The sequel to the original Force Unleashed was released this past Tuesday on the 26th, and on the 27th I was frantically tearing off the plastic wrap of the Xbox 360 version like the rabid fanboy I pretend not to be.  So what does this sophomore effort bring to the table?  A hell of a lot less then the original.

First off, let me preface this by pointing out that the need for me to reawaken my login on Spark Box in order to write a review has to tell you something.  Before you go any further, let me warn you again there shall be spoilers.  Again: ******SPOILERS******  Ok then, now that I got that out of the way, on to the crappy!

The game starts you off the same exact way the playable demo does with a few more minutes of gameplay.  Before you know it you’re cutting off bits and pieces of stormtroopers in no time as you begin to get accustomed to the extra lightsaber Starkiller is wielding this time around.  The attacks are more of the same mashing of the same one button over and over again with the sprinkling of 2 other button choices to shake things up a bit with your force powers.  Of those force powers you only get a mesmerizing two brand spanking new abilities.  I know, I could barely contain myself either.  One is mind trick which eventually lets you “trick” up to three opponents, the other is Force Fury, an activated rage ability you unleash once the meter fills which gives you temporary invincibility and stronger attacks.  One thing I thought was pretty cool was the carry over of three of the alternate costumes if you happened to have played through the original.  As I mentioned earlier, you’re now duel wielding lightsabers which allows you the ability to mix and match ‘saber crystals for each weapon allowing you various perks.

A bit now on the plot.  Vader has cloned Starkiller and wants him back as his apprentice to do all his dirty work, but  Clonekiller is still all choked up over Juno Eclipse and Vader just wants it to be bro time.  Starkiller escapes and starts his search for Juno.  Yay a love story with lightsabers!

Ok so what really got to me?  Lets start with the cut scenes.  I love cinematics just as much as the next gamer, I know it’s Star Wars and we all want more story, but this was a bit much.  I like the Levine method of letting the game tell your story.  We don’t need a books worth of dialog.  Luckily these are able to be skipped, for the most part.  Which brings me to the next gripe, General Kota.  Your very first task is to go rescue General Kota who has been dismembering creatures in a gladiator style arena for the crowd’s amusement.  After his rescue, how does he thank you?  By yelling the same commands in your ear over and over and over again.  To say this gets annoying really quick is an understatement.

Lets get to some of the baddies.  There are basically 3 types of adversaries; health filling lightsaber fodder stormtroopers, “medium sized” bad guys that take a bit more involvement with repetitive button sequence finish offs, and the ridiculously long wtf-am-I-doing/my-god-my-fingers-are-bleeding-stumps opponents.  Luckily you’ll only have to suffer through two of the last type.  And oh you will suffer.

Force Unleashed 2 also offers two cameo appearances by Master Yoda and the notorious Boba Fett.  Both of which you get no game play interaction with.  None.  Zero.  The best you get is a quote from Yoda from the original trilogy.  Some type of game play would have elevated the game exponentially.  A Luke style training session with Yoda for some extra force power points.  Or maybe have a locked ability that can only be attained by completing said training session with the pint sized jedi master.  As you may have guessed, no fight with Boba Fett either.  Sorry.  He barely even stops by to say hello before he runs off doing his bounty hunting thing.

The bulk of annoyances in the game are interactions with Vader, which mirrors the protagonists anger with him so maybe it was all planned that way.  Towards the very end of the game you have to find Vader to discover where Juno is.  You get to a point where you’re surrounded by cloning tanks containing “mistakes” of you.  You can’t do anything but walk in this portion.  Imagine being in a haunted house where everything is hazy, you’re not allowed to touch anything, but things jump out at you.  Oh and your shoes are tied together so you can’t move very fast.  This is exactly what this portion of the game is like (yay useless filler!!).  The exception being that it’s Lord Vader popping out at you, then automatically blocking his saber and dramatically yelling at him about the location of Juno.  You then have to climb the spire of cloning tank platforms and eventually whittle away vaders life.  You finally get to the final battle with Vader where he does nothing but walk around with his lightsaber in a defensive position and occasionally hits you with lightning.  Riveting.  The final battle with the emperor in the last game was much more involved compared to this concluding battle.  After a few more yelling matches you finally execute the least complex button combinations ever to pin down Vader….and then mash the hell out of the lightning button for what seems like eternity.  I kid you not.  If I had something to constantly tap force lightning for me I could’ve made a PBJ in the time it finally took to sufficiently turn Vader into a light bulb.

The game concludes with you having to pick the light side or the dark side.  Not very imaginative and overly predictable.

Overall, I’d rent this for the night or two it would take to complete it. I started off the game in hard mode, hoping for a bit more of a challenge and a few extra achievement points and received little of either.  A few unlocked challenges add some replay to the game, but at the end it’s really not all that worth it.  For something that could have been a lot better, it’s significantly worse than the original.

This has been boiling inside me for the past few weeks waiting to pop out like the chestburster from Aliens. It’s something so damn cool I want to show everyone, because I know there are some people out there who are hemming and hawing about how the newest Wolverine game is going to be mediocre at best. After sitting in on the Raven Software/Activision panel I can tell you it’s everything me and every other fan of Wolverine has ever wanted a game starring our favorite anti-hero to be.

Every game as far back as the 1991 release of Wolverine for the NES (yeah, that’s right) had me scratching my head saying, “This isn’t Wolverine!!!” Sure you had the claws, but that primal ferocity that is so much a component of the character was never there. Don’t get me wrong, Wolvie was my boy in Marvel vs Capcom, but still…something was missing.

This is where Raven got it right. They posed this; if you want to be Wolverine and you want to just tear into someone like soft bread with your adamantium claws, why the hell can’t you? Well now you can.

The game follows the same story line as the movie by the same name, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Both are being released simultaneously on May 1st, which in my honest opinion is the smart way to do it. I get pretty pissed when some game companies release the game version before the the movie. Honestly, wtf? Where was I..oh yeah. The story follows the movie, for the most part. Raven told us that they’ve added a few things here and there to spice things up that everyone will enjoy immensely.

Raven explained that they’ve designed Wolverine in three layers: skin, muscle, and adamantium coated skeleton. This ensures that when you take a shotgun blast to the gut, you can see each layer healing back up over time. It looks just as cool as it sounds, believe me.

As you progress through the game you also gain access to abilities. You start off with a pretty good set of punching and claw attacks. Later on in the game you get the aiming and lunging about 30 feet across a level with claws retracted then plunging them into someone’s chest move, which was definitely one of my faves. There’s an area attack whirlwind move similar to the one in Marvel vs Capcom and I’m sure there are plenty more that I didn’t get to see.

All the fans of Wolvie will be eternally grateful to know that they’ve also incorporated the title character’s infamous berserker rage. I’m not sure how it’s activated, but you’ll know as your whole screen gains a slightly red tinge and you start tearing into anything that moves. Raven let us in on some of the unlockables, one of which being Wolverines iconic yellow, blue and black suit from the comic books. Personally I’m a big fan of the brown costume, maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll throw that one in.

I’m really looking forward to this one and hopefully this seals the deal for a lot of you on this game. Raven/Activision put plenty of time and dedication into this and it honestly shows. Be sure to go check out the movie and pick up the game on May 1st.  So now, without further interruption…

yeah, sorry for the guy’s head.