Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (Wii) Preview

The observant among you may have noticed that Starkiller is returning, despite dying at the end of the first game. The story dictates that Starkiller has been cloned in a secret facility on some far off planet only to wake up with new memories and emotions. This sets him off on a powerful rampage that sees him breaking out, losing control of his powers and going in search of his memories using a starship stolen from Vader in order to unite with a certain character from the past instalment.

This style of exploration within the story has allowed Red Fly Studio to investigate some new areas within the Star Wars universe. For starters, each area will have its own specific type of enemies along with the regular Storm Troopers and other familiar favourites. Enemy AI has also been developed further thanks to a revamp of their Ronin engine which takes the standard Havok, Euphoria and Digital Molecular Mass (DMM) engines, and makes them work all together.

Different enemies react differently to force powers. Take the mind trick – smaller enemies or groups of enemies may decide to hurl themselves off the nearest ledge, while others will turn on their comrades and ally you. The idea was to create a uniqueness for each power while balancing such a powerful character. This is also apparent with the newly implemented ‘Force Fury’ – a souped-up version of the current force power, which recharges over ten or so minutes. This also allows for varied pacing – slowing things down in some of the creepier stages, or pumping up the volume in a ‘run for your life’ scene or epic (and often ridiculously large) boss fight.

The Wii version of Force Unleashed 2 will vary from its counterparts in that it will feature a four-player death match mode. You can expect a similar fare to the first instalment, with various playable characters choose from and force powers flying left, right and centre. Unfortunately, Red Fly Studio have not incorporated Wii MotionPlus – instead opting to improve the gesture based control scheme featured in the first title – so expect some more waggling in the appropriate motions with the Wiimote and Nunchuck.