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My review of Star Wars: The force unleashed 2

Dark_Rob

Noob
First, let me say that despite some of its flaws I was a big fan of the first force unleashed game. It had a few control quirks that once you understood how the combat system works were fairly easy to deal with and only ocassionally were a real pain in the ass.
The force unleashed 2 fixes alot of the quirks, most notably when it comes to targeting your force powers and having thrown objects go where you want them to. It still isnt perfect but its much better.
Im not going to get into to much of the story because I dont want to spoil it. But I will say the story is not why you would want to by the game. Where as the story in the original is grand and set on an epic scale. The story here is pretty ham fisted and corny. However the game play makes up for this....at The beginning at least.
The gameplay for the most part is based around one thing and one thing only......COMBAT! There are a few areas where you have to use your brain to figure out how to get to the next area, but they are nothing to difficult for anyone with even a fair degree of intelligence.

Anyway, once again you play as Starkiller, the sith/jedi who cant make up his mind whether he is good or bad, lightside or darkside. Hes a very confused individual throughout most of this game. He doesnt know who he is or really what hes looking for. He really is only sure of one thing, he WANTS his girlfriend Juno Eclipse back NOW!(No really Im serious, its foremost on his mind at all times) Juno must have the best vag in the galaxy because finding her seems like his sole purpose.

The combat system in the game is nearly identical to the original TFU, with the afforementioned improvements. X/square is your lightsaber buttons(you have two now for double the carnage) Y/triangle is force lighting(when you max out the upgrades it turns purple instead of blue which is cool looking)
B/circle is force push.(A major change is this move now uses VERY little of your force meter and is super spammable)
A/X is still jump/double jump.
LT/L2 is block and initiates some force moves like the new jedi mind trick(hold LT/L2 and press Y/triangle or force repulse(Hold LT/L2 and press B/circle.
Pressing up on the dpad sends a wisp out from your head(which is supposed to represent your "force sense") and tells you where to go.

Another meter has been added. This is "Force fury" meter which builds fairly quickly and when activated(by pressing down both thumbsticks at once) makes you even more ridiculously overpowered than you already are. Even on the hardest difficulty I hardly ever used it, infact I forgot I had it most of the time. You just really dont need it. Starkiller is beyond overpowered in this game, he borders on godlike.

The biggest change from the original is what they have done with the grapple. In the original I believe it was just a throw. You do a grapple by pressing X+A/square+X or Y+B/Triangle+circle. In the TFU2 the grapple is now a canned animation instant kill. It is FAR AND AWAY Starkillers best move. It isnt just his best move, but in fact is miles above any other attack he has.(And ALL his other attacks are overpowered to lol) It is THE absolute most dominant move in the game. So dominant that it completely changes the way the game is played in close quarter combat compared to the original TFU. The reasons for this are
1. Since its a canned/cutscene type of animation once it starts you are invulnerable to any other attack until its completed. You cannot be knocked out of it.

2.Its unblockable/untechable. Once your in close quarters there is really no way for the A.I. to escape it other than if you get hit before you actually initiate the grab.

3 As if this move wasnt good enough, what really pushes it into the realm of the utterly broken is that you can "Tick" into it. Much like how in Street fighter you migh start a block string to get them blocking and then go for a tick throw. You can do much the same thing here. This is unbelievably effective against Sith Shadow Warriors and the Storm Trooper "Riot guards" armed with lightsaber resistant "Cortosis poles" because when you attack them with your lightsaber they will always block it. Once you have them blocking you can tick into the Grapple kill. Its just crazy how good this move is.

The only enemies this wont work on are any kind of mechanized vehicle(AT-St walkers) or any kind of boss,sub boss,miniboss or anything that has a button sequence finisher.

The graphics are absolutely stunning, All the worlds, space craft, galactic battles and backrounds are rendered in exceptional detail. And there is never a moment where the game doesnt look amazing.

The biggest downer for me was how short the game is. Im not kidding when I say when I reached the final battle I didnt even believe it WAS the final battle at first because it happened so quicky. Now I took my time and searched every nook and crannie of every level to find all the little secrets and holocrons and saber crystals and stuff, and still I finished the game in only 15 hours. If I sped my way through Im convinced I could do it in 6 hours.

