Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Diaries Part One

Released in 2010 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II received similar review scores toits predecessor. It’s a direct sequel, featuring what appears to be a lot of the same characters, so I’m looking forward to it! Unfortunately, unlike the previous entry, despite making sure that everything worked according to PCGamingWiki, I had nothing but crashes, crashes, and more crashes. So, my wife bought the Xbox 360 version on our Xbox Series X and I’ll be playing it there.

This is my ongoing exploration of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. This time I will begin Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… Darth Vader landed his TIE Fighter on a landing pad bathed in a violent storm. Entering the facility it was attached to, he strode down a hallway filled with Stormtroopers. Entering a room, he addressed its lone occupant with “You’re alive.”

Looking up at the Sith lord was a manacled man, who asked “How long this time?” to which Vader replied the man has spent 13 days in isolation, apparently an impressive feat. The man, apparently Galen Marek resurrected after his martyrdom aboard the Death Star, claimed that The Force gave him everything that he needed — before quickly confirming that he meant the Dark Side.

Vader released Galen and told him that General Rahm Kota had been captured, and when his training was complete, Galen was to travel to Cato Neimoidia to execute Kota. Galen hallucinated some things that Kota had said above Narr Shada, which Vader noticed before explaining that the visions were a side effect of the cloning process and the memories used to train him. He was a clone!

Vader went on to say the flashes would fade, but if they didn’t then Clone Galen was no use to him. Handing him two lightsabers, Vader told him that he was to destroy the Rebel Alliance, as well as everything the original loved. A few PROXY droids surrounded the clone, one turning into Juno Eclipse, and I was set against them.

Finally taking control of the action, I fought the PROXYs. However, every time I went to strike a Juno, I had flashes of things that she had said. The fight ended shortly, with Vader telling me to strike her down before doing it himself. Evidently of no more use, probably due to the accelerated cloning process, I was bound to go mad and so had to be disposed of. Hitting Vader with a burst of Force Lightning, I blew a hole in the wall and leapt out!

While plummeting about two miles straight down, I had to Force Push various things out of my way. Gantries, exhaust ports, TIE Fighters, you know, the usual stuff you find on the side of a skyscraper. Coming to an abrupt stop at what might have been the ground floor, I was confronted by a platoon of Stormtroopers, all of whom died quickly.

Exiting into the rain, I killed a bunch more Troopers before Force Pushing a door open, then Force Pulling a platform out to jump on. Some new Troopers appeared, these carrying lightsaber lances but still susceptible to being thrown into the ocean like their mates. I then had to use The Force to crush some TIE Fighters that were attacking me, though some I just yeeted into the sea.

Finally entering the building again, I was faced with getting across three open flames, one of which was useful for cooking a Stormtrooper. Unfortunately, I had to go back outside to chuck people into the briny deep while more TIEs attacked me. In my opinion, this cloning facility was overstocked with military forces.

The next doorway that I entered was into a large room with two incredibly massive fan blades rotating, and I had to assume that there was an easier route than the one which I was taking. The Force allowed me to stop the fans before I dropped through a tube to a level somewhere below me. There was a forcefield in front of me, but it was easily deactivated with some Force Throwing, and the hallway past it led me into a room that appeared to have images of me on screens. However, I didn’t get a chance to look at them properly because I was told to choose an upgrade, so I went with Force Push (AKA the only thing I could choose).

Upon leaving the room I was hit by a headache, which unlocked a new power: Mind Trick. So, I used it to make a Stormtrooper jump through a window. This, most subtle of things, caused the large turrets across the way to take aim at me through the remaining windows and open fire! I jumped down and fought the various Imperial forces, gleefully pushing them into the very dangerous laser gates blocking my progress. Sadly, the fun wound to an end when a Wardroid joined the fray! It was armed with a shield and carbonite gas, so it took a bit of doing before I managed to destroy it.

Going through a couple of doors and force fields, I heard an announcement telling me that I was in the plaza. It didn’t look like one in the hammering rain, with tons of Troopers attempting to take refuge behind stacked crates… But, thanks to lifting a platform with The Force, I gained access to the upper level and more Troopers, including Jumptroopers. I was very happy to find that a simple jolt of Force Lightning was all that was required to send them careening off on a wild path before exploding. At the end was another Wardroid, but I had plenty of things to pelt it with this time, so the battle was over swiftly.

Entering a door, the tannoy announced that I was now in the administrative offices, where I came under fire from a dropship! I ignored the Stormtroopers that I passed, since they were quickly consumed by the spaceship’s blaster fire, until I reached safety at the end of the hall. Curiously, it chose not to hang around outside the doors next to me, so when I exited again into the rain to find myself near Darth Vader’s landing pad, everything was quiet.

Obviously I’m kidding, TIE Fighters strafed me, while three AT-STs guarded Vader’s craft. By throwing the TIEs into a large tower, however, I caused it to collapse and destroy not only one of the walkers, but a contingent of Stormtroopers! Then it was a simple matter of crossing the fallen tower and finding my new power of Super Force (or something) that allowed me to just fold AT-STs like tissue paper. When two squads of Stormtroopers arrived, I just did a mass Mind Trick to convince them all to attack each other, before the rest exploded!

Moments before getting aboard Vader’s TIE Fighter, the man himself finally arrived having presumably had a nice stroll all the way back. But he was too late, as I jumped inside the craft and took off! Though Darth Vader was close enough to have used The Force to grab the starship, so I had to wonder if he had ulterior motives…

Arriving at Cato Neimoidia, I was told by the Imperial officer running things that “the Jedi” had been in the arena for seven days, apparently killing any foe sent against him. However, having arrived in Vader’s ship and lacking the proper security codes, things took a turn for the violent…