Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 First Look

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed may be the fastest selling title LucasArts has ever done, but I found the game to be largely disappointing. The game had entertaining moments, and I totally dug the way it connected the first and last three movies of the film franchise, but the gameplay felt unrefined, and became a grinding, repetitive affair.

I wasn't the only one with criticisms, and thankfully the staff behind the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (TFU2) is taking user opinion seriously. Through hours of focus testing, as well as taking a close look at the failings of the first game, LucasArts is hoping to not only recapture and refine what we loved about the original, but also change the game in some fundamental ways that will hopefully make the sequel everything we wanted the first to be.


For those of you who missed out on the biggest Star Wars release since the films, allow me to bring you up to speed. The Force Unleashed franchise is a third-person action series where you control Starkiller, Darth Vader's secret apprentice. While he ultimately sacrifices himself in order to save the Rebel Alliance, he reappears in the second game as the apparent result of cloning. Through various sequences that I don't want to spoil, he is once again freed from Vader's grasp and working in an effort to see how he can fight against his former master.

The story of TFU was well received (it was actually lauded by several outlets, even winning the award for best videogame writing in 2009 from Writers Guild America), but it was one of the few areas that people didn't have something to complain about. One of the biggest gripes leveled against the original was that every level followed the same formula of fight, fight, boss. For TFU2 the team has tried to break up the pacing, throwing in a series of environmental puzzles to make the player have to stop and think. The demo only featured one of these, but it was clear from the few minutes of gameplay I watched that the goal is to have the player utilize all their powers in order to get through the levels. For instance in the last game players pretty much never had a reason to throw their lightsaber unless it was to kill, whereas TFU2 will make players utilize their saber throw to hit switches during platforming moments as well. The goal isn't to make the game any less combat focused, but to make players feel like they have a greater variety of things to do, moments where they are compelled to stop and enjoy the sights and interact with the world rather than just plowing through it as fast as possible.

Just to let any and everybody know, this game is great and I will be purchasing it lol

I'm a little picky when it comes to games like this, but I think I might get it after all.

Lol my friends got the 1st one, it was pretty tight!

My uncle and friend got the first one, never really gave this game a chance lol. Guess I'll rent this one... =P

If you sat down and played it you wud like it... the fighting is awesome... the storyline drags a little that is about the only downside I can think of