By Aaron N
The sequel to the widely popular and well recieved installment to the Star Wars franchise was released in late 2010. Much was secret about this game and the story was never really talked about. You will find out why later in the review. To me this game never seemed more than a simple cash in. The original one was full of promise and hard work that definitely payed off when you played this game. While this one was still well hyped, it didn't seem to have the buzz around it that the first one had.
Graphics:
The graphics in this one were good. They used the same engine as before but it didn't seem to be improved. So the graphics while still good, were outdated and seemed worse than in the original. The graphics in the cut scenes were good but something was off with how the characters spoke. In the original it did it's best to make realistic lip movements and it did it well. This one however seemed to have moved back a few steps in that department as sometimes it looked like the words did not seem to be in sync or even match the lip movements. I know they had actors playing the characters, especially starkiller, but they could have done better with this one especially when they indeed did better in the previous installment. During the gameplay itself the graphics worsened and when they would speak it reminded me of something you would see on the original Xbox. The graphics in this game did not match up to other games released this year let alone in the past few years.
Story:
You play as a clone of Darth Vader's secret apprentice...or do you? Our main character starts off on the cloning planet of Kamino. Then you progress to different planets in what seems to be a loosely tied attempt at telling a story. The main goal however is for our hero to find his love interest from the first game. This ends up tieing in with his other goal of finding Darth Vader and finding out who you really are. Throughout the game you hear that there is no way anyone can clone a Jedi but Vader insists that you are a clone. This would lead to great drama and make you want to find out what you really are wouldn't you think? In fact it was the exact opposite, I really didn't care how the story ended up, I just wanted to complete the game. Lucky for me the game is very short. There is, although, an ending where you get to choose whether you want to go dark side or light side. I chose dark side the first time because I was upset with the game. A friend of mine said something about the ending that I agree with. He basically said that in the first game you felt compelled to make the decision to either go dark or stay light. But in this game you had no reason to go one way or another. The canon ending to this game leaves it open for a sequel which must be inevitable. There basically is no story and the some assemblence of a story that the game has plays out like a bad fanfic you would find on the Star Wars message boards.
Gameplay:
The gameplay in this game is the same as in the first one. Although instead of learning new moves you basically remember them and it tells you how to use them. You still plow through endless waves of stormtroopers and other enemies. There are times where the game gets frustrating with it's lack of save points in the middle of the battle and you will find yourself playing the same battles over and over again until you get lucky and make it to the end. The last fight with Vader is repetitive and drags on. There is no reason to do anything other than button mash your way through the game. When you do die though, which is hard to do, in the middle parts of the levels you just come back in the same place as if nothing happened and continue the level. The game leaves no sense of satisfaction of making it through levels and you feel nothing, well maybe some anger, as you finish each puzzle. They didn't improve at all from the original game in gameplay and it just seems like it should have been a downloadable addition to the original.
Music:
How could you go wrong with music while having the brilliant scores done by John Williams from the Star Wars saga movies? Just play this game. The music while amazing in the movies just seems forced. They are placed in there in the worst spots and they play in the background while not matching anything happening on screen. It was as if they took a song off one of the soundtracks that was made to sink perfectly with what was happening in the movies, then they didn't change a thing and put it in the level. It made you think more of the part of the movie that it fit with and it took you away from the game experience. It would have been much better if they made a new score or at least a few new songs for the game. You know George Lucas has the money.
Overall:
When I went into this game I feared that it was just made to cash in on the original and cash in on the Star Wars juggernaught. There was nothing in this game that made me think otherwise. The Starkillerstory was finished after the original game. It went nicely into episode 4 and could fit in with the saga somewhat easily. This one does not fit in nicely at all and the random characters that are thrown in there like Boba Fett don't seem to fit at all. The game plays as if it was just thrown together and made to make money. It is hard to find anything good to say about this game and you might as well just play the original.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 gets a 4/10
No comments:
Post a Comment