The Force Unleashed II: A Review

I would like to begin by saying that essentially, the game is very fun. The gameplay is very smooth and everything works very well. I greatly enjoy the improvements that the creators have made to the game, such as the targeting system changing to a bright outline of the person and the Force Grip much more powerful and much, much easier to use. Gone are the agonizingly slow loading screens and no longer must one fear to change anything on his lightsaber or upgrade his force powers. Also, the loading screens between levels now have quite cool pictures to look at while waiting. Somehing that I enjoy about the combat system is that, finally, after waiting for so long, you can see limbs fly. At least, sort of, although yes, you can sever about half of an arm from a stormtrooper, it is almost impossible to see it unless you are actually watching for it because of the flurry of your double lightsabers. Another thing that is nice about the combat system is that the combos are gone. No longer must you pause the game every ten minutes trying to find that one combo that would be helpful. No longer must you try to keep to many variations of different ways to almost kill people in your head. Instead, you can mash buttons until the stormtroopers go flying across the room. Back are the wonderful days of Street Fighter II where, you may do some awesome finishing move, but you have no idea how you did it, because you were to busy trying to stay alive. The force powers are amazing. Mind trick is incredibly entertaining (I'm mean, really, what other game can you cause a person to jump off the spired cities of Kamino without even touching him?). The graphics are great and the landscapes are amazing. Honestly, Cato Neimoidia is more beautiful than any of the landscapes in the first game.

Some things I don't like about the game: I don't like how easy some enemies are and how infuriatingly hard others are, without really any middle ground. I miss the amazing costume selection of the first one. Honestly, it was one of the better parts of the first game. However, in the sequel, the costumes, while very cool are the ones you do get, are in short supply. Another thing would be the motion capture. While still very good, some of the characters don't quite look the same. Juno looks like a different actress played her, though that is not the case. The story was weak at best and the game is possible to beat in about three or four hours. However, I have heard that this game is simply a sequel game (something to set up the story for the next game) and so that is promising, however, It still would have been nice is they could have added a bit more story and a lot more length to it.