In a Star Wars universe fraught with complex mentor/pupil relationships, it's fitting that Force Unleashed is such a tough master to follow. Though critics gave the 2008 Jedi action romp a decidedly mixed reception, it was the fastest selling Star Wars game in history, shifting seven million copies worldwide. So what, LucasArts must have asked itself, do you do for the sequel? Stick with a formula that earned massive commercial success, or listen to the reviewers and veteran Star Wars game players and rebuild? From the looks of Force Unleashed II, you do a bit of both.
Set soon after its predecessor and just a few years before A New Hope, this is a more melancholy take on the story of Starkiller, the Sith apprentice who turned against Darth Vader and [spoiler, if you haven't played the first one] seemingly sacrificed his life to ignite the rebellion [spoiler ends]. The development team has taken in criticisms of the first title, listened to fans and, encouraged by a Writers Guild award for the Force Unleashed story, developed the darkness of the narrative considerably. As executive producer Julio Torres explains, "We want to figure out how to tell an incredible core story, where we bring in some icons you're all familiar with, as well as introduce new characters who have their own development and who matter. We want a story that's new and refreshing but still anchored in Star Wars lore."
Force Unleashed 2 begins on the stormy planet of Kamino, where Vader has been using an accelerated cloning process to generate a new version of Starkiller, once his favourite Jedi-hunting machine. Meanwhile, rebellion leader General Rahm Kota has been captured by imperial forces and is being forced to fight for his life in a gladiatorial arena on the rich leisure planet of Cato Neimoidia. Vader's plan is for Starkiller to murder the general, simultaneously ridding the empire of a major rebel leader and destroying Starkiller's legendary status as the godfather of the galactic uprising.
But things don't quite pan out for the Sith sociopath. The latest Starkiller clone (there has been a series of Alien 4-style genetic mess ups) is having flashbacks to his old life, to Kota and especially to Juno Eclipse, the pilot of the Rogue Shadow with whom the 'original' Starkiller was enjoying a burgeoning romance. Before Vader can destroy the empire's latest flawed creation, the clone escapes his cell in the penthouse suite of a looming tower, smashing through the window and plummeting to the streets below.
Here, we're introduced to 'free fall' one of several new gameplay elements added to mix up the pacing a little. As the character falls, you can control his descent, either destroying obstacles with Force powers or dodging them. It's certainly a breathless and incendiary way to start a single-player campaign, but it's also rather confusing and disorientating. The mass of visual stimuli, from jutting masonry, to explosions and strobing weather effects, all conspire with a limited control system to make you feel less like a powerful Jedi and more like a confused and terrified passenger on a malfunctioning lift.
On the ground however, things feel much more familiar. The aim in this opening sequence is to navigate Kamino's lengthy metallic walkways, taking out stormtroopers and getting to grips with all those fun Jedi abilities. LucasArts' task with this sequel was to tighten up the lightsaber combat, improve camera angles and add more precise targeting to the Force powers. All of these seem to have been successful, to various degrees.
The melee animation is slick and convincing, with multiple presses of the X button sending Starkiller swooping through groups of enemies, twirling his twin sabers like glowing samurai blades. You can also throw the sabers, providing a cool ranged weapon that'll pick out more distant foes with gratifying speed. It all looks lovely, and as promised, there's now a certain amount of dismemberment, with limbs, body armour and heads scattering in the wake of your onslaught. However, this is no God of War and you don't see great geysers of blood splattering across the screen with Eli Roth-esque abandon.
As with any one-button melee system, it does feel a little pre-canned and slightly uninvolving after a few balletic encounters. However, the game's pleasant accessibility was always going to come at a price and, of course, deeper tactical back-up is present in the shape of the Force powers.
