Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is an action-adventure platform video game developed and published by LucasArts. It is the second installment of the The Force Unleashed multimedia project, and the sequel to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008). The game was released in the United States on October 26, 2010, and throughout Europe on October 29 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii consoles, as well as the Nintendo DS and iOS portable devices. Players control a clone of Starkiller, who himself was a secret apprentice to Darth Vader in The Force Unleashed.
The clone embarks on a quest to find his identity and find Starkiller’s love interest, Juno Eclipse. Production for The Force Unleashed II transpired over an approximate period of nine months; while it possesses some similarities to the previous game, producers modified several aspects such as the sound effects and gameplay. Sam Witwer again provides the voice and likeness for Starkiller, and several cast members return to voice and provide likeness to their respective roles. The Force Unleashed II produced varying responses from critics, who despite adulating the sound design and aesthetics, were concerned with several gameplay elements and an underwhelming storyline. Aggregate scores range from the 40–70% range at websites GameRankings and Metacritic. During the first few weeks after its release it placed fifth or higher in sales for several regions. The Force Unleashed II is a third-person action game in which the player’s character’s weapons are the Force and a lightsaber. The game has a combo system for stringing lightsaber attacks and for combining lightsaber attacks with Force powers. Like the original Force Unleashed, experience points earned by killing enemies and finding artifacts can be used to increase Starkiller’s powers and traits. The Force Unleashed II refines gameplay elements from the first Force Unleashed, and adds more variety with such features as puzzle solving. Combat was modified to include the ability to wield dual lightsabers, which can dismember or decapitate enemies. The game also adds more Force powers, such as «Mind Trick» and «Force Rage». Platform-specific elements According to lead producer Vinde Kudirka, the goal of the game across all platforms is to make the player feel like «a super-powerful Jedi». Executive producer Julio Torres said that while the story is consistent across platforms, gameplay decreases in style across platforms to reflect each platform’s uniqueness and strengths. The Wii’s control scheme is focused on being able to precisely control Starkiller’s Force powers and saber combos. The Wii exclusive «Force rage» power puts the game’s protagonist, Starkiller, into a bullet time mode exclusive to that platform; the Wii version also has a Force sight power not included on other platforms. The Wii version also has a multiplayer mode, inspired by The Outfoxies, in which four players can challenge each other in a fighting-style combat game. The Wii game also has an extra story-based level, on Dagobah, that is not present in the HD version of the game, making the plot of the Wii game slightly different from the HD version. The PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions feature new Force powers, new skins for Force powers that appear in The Force Unleashed, an improved rendering system providing richer colors, and a new audio system. The gameplay also highlights the potential to «destroy» the game environment. Neither of the PC, PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 versions of the game include multiplayer. The Nintendo DS version features the same Force powers as the console versions, but was designed for shorter play sessions due to its mobile nature.