Lucasarts was showing off Force Unleashed II behind doors at their booth. Frankly, it looks awesome and it was one of my favorite games of the show. I loved the first game and the second game looks to only expand and improve upon the great gameplay that Force Unleashed introduced.
Starkiller is once again the main character. If you remember from the end of the first game, that may be surprising (I won’t spoil that for you), and while his existence wasn’t completely revealed, we were told that it has to do with the city of Camino and cloning.
The trailer that you may have seen by now shows Starkiller shackled up and Vader telling him that he is no longer useful. He’s set to be killed by a team of Stormtroopers, but Starkiller escapes. What the trailer doesn’t show is that this takes place on Camino, which is also the first area of the story. Starkiller must escape Camino and seek revenge on Vader for all of the betrayals against him.
To help out, Starkiller has several new abilities, including Force Fury. This mode is similar to Rage of the Gods from God of War. Players earn this through normal combat and it can be unleashed at any point during battle. They’re still tweaking the difficulty so it’s not yet confirmed if you can toggle Force Fury or if once you turn it on it has to stay on until it depletes. During Fury, Starkillers’ Force powers are given a major boost. His Force Push power can repel droves of enemies at a great distance, for example, and his lightsaber is more powerful.
A new Force power is here — Mind Trick. With it, depending on how far you have it leveled up to, Starkiller can convince weaker minded enemies to throw themselves to their deaths or even turn on and attack their own.
Players will also lead Starkiller through a new type of game mode — free falling. In the Camino level, Starkiller leaps from the top of a tower and engages in a thirty second fall sequence, which reminded me of Kratos’ flying in God of war III. While falling, Starkiller had to use his lightning Force power to blast through platforms, clearing his path. It looked like a lot of fun.
Force Unleashed II has made some big changes to its physics, too. This is evident in the aftermath of Force Push, with bodies and objects flailing all over the place, and in how some of the environments breakdown. The presentation noted that this was only possible with Lucasarts’ three part physics engine that includes Havok, Digital Molecular Modeling (I may have that name wrong), and Euphoria.
Finally, there was a new enemy shown, the Carbonite Warrior (again that name may be off)). This massive mech has a huge shield that can deflect Force powers and he can also blow out Carbonite that temporarily freezes Starkiller. You have to get the shield away from it before you can destroy it. Finishing moves are said to be more varied and powerful than ever, too.
Force Unleashed II is due out on October 26th and should really kick ass. Check back for continuing coverage in the coming months.
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