Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Collector's Edition

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $49.99
Sale Price: $49.10
Today's Bonus: 2% Off

I'm going to split the review into two parts: one for the game itself and one that specifically addresses the collector's edition.

First the game:

The game is a lot of fun but it falls really short. The story passes through quickly, it really feels like there's about four levels (the game splits it into 8 or 10). The game play is basically the same as the first, using the Force is a little iffy at times, but it's cool to have all the Force powers, yadda yadda yadda. This one is significantly less buggy than the first, which is nice. It also looks a lot better than the first one. Cut scenes are a given, I personally feel the game itself was also cleaner.

However, the game does have its drawbacks. For one, the story mode is entirely too short and doesn't really add anything to the Star Wars universe. It works as a sequel, sure, but where the first one tied episodes 3 and 4 together in a brilliant manner, this is at best an epilogue to that. You're possibly a clone, you escape Vader, stuff happens that really only matters to Starkiller (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here) and then you go back to fight Vader again, then nothing really happens or is resolved. I'm willing to admit I missed something, but I just don't see how that contributes to the overall story.

Another issue I have with the game is the challenges. Some of them are insanely difficult. I know there's a certain degree of fun in something being a challenge, but in my opinion a few of them just go too far. The first one, for example, has you input all the combos to "prove your mastery of the Force." Sounds like fun, right? Unfortunately not. The response of your inputs can be VERY selective. For example, hitting Square three times might actually require six inputs for three to be recognized. To a certain degree you can figure out the game's timing, but it likes to randomly decide you weren't fast enough. Even if you're in mid-combo. Or the training droid will attack you, or the game will wait a good 5+ seconds before putting the input back up, which greatly affects your score.

You might have heard that this game was supposed to have a multiplayer mode, but as another reviewer already mentioned, this is for Wii only. From what I've seen it looks pretty similar to Super Smash Bros, which could be fun but meh. That was probably clearly stated, but word of mouth chose to ignore it.

So overall, I would give the game three, three and a half stars. It's definitely fun and worth looking into if you enjoyed the first one, but I would wait for the price to come down, as you'll finish just about everything it has to offer in a matter of a few days (seriously, I beat the story on Hard the day the game came out, and I'm not that spectacular at these games). The game is supposed to get some DLC in the near-ish future, I'm hoping it's either cheap, free, or very good to make up for what I, and many others, feel lacked from the game.

As for the Collector's Edition, I would not buy it. I'm typically a sucker for these things, so I got it without question. The bonus stuff on the flash drive, the extra sabers and costume...I thought it would be worth it. It is not. The flash drive is okay, but really more gimmicky than anything else. It's shaped like Starkiller, you can see the pictures. All it really has on it is a Flash backdrop and 5 or 6 pictures in various sizes. According to the box there's a full game script as well, but I was unable to find it.

The lightsaber was not worth it to me, especially since I pre-ordered from Gamestop. The Gamestop lightsaber powers up all attacks, the Collector's Edition only powers up lightsaber attacks. From what I inferred not even by that much, but then again there's no real objective way to tell. The costume is also pretty mediocre. Again, the Gamestop preorder is the winner, the Maulkiller costume looks very cool. Finally, the Collector's Edition comes with three extra challenges. They're mediocre. About as much fun as any of the other challenges, but really nothing too special or something that you "need" to have. Of course, the comparison of the costumes and lightsabers is pretty useless to anyone who didn't preorder, but honestly, all in all, keep your $15-$20 and just get the normal edition. The game comes in a plastic case which houses the metal case and the flash drive. The metal case itself is a little cheap. Seems to me like it would scratch or dent easily.

I would give the Collector's Edition extras two stars at best. There simply isn't enough there to justify the extra money spent. I honestly felt a little...well I wouldn't exactly say cheated, but I certainly feel that I didn't get my money's worth with respect to the extras. I would just put that $15 to $20 aside and investigate the DLC when it's released.

So yeah. I hope that was helpful! Avoid the mistake I made, I somewhat doubt the Collector's Edition will be in short supply any time soon.

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What can I say... The sequel is never as good as the original, right?

If you own the first Force Unleashed, then you've played this game before but with a better story, and more in-depth gameplay.

There's maybe 5 hours of story play, less if you skip the cutscenes and the story is very unsatisfying with more than a few holes in it. They promised we'd find out whether or not we're playing a clone and by the end you're still not sure.

