Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Review (hi Swift)
Some of the most unhinged George Lucas headcanon you’ll ever see in a game.
The Force Unleashed 2 feels like a fever dream. Like much of the Star Wars Extended Universe, it’s ridiculous, contradictory, tonally all over the place and loaded with some of the most bizarre ideas put to paper. And yet, since the decanonisation of the Extended Universe by Disney in 2014, I’ve really grown to miss some of this wackiness.
With current Star Wars, all edge has been removed for the sake of artificially heartwarming narratives and cliché hero tales which feature little moral quandary. Characters in the current Disney-verse feel like lifeless plot devices with no emotional honesty, simply existing to either pull ‘gotcha’ moments on main characters or act like Robin Hood sidekicks. The Force Unleashed 2’s bizarre clone-theory plot, like everything described before it, is silly and introduces about five plotholes per cutscene, but at least it commits to being entertaining and unpredictable in all the ways that I love about George Lucas Star Wars.
The Force Unleashed 2’s gameplay also prioritises fun. Movement feels considerably more responsive, and jumping between force powers and melee feels smoother and more organic this time around. Targeting objects using the force feels much more consistent, predictive and natural to use, meaning you’ll enter a flow state of chucking Stormtroopers off buildings and launching crates directly at enemies’ heads without questioning whether you’ve angled the camera correctly first.
Level design is best described as a rollercaoster: a single, static path with various set pieces occurring on either side to dazzle or challenge you. It’s one long, giant corridor with nice set dressing, but at least it’s enjoyable to play and pretty to look at. The high quality rain and lighting, in particular, really sell every scene and asset quality is surprisingly detailed. The Force Unleashed 2 runs at 30fps at default, and object and character motion blur does smooth the process, but stutters between lightsabre hits – a stylistic choice – do negate some of this smoothness. Nevertheless, the game is a looker.
The Force Unleashed 2 delivers nothing but high points, creating an incredibly curated yet short experience. A 100% longplay on YouTube barely reaches over three hours, and I’d feel particularly burned if I paid full price for this on release. As a Star Wars legacy product that is frequently discounted and thrown into bundle packs, it’s absolutely worth blasting through however. If you’re a fan of peak George Lucas BS, The Force Unleashed 2 is ready to provide.