The other gripe some people might have(though it didnt really bother me) is how easy the game is. As I said the grapple kill is hopelessly broken and is super abusable. Even on the hardest setting I never died once as a result of enemy attack, and I always beat the bosses on the first try.( I did die a few times from mistiming a jump or falling off a ledge or something like that) The reason this didnt really bother me is because YOUR A JEDI! Your supposed to be badass!.

Anyway, despite the mushy gushy storyline, short length of the game and Starkiller being totally overpowered, Id be lying If I said I didnt have a good time playing this game. Especially for Star Wars fans, its loads of fun. Im sure there will be some downloadable stages like the first game had to.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
Premium Supporter
Nice, I will be renting this one just like the first one. I beat the first one like 3 times just on a 5 day rental. I was hoping this one would be longer, but I can't afford a new game right now anyways so renting is perfect.

Good review Rob, thanks for taking the time to do this!

PS. I love being overpowered, God mode in some games just work.
 

Dark_Rob

Noob
PS. I love being overpowered, God mode in some games just work.
Then you will love this game lol. The shit you can do is just insane. I know I made a big deal about how super good the grapple kill is(and it is) but he has so much other devastating stuff to I cant even think of it all. The amount of carnage and destruction you can cause in only a few seconds is just mindblowing. The dual Saber combos are insane, force lightning that chains to multiple enemies at once. When maxed out Force repulse disintigrates any enemies within 20 feet of you. You can now Force grip and throw multiple objects at once....Shit just the destruction you can cause from a distance is insane. And once you close in you still have that broken ass grapple kill....Pure havoc. lol
 
Rob Rob Rob... that was beautiful.

I will play the demo soon. I never played the first one.

Anyway, your review was written in the same calibur as i do mine, so you know i loved it. Great job once again.

Did you beat Lords of Shadow? Or did you just stop playing it?
 

Dark_Rob

Noob
Rob Rob Rob... that was beautiful.

I will play the demo soon. I never played the first one.

Anyway, your review was written in the same calibur as i do mine, so you know i loved it. Great job once again.

Did you beat Lords of Shadow? Or did you just stop playing it?
I havent beaten Lords of Shadow yet, Castlevania is much harder than Star Wars. However Im not stuck in it anymore either. Im much more used to the "button push sequence" that games like force unleashed use than the "quick time sequence" that castlevania uses when finishing off bosses. But I understand how it works now though. Now that Im done with Star Wars Il probably get back to Lords of Shadow.
 
Another awesome response, Rob. Im glad to hear you enjoyed this as well as Lords of Shadow so far. I have every intention of getting both. I still want to make an awesome combo video for Castlevania. I hope i can do some cool "combos" in Star Wars as well.
 

Dark_Rob

Noob
Another awesome response, Rob. Im glad to hear you enjoyed this as well as Lords of Shadow so far. I have every intention of getting both. I still want to make an awesome combo video for Castlevania. I hope i can do some cool "combos" in Star Wars as well.
Star Wars definately has lots of cool combos. especially after you start upgrading your saber skills set.
Some of my favorites are: (Il use the 1,2,3,4 MKD/MKA button notation so I dont have to list it for both systems.)

1,1,1,1,(slight pause)1,1,1,1 (This one is real flashy looking, you must have your sabers skills maxed out to do this one.)

1,1,1,1,1 (This is the easiest most used combo and it ends with a nice flourish)

1,1,1,hold 4(Launches your opponent into the air and you follow him up)1,1,4(ends with a force push)

1,1,1,hold 4,1,1,2(same as above but ends with a blast of force lightning)

1,1,1,hold 4,1,1,1 (same as two previous but ends with an air saber flurry)

Force Lightning into grapple kill (Not really a true combo but since they are stunned by the lightning there is no escape from it)

1,1,4 (I call this the home run, Its two standard saber attacks and ends with a homerun like saber swing imbued with force push that sends enemies in front of you careening away)

1,1,1,2 (Similar to the above one but ends with an overhead strike imbued with force lighting.

Hold RT/R2 to force grip, 1,1, to throw your sabers and impale your enemy(This works great against flying stormtroopers equiped with jetpacks, this is my goto combo for taking them out)

There are endless variations but these are a few I like to use.