Yes, the cutscenes look better this time around, but it's not surprising that CG Movies would improve in the newer game. What is surprising is that the gameplay looks exactly the same as the first game.

You do get all combos accessible from the start. Though, most of the combos are identical to FU, the only difference being the second saber. Instead of a Lightning Shield, you get Mind Trick, so instead of taking less damage and dealing more damage, you get a weak enemy to battle with you for 3 seconds. No more character ability upgrading, experience points are now only used to upgrade force abilities. It is cool that you can mix and match saber crystals to augment different aspects of your character, similar to the what power crystals did in the first game, but I like when both sabers look the same regardless of their ability.

If you remember having problems with targeting and button response in FU, you'll be dismayed to find that no improvements have been made with the technical problems. You'll still find yourself turning around to stare at the screen instead of battling the enemy in front of you. There will be times when you're asked to hold a trigger button and press X repeatedly and you just start jumping repeadetly instead of raising a door, or blowing through a force field. From time to time, enemies won't take damage when expected to, assuming you can target them at all.

For most of the people who bought the Collector's Edition, the Mimobot USB doesn't work. Autoplay doesn't always recognize the drive correctly, and the embedded website doesn't work. The page loads, complains that you don't have flash player or javascript enabled, and after you allow blocked content (javascript) it just goes to a blank black page with no content. Lucasarts has not yet responded to the many forum posts and emails they've recieved about this issue.

If you bought the CE on the first day at midnight, you were disappointed when you got home and found that your Pre-Order codes worked, but the CE codes did not. Lucasarts finally made them available around 9pm eastern, unless you kept trying the code throughout the day and got locked out until the next day.

There is no Multi-Player unless you own the WII edition.

All in all, if you want the game, wait for it to be cheap. And don't expect a third installment. The current Lucasarts President, Paul Meegan, cancelled it during production because he doesn't feel Lucasarts should outsource any more projects. He also has been letting go of Lucasarts programming staff either by firing them or by making them walk out, so don't expect any more quality lucasarts games for a while.

Buy Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Collector's Edition Now

I buy Star Wars games for the story. Since no more movies will be made, video games have become one of the best ways for the Star Wars universe to continue. This game had better graphics and gameplay than the first did. But "thats all folks!". The story was non existant. Kotor 1 and 2 showed us that a great game could also have an amazing story. But you wont find it with this game. And after pressing the same attack button over and over you start to get bored quickly. Another thing is Darth Vader is a complete tool in this one. Im really starting to hate the guy. As we learn more about him, it starts to take away from the films. In my opinion he is a selfish murderer who does not deserve to redeem himself simply by throwing the Empreor over a balcony. Anyway dont buy...rent. Cause you will definetely beat this game, even on harderst difficulty, within a few hours. I will never buy another Force Unleashed game.

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In short, if you have played the Force Unleashed, this one will feel like the first was simply a beta test. There are strong pros and cons to this game and it is being met with mixed reviews because of some dramatic changes to the original formula. Good changes, or Bad... that is really up to you to decide.

Gameplay: A lot has changed, yet hasn't here. The Force Unleashed 2 puts you as Starkiller once again, but now he is a dual wielding beast. Despite two sabers many of his moves have not changed they simply have become stronger. The big change here is targeting and force powers. *Targeting is improved to a level where I didn't even have to use the lock on feature for bosses and harder foes like in the first. *Force powers are now much more responsive to use. Even Force Grip is streamline. There is no need to fight with the controller anymore to get the direction you want something to go. The mechanics work fine with the flow of the game now, in fact to a point where starkiller feels god-like. *Upgrading force powers is back but you start with all force abilities except Repulse and Saber throw (you earn those fairly quickly though). However, force combos and upgrades for starkiller have been removed. The leveling change almost made the first one feel like an RPG. Holocrons are back but now serve as a way to upgrade your health/force bars, experience and of course unlock light saber crystals. Crystals now have a built in power attribute(unlike the first game, which had color and power crystals). Example, Jedi Green = health regen White = more Exp pts earned Blue = Force regen etc

Sound/Story: The sound effects are on par with the last game. More refined but overall the same. The story ...uh... no comment? Okay okay... if you are getting this game for the storyline I would suggest you pass big time. The storyline borderlines on annoying and illogical. I wont give it away of course, but don't expect the story to be nearly half as good as from the first game.

