Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2
CSU Cauldron
Starkiller died at the end of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, right?
Wrong, or so we think, and are led to question throughout
the action of Star Wars: The Force
Unleashed 2. The second game bridging the horrible trilogy to the classic
trilogy dropped this past Tuesday to mixed reviews. The first one was met with
average or mixed reviews, earning a 73 on Metacritic.com. The second one earned
a slightly lower score on the same website, garnering a 63. Being a Star Wars
fan, anything coming before the trilogy, yes the original one, comes under
scrutiny as George Lucas looking for ways to buy a bigger pool to fill with the
souls of children who liked the new trilogy and the dreams of adults who loved
the original trilogy down at Skywalker Ranch. I understand that in a canon set
in a distant galaxy and a drastically different time lends itself well to
infinite expansion, but there comes a point where its creator is just abusing
an already tired and emaciated franchise, it’s time to have an original idea
George, the rest of us have you and now it’s your turn.
My opinions of Overlord Lucas aside, the game itself was
pretty fun. Nothing mind bogglingly stunning, but an enjoyable romp through the
worlds so painstakingly created to inhabit this universe. There is a slight
amount of customization the player can do with the color of the lightsabers, I
ultimately chose the bumblebee route, opting for a yellow main saber and a
black secondary one. The color selection has absolutely no impact on the game
itself, much like the outfit choices. There are the one you’d expect in a Star
Wars game, storm trooper, Boba Fett, some goodies from the first game, plus if
you can find it, a skin that makes you look like Guybrush Threepwood, which
made me giggle. If you have no idea who that character is, go play some old PC
games and hang your head in shame, and never call yourself a gamer again. We
don’t want you.
You’re also able to build up each of your saber/force skills
twice. These upgrades to actually matter and make you a lot more powerful and
deadly to the unfortunate waves of storm troopers you’re bound to disembowel on
your ultimately flawed revenge quest. Much like Halo Reach or Titanic,
this venture is doomed from the start and you as player know this. That
shouldn’t be a deterrent by any means, since wielding two lightsabers that can
cut through anything, except background set pieces, is something that you will
never, ever be able to do in real life.
There were slight improvements over the first game, but
nothing that gave me pause or made me say ‘Holy crap that’s amazingly new and
stunning!’ The biggest problem presented in the game isn’t so much of a problem
as a choice per se. A lot of gamers are unsatisfied when a game is shorter than
15-20 hours, which I ultimately don’t understand. When presented with such a
game, one must ask just how many of those hours are actually fun. I wouldn’t
bet that all 20 are, and that more than a few are spent grinding or running
vapid side quests for the bobbleheads who inhabit the towns you’re stuck with.
That being said, this game is on the shorter end of the spectrum, being only
10-12 hours for one playthrough on expert. A great number of those 11 hours
were a lot of fun though, with no time spent grinding for points to upgrade
everything I possibly could. For being so short, this game did not drag or make
me want to go do something else once. I had a great time with this title. It
certainly isn’t a purchase by any means, not having much replay value, but
there aren’t many games better should you decide to spend a weekend with one
game and feel satisfied with yourself afterwards. It also leaves the story open
for a third game. Again George, have a new and original idea instead of tossing
yet a third trilogy at us. Rent it.
No comments:
Post a Comment