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Some initial thoughts after my first around three hours of play:-

* The level design is better;
* There are cool set piece moments like fighting a Nemesis-class gunship (new for the game, exotic vehicle too expensive for mass service) on the roof of a speeding tram on Cato Nemoidia;
* The first boss, the Gorog, is just ridiculously God of War, in a good way, though I had quite a bit of trouble getting the pattern down right;
* Lots of EU love in terms of what I've seen of the Rebels - Z-95 Headhunters have never looked better, and there's a really nice model of the Nebulon-B Frigate Salvation;
* They changed the design of the Rogue Shadow, getting rid of its cool engines for some more conventional ones. I'm not a fan, really.
* Annoying minor continuity error in the first cut scene. Vader hands Starkiller two exact replicas of his TFU1 lightsabres - but in the subsequent cutscenes they're of the new design we've seen. Sloppy;

Some initial tips for those playing:-

* Guybrush Threepkiller is unlocked on Cato Nemoidia. Just destroy everything in the relevant room. You'll know it when you see it;
* In the Dash sequence on Cato Nemoidia, jump up in the air as you go - there's a Blue Holocron (increases max force bar) that's easy to miss if you don't;
* Toss all those ball thingies in the rooms on Cato Nemoidia. There's a Red Holocron under one of them (saber color);
* Make sure on Dagobah when you jump on top of the Rogue Shadow you move the big-ass rock out of the way. There's a Blue Holocron underneath; and
* DESTROY EVERYTHING. They'll all give you points to level up your abilities. Cato Nemoidia gaming machines are especially rich in them if you take the time.

Here's something fucked up - its come to my attention that the game is actually really fucking short. I'm apparently only about ~2 hours away from finishing it. The story basically finishes just as it starts to get going! What a fucking rort.

This is what I get for just assuming things - I liked TFU1 and thought TFU2 at the absolute worst would be more of the same in every department + some minor improvements - instead what you get is some minor improvements in exchange for a dramatically shorter, less varied game with a lot less missions and virtually no story.

Fuck's sake.

They just want you to buy TFU3.

Hey wanna summarise the plot for me like you did for the first one? It sounds like it'll take less pages now.

Hahaha, that basically lines up with reviews I've read. Nice to know I'll be sticking with a rental on this one.

Stofsk wrote:They just want you to buy TFU3.

Hey wanna summarise the plot for me like you did for the first one? It sounds like it'll take less pages now.

I'll let you know tomorrow night after I finish it lol. If I'm in any condition to do anything after watching Paranormal Activity 2 ...

Vympel wrote:If I'm in any condition to do anything after watching Paranormal Activity 2 ...

Why do you punish yourself?

The anti video game review sentiment of the board seems to be biting you in the ass. Any one of us could have told you how short it was two days ago.

But hey, you can beat it, beat it again on a harder difficulty and return by the end of the week.

Just finished it and... wtf. It didn't even took me 3 hours to get through it?
It felt like barely completing a third of a game. Is that Spoiler really the last level? Nothing more to come?!

The menu has improved the best in my opinion. No more long waiting for it to load.

The talents part is heavily simplified - saber, push, grip, lightning, mind trick, saber throw and repulse have each three levels, and thats it.
No more force affinity - Health and Force are improved by pickups.
No more Combo Points - just a single combo chain and some minor combinations with force powers.
Sabers can now only hold a single crystal. The color is connected to the special ability. Red is standard without any specialty.
And you get crystals on by one.

I did like the new combat animation of Starkiller/the clone. It felt much faster paced than in TFU.

But overall the game is a step down from TFU.

• Too short.
• Not really interesting story.
• no special combos (save for a combo chain)
• button smashing sequences are always the same (TFU had at least two such sequences for the Rancors and trash robots on Raxus Prime)

Both the light and dark side ending (lol button push at the end of the game to select which one you get) looked like they were leading into DLC that's down the road. Unless TFU3 is already in development.

The Force Unleashed 3 was already in the works before August of this year, and it was canceled sometime in August.

There will be no part 3, for the foreseeable future.

Source: here

kotaku.com wrote:Rumor: Lucasarts Cancels Force Unleashed 3
[...]according to sources at Lucasarts, Meegan has cancelled a third Force Unleashed game that was already in development,[...]
[...] We've contacted Lucasarts for comment, and will update if we hear back.

(emphasis mine)

How is this article prove that Lucasarts canceled TFU3?! It states it is a rumor in it's own title.
So effectively that article has nothing newsworthy.

Unless Lucasarts officials make a statement regarding TFU3 there is no reason to believe it's already / still in development or already axed.

Actually some recent interviews with the project lead(Julio Torres) of TFUII has made claims to a TFUIII.

That or they are just going to make a 2 mission DLC to kill the series so we aren't left with the shitty ending we have.

I got TFU 2 on Steam, since the latest console I have is a PS2, which I played TFU 1 on.


...

What.

