Star Wars : The Force Unleashed II

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The Force Unleashed 2 looks beautiful -- the weather effects on the planet Kamino really add ambience -- but this is largely the same demo I saw for the impressions I wrote a few weeks ago. Starkiller, the protagonist from the first game who returns for the sequel, is escaping a secret cloning facility and fighting wave after wave of Republic troops. Still, as I watch the player run into his third group of Stormtroopers I immediately notice one major change: limbs are flying.

Starkiller starts his journey with a Force controlled freefall.
Dismemberment is something players have been asking for since the original game -- something several of you commented that you wanted when you read the last story -- and whose inclusion is telling about TFU2's entire design philosophy. LucasArts knows that many of you enjoyed the original, but they also know that they have to step it up this time around, making the player feel even more empowered than ever.

Giving the player greater power comes from more than just a lightsaber that acts like a lightsaber, though, as Force powers have also been changed. Along with the addition of new powers like Mind Trick -- which can make enemies attack each other or simply kill themselves -- players now have the ability to use Force Fury periodically. This overcharges Starkiller's Force powers, taking his powers to levels that players would normally have to wait until the end of the game to see. It's only a temporary charge, though, so players will have to use the ability at key moments, such as when you're up against considerable opposition (in the demo Starkiller used it to quickly dispatch to giant armored vehicles). It's still unclear how Force Fury will charge, but it was indicated to me that it will only be usable a few times during each stage.

Force Fury looks like it could make combat more satisfying for short periods of time, but TFU2 team has reworked the types of enemies you fight as well in order to make strategy more diverse than a button mashing affair where you just spam a single Force ability. TFU2 has far fewer enemy types than the first game, but they've all been designed in ways that the team hopes will force players to use different tactics. For instance, in the demo Starkiller had to face off against a Carbonite Heavy -- a giant droid with a lightsaber resistant shield and the ability to freeze the player -- which made the player have to find a way to remove the droid's shield. Once the shield was gone the player could pick how to kill the droid, using his own shield to smash him or attacking him now that he was vulnerable. It still looks like there are plenty of random troopers to slice up and toss with ease (a necessary thing to keep the player feeling empowered), but I could see how more specialized troops such as the one they showed could really mix things up when they were combined in later levels.

Fodder for your chopping pleasure.
Empowerment also comes in TFU2 from the return of the crazy physics engine mash-up that the first was known for. Using a combination of physics engines that have a series of pretty names, the end result is a game where both enemies and the environment react in a more realistic manner. Pick up an enemy with Force grab and he'll wave his limbs around frantically, reaching for purpose on boxes, friends or ledges in the world (which they'll sometimes find at times dragging an ally to their doom). The environment also smashes where appropriate, bending the way you'd expect it to if it's thick metal, or shattering into pieces if it's a more brittle substance. I'd love to see lightsabers used as a cutting tool more often, but the way the Force powers affect the world around you is still as impressive as ever.

With a demo promised to be coming around a month before the game goes to retailers (the game has a hard release date of October 26, 2010), it's obvious that the team has confidence in what they're doing with TFU2. Hopefully as the game gets closer to release I'll finally get to cut some soldiers to pieces myself, or get to see some of the other worlds Starkiller will get to visit, but what I've seen so far makes me hopeful that this time the player will finally feel like they really are, well, unleashed.

Le démembrement est confirmé génialissime