Big Changes Planned For The Force Unleashed 2

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed debuted in 2008 to less than stellar reviews, but sales of the game were strong. A sequel for the game is due out in October, and the developers spoke at length with the Guardian's Games blog about the improvements they've been working on. One of their priorities was adding depth to the combat system to make it less of a button-mash. "The team has completely redesigned all the familiar Force powers from the first title including Force Push and Force Grip, and has added a few newcomers including the potentially amusing Force Mind Trick that'll allow you to trick Storm Troopers into leaping from high ledges." Enemy AI is another area that's getting some love, and they're trying to make level design more open and less linear. The team's confidence in the changes they're making stems in part from much greater familiarity with their game-building tools. "Like its predecessor, Force Unleashed 2 will combine three third-party physics engines, Havok, Euphoria and Digital Molecular Matter, to provide cutting edge human animation, materials effects and authentic physical forces. ... 'Whenever you're building the first iteration [of a game series] and a brand new game engine at the same time, everything comes in hot and fast – we were literally figuring out how to get the most out of those three technologies all the way up to shipping. The DLC then helped us to learn more, and that knowledge has given us the biggest leap forward.'" A trailer for the game was released at E3.

Comments

Game Environment

[Nialin]

Let's just hope we can jump and land on that fucking mushroom top this time around.

Major fixes

[Dexter Herbivore]

It sounds like they are trying to fix my most hated part of the game, the combat system. I loved the look and feel of the game but the combat system made me give up near the end. Surprisingly even though I hated it so much, pulling a Star Destroyer out of the sky was a novel and creative (if poorly implemented) idea.

Re:Major fixes

[jollyreaper]

It sounds like they are trying to fix my most hated part of the game, the combat system. I loved the look and feel of the game but the combat system made me give up near the end. Surprisingly even though I hated it so much, pulling a Star Destroyer out of the sky was a novel and creative (if poorly implemented) idea.

No, that's actually a perfect example of why the game was so fuxx0red. Star Wars isn't about Dragonball Z Super-Sayan characters. Force users may be powerful but they're not freakin' Greek gods. Yoda can say size matters not but living an X-Wing with his mind took some effort.

If a Force-user can pull a Star Destroyer out of the sky, he could just as well fly everywhere. And make laser beams shoot out of his eyes. And pretty much be Superman. All he needs is a cape and glasses when he needs a disguise.

The new Star Wars MMORPG looks like it's going to be Star Wars 40K complete with stand-in space marines. It's going to suck.

Re:Major fixes

[shdragon]

It sounds like they are trying to fix my most hated part of the game, the combat system. I loved the look and feel of the game but the combat system made me give up near the end. Surprisingly even though I hated it so much, pulling a Star Destroyer out of the sky was a novel and creative (if poorly implemented) idea.

I read an interview with the devs in Game Informer where they admit that the on-screen instructions for pulling the Start Destroyer are wrong, hence the "it takes 20 minutes to beat the level". Poor QA but I still loved the game.

Proper PC support?

[PhrostyMcByte]

Force Unleashed 2 has a good chance to unseat Jedi Academy as my favorite Star Wars game, but the original did have some faults. I want a more varied world and new game play. Less blowing past stormtroopers, more lightsaber battles. Do away with the quick time events and the minigame with awkward controls (pulling down the star destroyer). Let me customize my character more. Add some puzzles.

Most of all, make the PC a first-class platform. The port Aspyr did was pretty terrible -- bugs and performance issues all over the place. I shouldn't have to save every 5 minutes for fear of crashing.

Re:3 Physics engines.

[idji]

I still think you are going to run around a corner and see crates lying around, and know that some baddy is in this room, coz that's what the crates are for. No amount of technology is going to fix bad map design like that. There will also be impervious surfaces and materials, like the floor you are standing on.

Kyle Katarn could help

[Cerberus7]

The Jedi Knight games did everything right, from force powers to saber combat to letting you SHOOT the danged baddies if you wanted to. Translate that to the new graphics/physics engine, and done. Instant awesome game. (k, not really, but you know what I mean)

Re:Kyle Katarn could help

[ultranova]

Oh yes. And Jedi Academy had state select, and only fell to the "endless wave of enemies" problem near the end. And the first lightsaber hit was usually also the last.

However, these games really need to lose the "Force requires mana" system. Use cooldown on powers if you must, but it's annoying that if you activate Force Damage Reduction - er, Protection - your "Force energy" doesn't recharge, so you can't really use any other powers.

Also, don't have health bar. Have a "defence" bar; whenever something would had hit you, you deflect it with the lightsaber/Force Push, and when the bar's empty, only then does a hit get through, at which point you die instantly. A minor change, but it would fit the theme much better, and would also justify the modern "stop getting hit to heal" mechanic.

There are other possible improvements, but these would be something to start with.