Frankly, it should never have been given a full price release. I think it's telling that on Steam, a brand-new game is only $40. Frankly, I don't think anybody would be half as upset if they called it what it really should have been called.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Episode I

That's about what it is - it took me about as long to finish TFU2 as it did to finish HL2:Ep1 or Ep2. It has all the hallmarks of an Episode: it assumes the player has already played the first game and skips the length tutorial sections, instead giving you a blink-and-you-miss-it introduction to the no-brainer controls and a very fast live-fire refresher course before throwing you into five hours of highly polished action.


As far as the gameplay itself goes, they could stand to give everybody in their offices a few days to play Half-Life 2 and its two Episodes, and say "See, that? That's called 'pacing'. Learn some, jackasses!" There were next to no puzzle elements in the game, and the breathers between combat sequences were very, very brief, to say the least. It's also over-reliant upon quick-time events. I suspect I didn't get "ARGARGARGH!" frustrated with them because I was playing on easy mode and it was throwing me relative softballs (except for the damn flamethrower war droid. Those were still pains in the ass, though thankfully they didn't hurt you much.)

I do think it could have done with some more difficulty options other than the usual "diaper" "normal" "Hard" and "maschoist" modes. I have the feeling the game would have slaughterized me in QTEs if I'd been on a higher difficulty setting, but I felt that normal combat was a bit unchallenging and worse: contrived. Rock-Paper-Scissors hard-counter gameplay belongs in a real time strategy, not in an action adventure game. Particularly odious to my way of thought is the way riot troops - non-sensitive assholes with shock-pikes - were capable of withstanding a fucking Jedi going lightsaber nuts on their asses then break his sequence and knock him back.

One thing that I found annoying was the extreme gameplay and story segregation between your lightside and darkside endings. I spent the whole game trying to stay away from Lightning and Rage, but it didn't seem to matter, especially when you had times like Kota telling you to give something a good shock. Not something you'd normally think of a Jedi Master as telling someone, eh? The voice-over in the commercials I've seen for it, with Marek freaking out as the voices of Darth Vader and Yoda echo through his head made me think we were going to get an epic "you must choose your path" sequence on Dagobah. Instead what we got was a fucking cameo without even his name being mentioned. And I think all of that dialogue for Yoda was taken from ESB and RTJ, because he wasn't uttering any of those grave-sounding lines in the game.


I think, in the end, what can be said is this: The sequences they did do, are fucking epic. They certainly were milking their well-polished skydiving minigame tech, and it was awesome, all three times. Getting to run around inside a capital ship that was not a Star Destroyer or clearly made by the same interior designers (the Arc Hammer and similar Star Destroyer/Factory Motherships from the sagas of Kyle Katarn) was a refreshing breather, as was the new and unusual situation of being inside one of your own ships and fending off attacking boarders. I'd love to have a fight like that aboard Home One sometime.

(Blowing a Star Destroyer in half with one force-powered omega murder blast from that bigass railcannon was fuckawesome, too. I was agape when I saw that sequence.)

And the fight where you had to skydive after the bigass monster holding Kota was truely gripping. If you had no idea who he was from the first game, you'd have been all 'wtf', but having known who he was and what he meant to Galen, I thought it was really epic. In the end, though, I think what this 'game' should be known for is not for what is in it, but what is absent.

All the wasted, tragically wasted potential on Dagobah. The plot hole of where Kota was when Starkiller went to Dagobah - and how they linked back up afterwards to go join the rebel fleet. Fighting Boba Fett, for fuck's sake! The guy gets two scenes and a single line during Starkiller's freak-out on Kamino when he's approaching Vader. I mean, come on!

You don't put Boba Freaking Fett in a Star Wars game and not have the player try to murderize him! That's like putting Darth Vader into a Star Wars game and not having the player try to kill him.

Even if you're going to call it an Episode, which I'll charitably do and even forgive it being heinously expensive for an Episode because George Lucas needs his pound of Midichlorians, those abscences are unforgivable. What there is, is great, but the clearly missing sequences are killers. There should have been more on Dagobah, and there should have been at least one level between Dagobah (which should have been a level in and of itself!) and the stuff aboard the Salvation where Starkiller realized he needed to track down Kota to find Juno. Hell, they could have let us play as Kota for a while! (They let us play as Vader during TFU 1, so why not the blind Jedi?)

I can forgive the abrupt ending if I'm willing to call it an Episode, because that's how a good Episode ends. Ep1 ended with the Citadel's reactor going asplodie and Gordon and Alyx huddled up for dear life on the end of a train. Ep2 ended with Eli getting ganked by a flying Brain Bug straight out of Starship Troopers with the telekinetic powers of a Sith Lord, which was in turn ganked by a fucking robot, leaving Gordon stunned and shocked.

TFU2 ended on a high note (with the light side ending, at least:) Starkiller's got his girl back, Vader's locked up... Though of course, we all know he's letting himself be captured, because as soon as he catches his breath he could have just crushed those restraints. (Oddly, why doesn't Kota or Starkiller mention this? Both of them have caused telekinetic damage far, far in excess of those pathetic restraints.) They could, at least, have gone to the trouble of showing a couple of Ysalimiri tied up in the room to explain why Vader couldn't just Force his way out of the restraints.

But, in the end, it was just too damn abrupt in pacing. The abrupt ending was acceptable; the sudden flash-foot jumps between rescuing Kota and winding up on the Salvation were not.