Graphics/Presentation: The graphics are amazing. The first game looked good but these look really polished and smooth. Force powers have a great definition. You can see them interact with the environment and bend through air or release shockwaves. The presentation of the game however is lacking I think. I even went in expecting it to be structured a little like the first, with more fluidity. Instead the game essentially has you go to point A.. then it is 'Force Unleash' yourself to the goal and then a really stupid story element makes you go someplace else .. rinse and repeat. There is no revisiting the same map all over again (exception of vader's base but it looks totally different compared to the first level you did there aka the tutorial)

Length/Replay: Short... 5hrs maybe 6 if you decide to be a holocron hunter (it pays to find them though as you get tons of saber crystals, and health/force energy reserve). You can easily beat this game in one sitting. The replay value though is probably better than the first. The game doesn't bog you down with long cut-scenes mid-map or choke points. Instead you go straight for the goal and hack n' slash.. blow up, mind trick etc everyone in your path. A second playthrough using fully maxed force is just to much fun especially finding ways to blow up stuff or simply force push lv 3 a hallway and watch the entire hallway just blow apart. There is also an added challenge mode that on 360/ps3 it syncs up with everyone else on the network and ranks you. Earning medals unlocks experience, crystals, costumes etc. Some of these challenges can be quite addictive.

Summary of "cons" I have for this game (with positive re-enforcement)

Storyline was absolutely butchered in my opinion. They should really just branch outside of the yoda, emperor, vader, luke etc universe of star wars and explore some custom stories at this point (nothing really positive to say)

Less focus on advancement. You basically fight your way through things simple as that. All your combos are given to you via saber upgrades so no need to save up points for moves etc. [makes it more relaxing to play through. Simply gain exp by destroying stuff ^_^ less focus on finding holocrons for pts to level up with]

Overall Score: 81% (88% if you are a TRUE star wars fan! May the force be with you!)

If you enjoyed the first you will enjoy this game especially if you showed up to own some Empire clones. There is no load screens anymore (unless you die) and menu access is smooth and quick. The Force Unleashed 2 pretty much amounts to "The Force Unleashed + polishing combat mechanics/force powers storyline" = ??? what it equals is your call in the end. For me, I can play this game over and over just like I did with Jedi Academy

**EDIT 1/22/2011

Wow I just realized I never actually hit on the Collectors Edition with this review. at Full price $79.99 the CE was definitely not worth the money. You get a silly little USB stick that looks ugly. Never tested to see if it worked. It just was ugly, uncomfortable in your hand and would just look downright silly attached to anything (is a free USB stick though but you can get an 8GB one for what $10. This is just 2GB. You get a special CE costume (which honestly was pointless and didn't look all that good) and a set of saber crystals which I really never had any use for as the ones in game provided me with better balance. Overall the CE was a giant waste of money.

USB Stick(20%) Can get 4x the size for $10 and the one you buy will probably look better

Saber Crystals (35%) adds a new color to your sabers + double damage yet not really needed as you want to use the in game crystals since they will help you regen health and force power, or incinerate enemies etc

DLC challenges (60%) Kinda sorta worth it. They are fun but for only so long.

Steel Case (100%) who doesn't love a sexy steel case design!

Anyhow steel case aside, this is just a total waste of your money. For $20 extra you can just pass and get the regular game. The game is not bad at all. Better than the first I feel; but the CE was a major letdown as was the storyline of the game.

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This game and package deal was WELL worth the money no matter what anyone says.

The game play is fun, lore interesting, and story compelling. I loved the acting and Starkiller's overly angry demeanor.

There were several problems though. It was too short. In a blink I was done and killed everything in my path.

Also, the game play was trying hard to be fresh and innovative but ending up just being a button smasher.

Your hero is basically a God and has a multitude of ways of dispatching his enemies. Sort of makes the game unchallenging. There is also little to no replay value.

The deal I received on this item was excellent and I would suggest StarWars fans and Sci-fi gamers alike to try it out!

Pros:

+ Great deal package with a lot of goodies (tin, USB, extra box goodies)

+ Fun for SW fans and other players

+ Interesting spec system for different kind of players

Cons:

Repetitive

Little replay value

Too short of a story