. Customers have rights too, and it's inexcusable to ship a game that is filled with this many bugs.

Another negative is this game is very short. I'd be surprised if I played it 5 or 6 hours. A considerable amount of that time was dealing with crash bugs and trying to find out work-arounds to the bugs. The games shortness contributes to further, non-technical issues.

With the game being so short, the plot wasn't explained well enough. In fact, I'm not entirely sure what the plot was supposed to be. It has something to do with Kamino and clones. (Yeah, breaking some new ground there!!!) It seems little thought was given to expanding the anemic storyline.

The game seemed - at least to me - to suffer from some balancing issues when it came to the "bosses." They were really cool, but some of them were frustratingly hard to beat. But maybe that's just me. :)

The shortness of the game also affected character development. You collect saber crystals (a very cool concept!) during the game which you can install in each of your two sabers to give you additional powers, adding a bit of RPG feel to the game. Of course, you have Force points you can allocate, too, but by the end of the game, you'll have almost all of them full anyway, which kind of defeats the purpose of "creating" your own character. Jedi Knight did this the best, and no SW game has topped it since.

Yeah, it's clearly a console port, but in this case, it really didn't bother me. What usually bothers me is the absolutely insane, nausea-inducing camera angles, save system, and UI limitations. The save system is fine here. The camera angles never created a problem. And the controls were typical for any PC FPS. There was some button mashing - which is weird on a PC keyboard - and combos moves that are not typical to PC gaming, but I felt that they weren't too distracting and didn't take away from the immersiveness of the game. In fact, I thought it was much better than most console ports when it comes to controls. At least it actually references a mouse and keyboard and didn't ask me to push gamepad buttons!!!

But not all is lost - pretty close to total failure, but not entirely. The graphics are beautiful - except for the aforementioned problems. The level design is absolutely brilliant. It really captures the SW universe, and this is certainly one of the high points. Although, it would have been nice to see more inhabitants to this world other than 1) the generic rebel soldier, 2) 3 variations of storm troopers, 3) Sith/Jedi clones, 4) and droids. Most of the races we expect in the SW world are not present, making the game seem barren and lifeless, so to speak.

Another definite highlight is the variety of playing styles. By that I mean your character is put in some situations in which you wouldn't see in the average FPS or TPS. I don't want to give away specifics, but you are fighting in some pretty unique circumstances. Utilization of the main character's Force powers really comes into play nicely!

The voice acting is top notch, and I especially like the guy that plays Starkiller. He's acting is great, particularly in the end!!! The music is also what you'd expect from a SW game.

What's sad about this game is it clearly had the potential to be great. It's set in the SW universe. It has great graphics. It has fun game play. It has likable characters. And even if the storyline did rehash some elements already used in SW movies, it was still enjoyable. But the bugs, shortness (feels more like an expansion pack than a full game), and lack of story depth, relegate it to being less than what it could be. It's worth a play, but it's not worth paying full price with your hard earned money. It's far from the most frustrating game I've played recently, but it's a such a disappointment because the developers clearly are capable of producing a great SW game. Unfortunately, this game isn't it.

It's a long time since I played a video game, even longer since I watched the old movies, but I saw the juicy commercial depicting Starkiller beating up on stormtroopers with a little glimpse of the original deep voiced Darth Vader, and decided to shell out forty bucks.

The game turned out to be a choppy, buggy, three dimensional version of Super Mario Brothers. You kill everyone and inflict as much property damage as possible for "points," and collect force cubes in lieu of floating coins or pieces of fruit. The most tedious part is the boss robots that shoot ice or fire. You just finish one and another steps out, or two or three, and I hurt a nerve or something in the first joint of my first finger tapping keys in order to bring up the little videos that show the same finishing moves over and over and over. I appreciate a bit of storyline, and there are some nice Star Warsy video clips that tie it together, but the slow motion finishing moves against ice and fire droids really tested my patience. The final battle also seemed to take hours. I don't need to pay money for frustration, tedium, technical trouble and buggy gameplay.

