Oh what could have been. I actually thought I had played The Force Unleashed II before. I enjoyed the first one, but for whatever reason never spent any time on the sequel. It turns out I didn’t miss much. I know it’s old news by now that TFUII wasn’t a very good game, but I was amazed at just how lazy of a game this was. With the exception of the second world you’re on, which I believe is called Cato Neimoidia, the game is completely comprised of running down the grey tunnels of whatever ship or star destroyer or whatever you are on. Cato might still be a typical linear corridor hack n slash level, at least it looks interesting. Everything else is just bland.
There are also other signs of a quick re-hash cash grab. Recycled enemies and clunky boss battles, painfully boring quicktime events, dull menus, etc. all just give the impression that the developers were doing the bare minimum that they needed in order to get this game out the door. I can’t fully blame the developer. The first game was a smash hit and was, to that point, the best-selling Star Wars game. So of course the guy in the suit sitting at the top of the corporate headquarters would want them to crank another one out as quick as possible.
They did, and it shows. The game is short, but at the same time painfully long due to the repetitive enemies and samey looking hallways. By the time I was chasing Darth Vader from platform to platform on Kamino, I just wanted it to be over already.
It really is a shame too, because Lucasart was onto something with The Force Unleashed. The first one awesome. I even booted it up after completing TFUII just to see if I was imagining things, but I wasn’t. It’s obvious the production values were much higher. It’s too bad that they weren’t given more time, and it’s even worse that EA, who know holds exclusivity for the Star Wars license, doesn’t see any need for another game like this. In my opinion, Star Wars games are at their best when you’re doing one of two things; You are either flying an X-wing through space, mowing down TIE squadrons and blowing up Death Stars, or you’re on the ground, swinging lightsabers, deflecting lasers, and being an overall badass.
But apparently EA hasn’t found a way to suck money out of us on a regular basis using games like that, so instead we’re stuck with the scummy likes of Star Wars Battlefront. Until they figure out that single player experiences can still make money (say hi to God of War, EA) we can only dream of getting a proper, full blown sequel to The Force Unleashed, instead of the lazy cash grab that The Force Unleashed II turned out to be.
The good news is, now I can uninstall it.
