Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

I have had the impression that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II isn't regarded as high as its predecessor. Critics didn't seem to like this sequel -- not that the first one got high scores either. Initially I thought The Force Unleashed II to be a clear improvement: visual clarity had improved and gameplay felt quicker and more responsive. But I suspected the problems would become apparent later.

The reports were greatly exaggerated

Story-wise the sequel is somewhat of a surprise, considering Starkiller appeared to have died at the end of the first game. Maybe LucasArts hadn't planned his story to continue but commercial success encouraged for a second game -- third installment was canceled, however.

Darth Vader turns out to have cloned Starkiller to continue with his scheming. Whether Starkiller is an actual clone becomes a central element for the story after Master Kota claims that Jedi cannot be cloned. I'm not sure if it was ever really resolved and if it even mattered to the assumed Starkiller anyway.

You get to choose between Light and Dark side ending after final showdown. I chose Light side: there was no way they were gonna let Starkiller strike down Darth Vader -- and my educated guess was correct. I didn't actually get to see any ending, however, because the game skipped the cinematic and proceeded straight to the end credits, leaving me to watch both endings on Youtube.

The skip was probably thanks to the modified 60-fps executable. It had caused trouble with other cinematics before: either loading an oddly long time or straight up crashing the game. QTEs in the Gorog boss fight refused to work at 60 fps as well.

Plays slightly better

Starkiller-assumed had learned to dual-wield in this game, which is cool and possibly the reason combat feels quicker -- twice as many swings. Unfortunately he's still adamant on reverse-gripping which has been thusly doubled. Attack moves do still have the same controls, which was nice.

Your sabers can have different colors but color and effect crystals are not separate in this one, possibly limiting your options. The PC version of The Force Unleashed II also has two pre-order crystals for whatever just commented out in the data files. You can re-enable them but that caused one crystal pickup make the game crash for me even though I had commented out two other crystals to appease the alleged hardcoded crystal cap. There are few other things you can add with more tinkering -- all on PC Gaming Wiki.

Camera follows smoother through Starkiller's jumping; it's not as old-school jerky anymore. It's not a huge difference but it is noticeable. QTEs against tougher common enemies are also initiated by you instead of being automatic: they no longer come unexpectedly.

I'm not sure if the first game has limb-severing -- I might not have paid enough attention -- but this one definitely has. Even stormtrooper heads can come off. That was surprising as I had thought the Jedi Knight games to be the only ones you could chop people into pieces with lightsabers. It doesn't feel quite as visceral here, though, despite the occasional flying body part.

Gameplay was undeniably improved: what The Force Unleashed II suffers from compared to the first, is shorter length, lesser variety of environments, and reuse of levels. I don't think the story or writing changed much between the games -- at least not enough to make an impression. As far as Star Wars action games go, I definitely enjoyed Jedi: Fallen Order, and even Jedi Outcast/Academy more than these two.