That said, some of the visuals are incredible. You really are on Kamino in the rain. The stormtroopers really look like stormtroopers. The force powers look great, although they wear thin fast.

Hope that helps. I gave my copy to a neighbor.

I had not played a star wars game since KotOR II until The Force Unleashed II came out. At first I had to get used to the hack and slash portrayal Lucas Arts gave to this game. The first play through this game IS fun. However, once you have completed it, it is apparent that the game lacks many things.

1. Plot - The Force Unleashed II has the worst plot I have ever seen in a game. Period.
2. Boss Battles - The boss battles, which there are only two of, were extremely uninventive, cliche, and unsatisfying.
3. Bug - I could not believe that Lucas Arts released a game with such a major bug. In one of the levels you are supposed to take a battery out of one laser cannon and place it into another to proceed. However, especially in the PC version, the game would not allow you to force grip the battery. In effect the level was impassable. I had to search on the internet to find out that everyone who had bought the PC version, and many people with the console version, had encountered the same problem. It was very annoying since the only way around the bug was to restart the level on another difficulty setting and the bug went away...of course this bug was near the end of the said level.
4. Ending - Going along with what I said about the plot and boss battles earlier...I could see what the last boss battle was going to be from a mile away and Lucas Arts deemed it appropriate to add in a "twist" to the battle that could more aptly be described as a retarded afterthought. I won't give it away...but as soon as you start the fight you will see it...and it is laughable. Furthermore, the terrible last boss fight is followed by an equally terrible cutscene which supposedly "explains" what happens...but in effect really just pisses off the player due to just how bad it is. An 8 year old with a wild and expansive imagination could have come up with a better ending than Lucas Arts did.

Overall, I feel that Lucas Arts really dropped the ball when it came to this game. Let's hope that a hack and slash action jedi game with no plot or even a cool twist is ever made again.

I have not played the original Force Unleashed, but I bet this sequel is probably a complete slap in the face to people who have played it.

I have really enjoyed Lucas Arts games in the past...but the Force Unleashed II was a huge disappointment to me to the point in which I would advise people against buying it. :(

Even if you are running a state of the art PC, plan on going online to look up hacks to make this game run properly. It is locked at 30 fps, and there is no way to turn vsync on. The game is a tearing nightmare.

Also, the game will crash after trying to load a saved game after dying. This happens more than 50% of the time.

This game is a very, very poor console port. I gave it two stars, because it's worth playing if you pick it up super cheap, like $5-$10. It will try your patience, though.

I have a midrange general-purpose PC (2.8GHZ Intel Core i7, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD4350 video card, running Win 7 Ultimate 64bit). I had some performance issues at maximum resolution even using the lowest graphics settings, but at lower resolutions, even with maximum graphics settings, I had no problems at all. The lower resolutions still look fine, and it doesn't bother me to use them since the highest resolution of the game is lower than what my monitor is capable of displaying anyway. The graphics and effects look good, and the game generally runs smoothly and quickly. This game has not yet crashed (which is a first for me with LucasArts games...). I'm using a XBox 360 controller with my PC and all the controls seem to be fine. Using a keyboard and mouse might be weird. Working with force gripped objects seems easier than in TFU1. Targeting also seems to be better. There is no DRM on this game either which is always a plus. I would give this game a 3.75/5 (as a comparison, I would give The Force Unleashed I 3/5). This is a simple game created for casual gamers and was created no doubt with a limited budget and under tight deadline to maximize Q4 revenue (as most games are).

If you liked TFU1, you will probably like this game. If you did not like TFU1, you probably won't like this game.