True to its word, LucasArts has ramped up the power of the classic Force arsenal. Force Push ejects storm troopers far into the air before smashing into the scenery or skimming helplessly along the ground. Sending out a few blasts can clear a whole squadron in seconds and it's immensely satisfying stuff, backing up what the team is constantly saying about wanting to communicate the power of the Force beyond what we saw in the films. As Torres explains, "We want to re-envision Star Wars from the force perspective, taking what you saw Luke do and Obi Wan do and bringing that to a place that's so crazy it works as a video game. We want to keep Star Wars fresh. It's risky, but it's worth a try…"
Force Grip is now much more manageable, allowing you to grab objects with pinpoint accuracy, control exactly where you want them to go with the analogue stick, then send them hurtling into the distance. There were several occasions I was able to pick up a series of the large metallic boxes scattered about the level and hurl them at stormtroopers lurking hundreds of yards away behind significant cover – taking them all out with a pulverising clatter.
Using Grip to pick up enemies also shows off the game's new procedural physics engine. "For the troopers, we're not using animation, we're using biomechanical AI," says Torres. "It's much more lifelike – troopers will actually try to hang on to things. It can really play out in some fun ways." Indeed, it's extremely entertaining to see Force gripped troopers flailing about, desperately trying to get a hold on something, rather than hanging limply like standard ragdoll models. The best moments are when two Force gripped soldiers inadvertently cling on to each other, pirouetting into the sky like crazed acrobats.
Even more amusing is the new Force Mind Trick, which you can direct at specific enemies, putting them under your control. If there are other troopers around, the mind trick victim will yell stuff like "there's a spy in our midst" and start shooting at his comrades. If he's alone and close to any sort of ledge, there'll be a shout of "I can't take it anymore" and he'll jump over. All the Force Powers can be ramped up throughout the game, and the most powerful version of Mind Trick will turn soldiers into suicide bombers that run into crowds and self-combust.
The other newcomer is Force Fury. When your Force meter tops out, this can be triggered to charge up each of your other powers to a devastatingly awesome level, providing a sort of Jedi smart bomb with which to blitz the screen. They're intended for boss encounters, naturally, and they're accompanied by a typically breathtaking light show.
Enemies look to be more interesting this time round. LucasArts has made a big deal of cutting down on variety since the original Force Unleashed, instead ramping up the intelligence. The melee-based riot troopers dance about you with their metallic pikes, causing considerable damage via quick, ferocious attacks. Elsewhere, the airborne jump troopers now swoop and soar in unpredictable patterns, occasionally darting behind cover. These are best tackled with Force Lightning, which cripples their jet-packs, sending them ricocheting helplessly around the environment followed by billowing clouds of black smoke.
We also got to tackle a couple of chunky Carbonite troopers, hulking robots with huge riot shields and a gun that sprays out freezing chemicals. These are sort of like mini-boss battles; you need to grab and chuck away the shield with Force Grip, then pull off a button sequence to instigate a finishing move sequence, which has Starkiller launching in, turning the Carbonite gun on its owner, then shattering the trooper into a million icy shards. The instigation of quick time events will have some players groaning, and it's hardly innovative stuff, but it's an acceptable way of adding some visually dramatic flourish to defeating larger enemies.
Alongside the combat there is some scenic interaction and puzzle solving. Early on I had to use Force Grip to operate a lift platform, but later, there's a nice sequence where you get to Grip passing Tie-fighters and lob them into a tower, causing it to fall and form a bridge across a previously impassable chasm. This is fine, but I wonder how much freedom of choice the player gets – I'd like to see levels where we're able to use and manipulates physical objects to create our own routes through the stages – but so far, the environmental puzzles have all been dictated set-pieces. Throughout the game you'll also find holocroms, which provide various benefits including new crystals for your saber, allowing you to customise your weapon with a range of special abilities.
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From the early stages on Kamino, the story progresses to take in smorgasbord of familiar planets and characters. Starkiller steals Vader's craft and heads to Cato Neimoidia, previously glimpsed in Episode III. After fighting through a series of glitzy casinos (you can actually play on the slot machines – is there a Force Luck power?), and meeting some new sniper stormtroopers sporting laser-sighted blasters, Starkiller finally teams up with Kato. As the two get reacquainted amid the blood and sand, a huge gate opens and a rancor lumbers into the ring – the rebel heroes shrug almost complacently and prepare to fight, but then an enormous hand emerges from the darkness, grabs the beast from Return of the Jedi and crushes it like an insect. Cue the enormous Gorog, a skyscraping combination of tyrannosaurus rex and the twisted behemoth from Cloverfield.
