It’s about seven months or so after the events of The Force Unleashed, and protagonist and on-again, off-again Sith apprentice Starkiller finds himself imprisoned in Darth Vader’s secret science project cloning facility on Kamino. To resolve the otherwise rather inconvenient possibility that he might previously have died (see: on-again, off-again Sith apprentice), an all-new possibility is introduced as a sort of introductory plot device: Starkiller could be a clone. Or not. It never really becomes relevant.<\/p>\n
Because that’s where the story trips and falls into one of those turbine shafts that seem to populate approximately 90% of the charted Star Wars universe, promptly swapping all semblance of potential narrative development for something that could really only be described as the deep space of junior high fanfic – Starkiller has an adolescent, midichlorian-enriched angst-attack and rushes off to find his lady love from the first game, Juno Eclipse. On the way, he kills heaps of people. <\/p>\n
And on the topic of killing heaps of people, Starkiller takes his name seriously. With a bunch of Force powers at his vengeful disposal, the guy makes taking on an entire Empire look like the proverbial walk through Endor’s soundstage. There’s something undeniably cool about Force Pushing screeching Stormtroopers into bulkheads… until you realise that’s pretty much most of the game. I mean, there’s the occasional AT-ST or TIE Fighter or mechanical spidery thing, but there’s not much at all in the way of epic set pieces – unless you count the three boss fights, two of which do double-duty as some of the most dismal, tedious boss fights this side of Ninja Blade. <\/p>\n
As Starkiller cuts a bloody, chunky swathe through the Imperial draft, he accrues XP through some kind of Force Cannibal Osmosis, which can be invested in upgrading his Force abilities. Stuffing XP into Force Lightning, for example, increases the damage and number of simultaneous targets. It’s transparent and uncomplicated, and elegantly negates those fussy “Do I upgrade my X-X-X-X-Y-B-X combo or my X-Y-B-X-A-X-A-X-RB combo or should I just play something else instead?” quandaries every time you’ve got XP to blow. <\/p>\n
There are also Holocron collectibles scattered hither and yon throughout levels that grant a massive XP bonus or unlock additional Lightsabers, each with their own idiosyncracies. <\/p>\n
It’s a shame then that, in spite of some solid ideas, it’s all so relentlessly bland in execution. Aside from the deficit of enemy unit types and dreary boss fights, the level and mission design are exceedingly uninspired – it’s just a series of copy-pasted corridors and a bunch of guys between the last blast door and the next. And after four or five hours – or about three hours after it stopped being much fun – the game ends abruptly with a “Good” or “Bad” choice of ending, both of which are consummately stupid (SPOILERS).<\/p>\n
Hardcore Star Wars geeks will probably get a Force Kick out of it (I know I did), but for everyone else looking for some third person action, there’s God of War. Or Darksiders. Or Batman: Arkham Asylum. Or Dante’s Inferno. Or Crusader: No Regret. Man, Crusader: No Regret was awesome.<\/p>\n