For me, this is a fun game, but only just, and not worth a 4+ rating. As other reviewers have said, like TFU1, this game is much too short and much too easy even at maximum difficulty. The overall feeling comes off as an unfinished game and there is definitely a lack of replay value. However, when assuming that this game is meant for casual gamers who may also have short attention spans and limited patience, it makes sense that the game would be this way, at the expense, of course, of more-than-casual gamers. I think that LucasArts underestimates its fans in this regard (just as the gaming industry generally underestimates gamers). Pressing single buttons for finishing boss battles and finishing off larger enemies (like the walkers) is annoying and repetitive (couldn't they randomize the buttons, require combos, and/or speed it up for added pressure?). Why not just let players finish off enemies using regular gameplay controls (you can with those walkers) and then follow up with the CGI sequence? That way they can experience the fun of the battle and then watch and enjoy the sequence without worrying about interaction. While this aspect of gameplay is not a gamebreaker, to me it is worth at least minus 1/4 of a star, and game length at least minus 1 star. To be fair, I think some of the sequences would be difficult or perhaps impossible to play using normal gameplay (e.g. the gorog battle, "landing" the Salvation, etc). Still, I'm sure something could be done differently to improve playing.

Should the fine peeps at LucasArts read my comments here, I would like to say to them that the real problem of this game series is the following:

The story of the series is one of the worst examples of retroactive continuity that I've ever seen, even for something from the LucasArts brand. I really like Starkiller as a character but he would have been a much better character in another context. Nobody really cares anymore about what happened during the clone wars or between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Enthusiasm for that part of the Star Wars series has already been more or less snuffed by the botched prequels and reworked originals. However, the expanded universe is rich with good ideas and there are plenty of other interesting stories that could be told which occur outside the timeline of the movies. The Knights of the Old Republic series is a great example of this. Start making more games (and maybe movies) with that content.

Personally, and I'm sure I'm not alone on this, the game I would like to see would have the the graphics and action of TFU1 and 2 (lightsaber combat and using force powers is fun in these games), a long, non-linear, and compelling story like KotOR1 and 2, an open and dynamic world (maybe like Grand Theft Auto III or IV but even bigger - there's a whole galaxy to explore), full character and weapon customization (KotOR2 was pretty good at this), and a diverse set of enemies which increase in difficulty as the player increases in ability so that battle is always battle rather than a one-sided slaughter by a max leveled player who has essentially achieved godhood. Oh, and get rid of the button combo during CGI play sequences and never look back... All of the elements to create this kind of Star Wars game already exist, they just need to be put into one game. Replay value of such a game would be great, LucasArts would make bank, and we players would thank them for it.

Somewhat buggy (crashes on save, but saves successfully). Way too short (I solved it in 3 days of casual play). PC version has issues with HID-compliant controllers (like the one loaded by my Logitech gamepad); must disable in order to get it to play.
This is a console game which has been (badly) ported to PC. Button-mashing required in boss levels, so map your keys to something you can easily reach and hammer on (not the mouse-4/5 buttons, as I did; fingers are still sore!).

This Game Has A Lot Of Problems - But It CAN Be A Lot Of Fun...

This review, keep in mind, is by someone who has already bought the game, and has to deal with his purchase. I would not recommend this game for anyone that's not a huge Star Wars fan (I'm not; I just wanted a game to play for a weekend). If you're a big Star Wars fan, you'll probably buy it anyway; even so, read the rest of the review, because it might be of use to you.

A note to parents: This game is designed for kids, and I found it kid-appropriate. Younger kids would probably love this.

First of all, the thing that gets on my nerves most about this game is the universe it's set in; not just the Star Wars universe, but the alternate-stories Star Wars universe that doesn't star the staple cast that's tried and true. The human, or clone, whatever, that you play is named StarKiller; just the name alone gets on my nerves, seems lame, and kinda makes me want to vomit. The rest of the cast isn't any better, and the setting is poorly done, story wise, altogether.

The animations and handling of the cut-scenes is are awful. The voice acting is awful. The whole production seems low rent; the entire thing made me think one thing: Man, Lucas has more money than this; this could have been a lot better than it is. This is embarrassing.

