The Force Unleashed 2: What Questions Will It Soon Answer?

Maybe it's just me, but I thought Star Wars: The Force Unleashed pretty much answered all of its own questions. The protagonist dies, returns to life in time to not kill the Emperor, and heroically sacrifices himself to help the birth of the Rebellion. Case closed. Perhaps the question the sequel will answer is how can Starkiller be the main character of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 when he's dead. Is he a clone?

It at least appears possible, from the artwork on the opening page of the The Force Unleashed 2 website, that his resurrection has something to do with the clone facility on Kamino.

The trailer looks great of course, but here's the big question: Can LucasArts resolve the story flaws, repetitive gameplay, and relatively short single-player campaign that made the first game such a disappointment in some fans' eyes? It sounds like the people behind The Force Unleashed 2 are aware of some of what went wrong and are working hard to make this a better game.

I can't help but want to double-lightsaber a rancor in half after watching the trailer.

(8)

Brendon Mroz

May 23, 2010

John Davison did a great interview with the design leads in the June GamePro. The piece details a whole bunch of story stuff, including the how of Starkiller's return.

I have a deep, shameful love of the first despite it's myriad problems. The team seems well aware and determined to do better, so I have hope. Maybe even a new hope.

Travis McReynolds

I also really enjoyed the first game in spite of it's problems. It did a few things wrong, but it got right what many other Star Wars games failed at- it was fun.

*Spoiler Alert*

If you got the evil ending on the original game; Starkiller doesn't die. Given that LucasArts is a family company, I doubt you'll start Unleashed 2 as the super-bad iteration of Starkiller. Looks like cloning it is.

Guillermo Guitterrez

I've listened to several podcasts where they confirmed that the Starkiller in this game is a clone. However they also discussed that the game makes you question his identity as a clone since he is supposed to have flashbacks to his past.

Jason Wilson

I didn't care for the first The Force Unleashed. But working with John while editing that GamePro cover story changed my perspective on the game -- not to mention had me thinking about Lucas in another way than I had before. I'm a passionate Star Wars fan, and if that story sent me back to the store to buy the Ultimate Sith Edition of the game, that's clearly an indication of the piece's power and the quality of the interview.

Christian Higley

Man, I gotta read that interview...

The story was the only thing the first game did right, in my opinion. The rest of it was a mess. After the first level, I never once felt the titular "Unleashing" of the Force. It reeked of 90s action game design: Every time you get a new power, you're introduced to an enemy who's either immune to it or mimics it in some way; The lightsaber felt like a toy; Falling to my death because my toe hit something mid-jump; The constant fail states in QTEs; Button-mashing was always the best strategy -- more than that, I often felt that the game was deliberately punishing me for trying to do more; The inconsistency that I could use the Force to bring a Star Destroyer crashing down but it was completely ineffective against an AT-AT; Oh yeah, and the feeling that bringing that Star Destroyer down should have been amazing but was instead just frustrating and tedious.

I really want to like the second one but I'm extremely wary...

Ugh -- Okay -- breathe... breathe...

Jonathan Sutyak

May 24, 2010

Was the first game big enough to even deserve a sequel? I didn't like it very much. However, despite the last movie trilogy and my dislike for most of the recent games, I'm still up for more Star Wars. Surprisingly, LucasArts hasn't tried an open world GTA type of Star Wars game yet. The whole planet of Coruscant is one huge city, I'm sure they could do something with that.

@Jonathan: 7 million units sold, most successful Star Wars game ever.

@Brandon: Wow, I'm really surprised it sold that many copies. LucasArts didn't even bother with a PC version; Aspyr published that one more than a year after the console releases.