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The original game introduced us to Starkiller, Darth Vader's secret apprentice, and provided an interesting story set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It was far from filler, and helped bridge the gap between the two trilogies with compelling new canon. In fact, the original game's greatest strength was the story, so it's no surprise that this will be a big focus for the sequel as well.

Rather than the big epoch-shifting events of the original, however, which saw Starkiller hunting down the last of the Jedi before turning his back on Veda, forming the Rebel Alliance and sacrificing himself, The Force Unleashed II will tell a more personal story. This title opens with Starkiller once again under the tutelage of Darth Vader. Vader tells this seemingly resurrected Starkiller that he's a clone, which would make sense given how the original game ended. It's unclear whether this is the truth or not, however, as this reborn Starkiller is haunted by memories of Juno Eclipse the love interest from the first game. Vader tells him these memories are a side-effect of the cloning process and that's he's a failure as a clone, and that all the clones that have come before him have gone insane. Unsurprisingly, after this lovely little pep talk he goes on the run to uncover the truth.

"One of the things we're really focusing on in the story of The Force Unleashed II is this notion that in the first game Starkiller was a hunter, whereas in this game he's very much a fugitive," says Haden Blackman, the executive producer and franchise director for The Force Unleashed. "He's on the run, he's looking for Juno Eclipse and Darth Vader's always one step behind him."



Pursued by Vader, The Force Unleashed II will have plenty of explosive action and set pieces, but at the core of the game will be the story of Starkiller's search for the truth of his identity. In fact, the team sees this game as its Empire Strikes Back as far as tone is concerned – it will be darker, more personal and the odds more overwhelming. Starkiller will be reunited with a number of central characters from the original, including his mentor General Kota – who firmly believes that Vader is lying and no one this powerful can be cloned.

Like the original, this will be important stuff for Star Wars fans, and it's going to wrap up in an unexpected way. "We don't talk about this much," Blackman says, "but I think the ending for this game is going to surprise a lot of people. I think fans are going to be like 'oh my god I can't believe they did that, that's awesome!' I hope they say that's awesome. I think they're going to think we're being kinda – for lack of a better word – ballsy with the way we end the game."



Starkiller is faster and more responsive in combat now, and he has a whole new set of combos – including sweeping area of effect attacks - thanks to the fact that he's wielding twin lightsabers. The sabers are set to feel a whole lot deadlier now too – as opposed to just being a "blue baseball bat" as Haden Blackman described the saber from the original. Case in point, the lightsaber will now do more realistic damage, slicing off the heads and limbs of any Stormtroopers unfortunate enough to stick their heads (or other appendages) in your way. Of course, it's still not going to act like a lightsaber actually would, letting you cut holes in the floor or simply slicing through an ATST's legs to topple it over, but that would be potentially game breaking stuff. It may just be a baby step for the lightsaber, but it's an important one nonetheless.

The improvements to the base combat are obviously a big plus, and they'll be accentuated by flashy cinematic finishing sequences for bosses. These won't be anything more than quicktime events, however, and will be very simple to execute. They're designed more as a pay-off for beating a boss than as a crucial part of the fight.



This is the team's mantra for The Force Unleashed II. While many Force powers return from the original, they've been re-built from the ground up to be more responsive. "Force grip, in particular – which was one of our favourite powers from the first game – went through a lot of revisions in order to make it more accessible, to make it easier to target what you want to target," says Blackman. "We're focused on big, over the top Force power action. Force powers re-envisioned, unlike anything you've seen in the films."

One new Force power we've seen is Jedi Mind Trick, which can be used in a few different ways – you can make an enemy an ally, you can confuse Stormtroopers to the point where they'll throw themselves to their deaths, and you can turn them into mobile bombs by infusing them with so much Force energy that they'll explode, taking other nearby units with them.

Combat is designed to be flexible, so Starkiller can combine powers in a variety of ways. The Lightning Grenade, for instance, allows him to Force Grip an enemy, charge him with lightning and then throw him at other enemies for explosive results. Lightsaber attacks and Force powers can also be combined, so players can do things like charge up their lightsaber with lightning for extra attack power.



And then there's Force Fury mode, which amps up Starkiller's powers to a whole new level. Suddenly Force Push goes from being an effective attack against a handful of enemies to blasting anyone nearby into orbit, while familiar lightsaber combos go from being close melee attacks to potent ranged attacks.

The proof, of course, will be in the playing, but it's looking very promising. The team has also promised a higher level of destructibility and interactivity in the environment, so fingers crossed it delivers on that.



It's all very well to have bad-ass lightsaber combos and insane Force powers, but to really make them matter players need worthy and varied opponents to go up against. Combat in the original could get quite monotonous, as players spent a lot of time fighting the same enemies over and over, and it really wasn't necessary to use the full range of moves at your disposal to beat them. This is being addressed for the sequel. There be a greater variety of enemy types – around 25, and players will need to vary their tactics more to beat them.