The repetitive animations on 'boss' or otherwise very large enemies gets old. You may have to hit different buttons, and the situation may be different, but the take-downs and routines are the same, over and over again. At a certain point, it gets really old.

Then there's the fact that the game should have been longer. This game is VERY short.

Brief thing about a glitch in the game: There is a level wherein you have to remove a power cylinder from a cannon on a star ship; many people have reported that it won't come out, and thus you can't finish the level. In order to get around this, you have to exit the game, change the skill setting to easy, RESTART the game, and play through; then, once you're past it, change your skill setting back to whatever it was to begin with. I had a heck of a time with this. Lots of frustration over it. Bah.

One cool thing about this game is that it takes part in the 'Games For Windows' initiative that Microsoft has put together, which means that it looks pretty much identical on Xbox and PC; also, on the PC you can plug-in your 360 controller, and you basically ARE playing the Xbox 360 version; even the menus change, and look identical to the Xbox stuff... This makes the entire experience cooler for the PC player, because this is the kind of game that benefits from the controller. I typically am a 100% keyboard and mouse player, but in this case, the 360 controller really made it fun.

Another cool thing about this game is that AFTER you beat it, and you have built up your 'force powers' and such, going back through various levels on different skill settings makes for a pretty good time. That has been the most fun I've derived from the game, actually. Also, I suggest using cheat codes after beating the game to acquire all the other costumes, light sabers, and force powers you may have missed and increase your fun for playing it through again.

Just for kicks, here are a whole lot of cheat codes for this game:

Cheat: Codes
Enter the following codes for the desired effect.

AJP400 - Unlock Jump Trooper skin
GUNRAY - Unlock Neimoidian skin
HAAZEN - Unlock the Sith Acolyte skin
LIBO - Unlock Dark Green Lightsaber Crystal / Regain life when in use
MANDALORE - Unlock Boba Fett skin
MAREK - Unlock Force Repulse ability
MORGUKAI - Unlock Saber Guard skin
NOMI - Unlock Experiemental Jedi Armor
RAHM - Unlock the General skin
REBELSCUM - Unlock Rebel Soldier Skin
SHADOW - Unlock Terror Trooper skin
SOLARI - Unlock Wisdom (White) Lightsaber Crystals / Gain extra Force points when defeating your enemies
TK421 - Unlock Classic Storm Trooper skin
TRAYA - Lightsaber Throw
VENTRESS - Unlocks Dark Apprentice skin
YARAEL - Unlock Jedi Mind Trick move

Tip: Cheat: Unlimited Force Points

In the first level, when you have to run away from the gun ship, when you stop you will die instantly -- and gain some Force Points. There's a save point here, so you can use a rubber band to hold down the character movement analog stick and create a perpetually running, and dying Starkiller. You will gain infinite Force Points if you just leave the game and come back later.

With these things little cheats and the Force Points cheat, a great time can be easily had.

I really want to like this game. The premise is a lot of fun. You get to be Darth Vader's secret apprentice. Awesome. However, everything else about the game falls flat. First, the game crashes way too much. Sometimes the game fails to load, other times the guy gets stuck in a wall or something. It's unacceptable. In a two hour game session, the thing crashes about 3 times and finally I just quit out of frustration.

Second, the game play is horribly repetitive. It got a little better since the first one, but it's still essentially throwing around hundreds of stormtroopers. The levels are way too long. There should be shorter levels and more of them. Not the other way around. And the camera is terrible. There are a lot of jumping tasks in the game and the camera view is the greatest hindrance. Often times you have to do a blind jump, which causes you to die, which gives a 50/50 chance if the game is gonna come back again. All of it is just frustrating.

The cut-scenes are the only redeeming quality. The story even is kinda bad. I really wish I could like this game, but it just fails at nearly everything else. Some of it is forgivable, such as the stormtrooper slaughter, but the camera controls and near constant crashing are just awful. Unless you are a real Star Wars fan and looking for some back -fill in the expanded universe, Stay away from this one. And that really is unfortunate to say since it has such great promise.