This, it quickly transpires, will be the first in a series of mammoth, multi-stage boss battles, requiring plenty of scenic interaction rather than mere button-bashing combat. "The Gorog is a thousand times larger than you," says Torres. "So to defeat this beast, you've got to figure out how to destroy the arena." Starkiller climbs up on to some ramparts surrounding the fight pit, and with the Gorog raining down blows with its massive fists, the player needs to work out how to get the monster to fall into the bottomless pit beneath the arena flooring.
At the climax of the battle, Starkiller and Kato are saved from doom by the Rogue Shadow, the pair's craft from the original game. Starkiller expects to find Juno at the helm, but instead the ship is on autopilot. From here, the characters must follow a trail of clues to Eclipse's whereabouts. When Kato briefly mentions Dagobah, it triggers a faint memory and Starkiller heads off for an obtuse encounter with Yoda that nicely mimics Luke's arrival on the planet in Empire Strikes Back. Beckoned by Yoda in to the cave of evil, Starkiller experiences a vision of other cloned selves crawling at him from the tree roots. Together with Kota's insistence that no-one has ever successfully cloned a Jedi, it's all meant to place doubt in our minds about the nature of this 'new' Starkiller. Is he a clone? Isn't he? And if he isn't, what exactly did happen at the end of Force Unleashed?
While in the cave, our hero also sees a brief flash of a distant nebula, and of Juno commanding a giant starship, which comes under attack. Recognising the area, he gets back aboard the Rogue Shadow, plots a course and zooms out, finally rendezvousing with the rebel fleet and Juno's craft, the Salvation. But just as he arrives, and as foretold in the cave, the craft is hijacked, and amid the explosions and gunfire, Boba Fett strides in. The mercenary has been hired by Vader to kidnap Juno – a succulent piece of bait for his errant apprentice. Fett has been supplied with a squadron of stormtroopers but also two monstrous genetically modified assassins – or terror troopers – which LucasArts is currently remaining tight-lipped about. "Vader is a tinkerer," explains Torres, "he loves to mess with machines and gene pools, and he's created some creatures that will support his intensions – and he gives these to Boba. So you'll have some incredible encounters with these biomechanical guys."
Force Unleashed II has continually been referred to by LucasArts as 'our Empire Strikes Back', and this plot line would seem to back that up. Like Empire, the game is about one character's search for answers and for an identity that remains illusive. And like Empire, it finds pivotal roles for Yoda and Boba Fett. There's also a similar dichotomy: Luke was torn between his quest to learn the Force and his desire to help the rebellion; Starkiller must combine his redemptive hunt for Juno with the need to kick start the rebel cause.
[POSSIBLE SPOILERS END HERE]
The cinematic sequences have so far been typically powerful, with a moody opening confrontation between Vader and Starkiller and some well-choreographed combat. Accompanied by a mighty score that combines classic John Williams motifs with new pieces by Force Unleashed composer Mark Griskey, it's spine-tingling stuff.
The question is, can the gameplay can match the drama of the story, and the majesty of the wonderfully crafted environments? Thing is, the combat-driven action adventure genre has moved on since the original Force Unleashed, with titles like Batman: Arkham Asylum adding rich puzzle dynamics and more open environments, while Bayonetta and God of War III have ladled on oodles of gloating visual charisma. Force Unleashed II, though it is set to offer multiple endings, is an unashamedly linear and inescapably traditional brawler.
From what we've sampled, though, it's filled with enthralling moments, and no one can question the craftsmanship that's gone into the project. This is a labour of love for a dev team that must surely have hit 200 people at key points in the cycle. It also looks possible that this is not the end – despite rumours that a third title had been canned (hence, says Kotaku, the departure of Force Unleashed creator Haden Blackman). When asked about the possibility of a trilogy, Torres told us: "There isn't anything announced, and we have no solid direction, but TFU has done really well for us, so of course it's on the burner. We've had discussions about how to move it forward. It has a lot of potential for the future, we're just not ready to talk about any specifics…"
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is out on October 29 on DS, PC, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.
