Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 is out at the end of this month as a demo showed up on Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Network this week. In case if you're wandering why a sequel exists for this game, Starkiller is dead at the end of the first game, but Darth Vader decided to make clones of him in hopes of having an apprentice that actually succeeds. Of course, his plan goes to waste after numerous attempts even though this one may suffer the fate because of haunted visions that remind the current Starkiller clone of the memories the original had in the first game. He decides to escape since he assumes Vader will kill him if he doesn't follow his orders and therefore we have this game and this demo. At least the demo starts out with a bang as Starkiller descends Force Pushing anything in his way. From there on, its pretty much the first game, but now with dual wielding lightsabers.
Starkiller having two lightsabers at its disposal does not change the core combat dramatically as he still has his other force powers to deal damage to the Empire. It does allow for more flashy moves when up in close, but other than that you can still pretty much the attack buttons to get the job done by mixing things up with the saber, force push, force grip, and force lightning. Controlling enemies and objects by force grip is still fun to use as seeing Stormtroopers fall to bottomless pits still feels funny. The only new addition I noticed in this game gameplay wise is the jedi mind trick as that is pretty self-explanatory if you know your Star Wars stuff. The combat as a whole is still fun despite its repetition at times, but hey you're still one badass that can do crazy things even though most of them are done in quicktime events and epic setpieces (Who else would think of Force gripping tie fighters to destroy a tower to be used as a platform). There also camera issues as it can get in the way at times, but since this is an early demo, it can be improved in the final game.
Graphically, Force Unleashed 2 looks fine for the most part running at a constant framerate and character models can be questionable however, but they're okay. As expected from any Star Wars game, the sounds are fabulous from the John Williams-like music, the top-notch voice acting, and the sound effects of the weapons. The first Force Unleashed was an okay game to most as it did some right things that would appease Star Wars fans, but there were some bad design decisions that made into the game such as the long drawn out quicktime sequence of bringing down a Star Destroyer with your force powers. It was cool in a cutscene, but playing through it felt like a drag to most. Of course, the story is left to be desired being official in the timeline of between episode three and four with the fate of Starkiller and the same is in effect for Force Unleashed 2. It is as if they can not think of anything better to further bridge the gap between the two movies other than let's find a way to continue the adventures of Starkiller. As with the first game, I'm glad a game exists, but it could of been better as a movie too and the same holds for this sequel. Then again, the amount of work put into these games are like the movies treating it as official canon, so who knows. We'll see if The Force Unleashed 2 lives up to expectations when it is out on October 26.
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