"One of the pieces of feedback that we took to heart after Force Unleashed one was there wasn't enough tactical depth to that first game," Blackman comments, "so we're really applying that to the second game where every combat encounter you have, you have to vary your tactics based on the enemy units you're facing."

Using Starkiller's full suite of moves will be crucial to succeeding in combat. Imperial Riot Troops, for instance, have staffs that can deflect lightsaber attacks, so Force powers will be a better option, while the Carbonite War Droid (CWD) has a massive shield that players will need to Force Grip out of its hands, while attacking from range to avoid being frozen (then shattered) by its carbonite gun. It's not just the spray of carbonite, either, as the CWD has a dash attack and stomp it can also use if players get too close. Better to hang back and use Force Lightning and Lightsaber Throw. "The scale of units is vastly different in Force Unleashed II compared to Force Unleashed one," Blackman tells us. "We had a lot of humanoid enemies in Force Unleashed one, and while we certainly have Stormtroopers and others, we've added a number of new larger units as well." The CWD definitely fits into this category, as an imposing mid-size enemy. It isn't anywhere near as large as Walkers and the like, but can be fought more traditionally.

The Force Unleashed II has a mix of old and new units, but according to Blackman the old units have been redesigned. Jumptroopers, for instance - Stormtroopers with jetpacks - are back, and they can still ambush you from almost anywhere, but: "we've made the Jump Trooper much more aggressive," he says, "and they resist your Force Push and dodge your Lightsaber Throw, but they're highly susceptible to Lightning… Mind Trick works fairly well too. What happens when you lightning them is their jet packs short out and they fly all over the place and eventually explode."

More Than One Note

"One of the other pieces of feedback we really took to heart from Force Unleashed one was the fact that the first game was all kind of one note," says Blackman. "And if we had to pick one note I think we picked the right one – it was non-stop action, but we really wanted to give the player more time to breath, more time to take in the environment, and we're doing some of that through environmental puzzles: being able to use the Force to manipulate platforms, for example, to make forward progress. And then tactical puzzles: whenever you walk into a scene you're going to have a moment to think about how you take out the enemies, what environmental devices you can use to take them out with Force powers."

The limited amount we've seen of the game shows this to some extent – check out the demo walkthrough below if you haven't seen it ni action yet, with a number of changes of pace, from Starkiller's jump for freedom at the beginning, where he's falling from the sky, to intense action along a number of walkways, some environmental interaction to create platforms and an all-out sprint down a corridor as an Imperial ship fires at the player as he runs.

Watch the gameplay video here:
https://uk.xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/55059/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-2/videos/e310_ignlive_starwars_061510.html;jsessionid=7mqkhm0lkqrbv

ZOMG! The Visuals!

The Force Unleashed II runs on the proprietary engine developed for the original, but it has been improved upon significantly, with brand new shaders, lighting and environmental effects, and the ability to handle more enemies on screen at once. The implementation of Digital Molecular Matter (one of three physics systems in the game that sits alongside Havok and euphoria, and that assigns material properties to objects in the game world) is more sophisticated, allowing the team to apply it to more of the environment. This is a crucial point, as the original was rather arbitrary about which objects could be destroyed and which couldn't. Nothing blows the illusion of Force powers than an indestructible tree.

We won't know just how much more destructible and interactive the environments are until we've seen more, but in broader terms the game looks stunning. The rain in particular looks incredible as it lashes over Starkiller and streams down windows, while the world design is striking. Let's hope players are given more options for exploration than the original - a stunning-looking world loses a lot of its impact if the player feels like he's merely observing it from a long corridor.



We mentioned earlier that the team sees this game as its Empire Strikes Back, and this is a theme that Blackman returns to a number of times. "Not only is it the second in what we hope to be a saga," he says, "but it also is a much darker story, just like Empire Strikes Back is a darker story than A New Hope, and it's a much more personal story – Starkiller's on this quest to be re-united with Juno and figure out who he is, much the same as Empire Strikes back is a more personal, character-driven movie than the first Star Wars." Here's hoping LucasArts delivers on The Force Unleashed's full potential second time around.

ign.com

this looks amazing

i loved the first one even though i borrowed it. i hope the 2nd one has some sort of multiplayer that will keep us from getting bored

The story sounds amazing but I played the demo of the first one and I really couldn't get into the gameplay.. Maybe I should of given it a chance. I may rent the first one just to play it through and it see how it is.

yea i would rent it. its not worth buying though since it doesn't have multiplayer.

I never really liked the first one either :/ Don't think I'll be getting this one

Loved the first one, sold my original copy to get the Sith edition, will deffo pick up this one.