I've got to say, this is the first game where the dark side ending has made more sense to me. as far as I can tell it fits into canon a lot better that way as Spoiler

one thing that bugs me. Why does the evil clone intervene in the dark side ending, but not in the light? it's like they just created it to fulfill the obligatory "Dark side ending where everything goes to shit and evil triumphs" rule that's been in almost every single game. That said, I'm still getting it. The second one was also fairly short.

Maybe because they got some strange bug up their asses this time about making the dark side ending canon, but obviously Starkiller can't kill Darth Vader because then the events of ANH, ESB and RotJ happen very differently?

Or maybe just to have some symmetry - Skywalker betrayed Windu and killed him to save the bad guy, so Starkiller's clone betrays his original and kills him to save the bad guy.


I dunno, but either way, I prefer the light side ending, though it makes me wonder what TFU 3 is going to be. Maybe the opening levels will have us playing as Darth Vader and breaking out of custody? I guess that would work - I mean, I didn't like the opening TFU1 bits playing Starkiller as a loyal Sith Apprentice. If I'm going to play the evil guy, to hell with playing the lesser evil! Give me control of Darth Freaking Vader!


I'd still rather play the good guys.

I picked up TFUII yesterday. Being an immense TFU fanboy I didn't really need much to enjoy it, and there are across the board improvements. The lightsaber stuff feels more visceral, it felt more challenging, enemy types seems well put together (terror troopers puzzled me for a bit lol) and level design is greatly improved - Cato Neimodia looks great and is pretty cleverly designed. There are way more options for saber customisation too, which I like. There's some really good vocal stuff too - it takes a while for Witwer to really kick in, but about the time he meets Kota he really shines. Their argument on the Rogue Shadow is pretty convincing. The pacing was just plain blistering and the presentation of levels improved, with them more naturally leading into each other. IE. Darth Vader mentions Kota being on Cato Neimodia, when you escape you go looking, Kota talks about the Rebel fleet needing him, then makes a crack about Dagobah, so Starkiller goes to Dagobah and then decides to help the Rebels, things go wrong etc etc.

Except this is all pointless if it's really that short. TFU cheated through the reuse of levels, but that didn't bother me so much. I get the impression I'm right near the end, making it the shortest game I've ever bought - it's even shorter than The Darkness and not nearly as good. I'll finish it this afternoon and then return it tomorrow. Really disappointing.

Since others have commented on the length, (or lack thereof) i'll just say that I hope TFU III hasn't been canceled, because this is no way to end a series. If they do end it like this, they'll have to declare the whole thing non-canon officially, which IIRC LFL has never had to do before.

Given the Light and Dark Side endings...

If TFU3 is still a go, I'd like to see it be

Chapter 1 – 3
Play as Starkiller:
Defend a Rebel cruiser (a multi-kilometer one) against Imperial Boarding action – beating them back to the hanger bay near the engines.

Chapter 4 – 6
Play as 'Sith Stalker':
Darth Vader’s ‘Sith Stalker’ clone breaking into the rebel ship to release Vader (from the opposite side). This ends with the Sith Stalker and General Kota killing each other. This happens at the same time as chapters 1 - 3

Chapter 7 – 9
Play as Darth Vader:
Darth Vader breaking out of the Rebel ship, and coming up on the Rebel’s defending the ship, from behind. The end of Chapter 9 is him seriously wounding Juno Eclipse while holding off the newly arrived Starkiller. Vader goading Starkiller to give into the Dark Side and rejoin the Sith, to get the power to save Juno.

Rebel defense forces at this point include reconditions CIS Troops.

Chapter 10 –
Play as either Vader or Starkiller -
Darth Vader vs Starkiller, Round 3. In it, we learn Starkiller is the original Galen, and he was just in a deep healing trance at the end of TFU1. Cloning was attempted, and after the failures, they instead focused on the original's mind.

If playing as Vader:
Darth Vader finally puts down Starkiller, using a Force Choke and the line, “You have failed me for the LAST TIME”, followed by the sound of a lightsaber being swung, and Galen’s rolling up to Vader’s boot.

If playing as Starkiller:
You escape the Force Choke with a 'Force Repulse', and are Force-hurled by Vader into equipment, which crashes down on you.

Chapter 11 – (Vader)
Vader escaping the Rebel ship, which has dropped out of Hyperspace, and is going to self-destruct. Vader leaves in his Tie fighter (Starkiller brought it), and then roars off into Hyperspace.

Results in Canon, Dark Side Ending.

Chapter 11 - (Starkiller)
Starkiller gets out of the equipment pile, and makes it over to Juno. Juno is able to walk. You have to help her, using the Force, to reach the Rogue Shadow (complete with Proxy) and escape before it explodes.

Results in non-canon, Light Side ending.
The Rogue Shadow hyperjumps away, with Proxy asking 'Where to, master?" and Starkiller going 'Away from the Empire, the Rebellion, the Force, and all of it. We've all had enough of it."

These games really are slowly strangling any tolerance for Star Wars material I have out of me. More and more stories, crammed into the same setup, constrained by the movies, with increasingly unlikely characters and plots...