Review: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (360)

Star Wars is filled with some of the most familiarly emotive moments in mainstream cinema history: The scene when Luke first discovers his fathers true identity; the scene in which he learns that self-belief is as important a tool in using the force as is any physical training. It’s in these moments you can really see how much the series has truly impacted on our minds not only as children, but also as adults. Sure, the direction is somewhat cheesy, and the narrative decidedly cliché at times, but nevertheless serve to connect us to a world full of imagination and wonderment.

In that respect SWFU II misses the mark by some margin. While the game improves on its predecessor in many ways – the gameplay is noticeably polished beyond subtle touches here and there – the story and direction is a distinctly miss-matched affair lacking in overall focus and artistic flair. Technically, FUII does everything the first game should have done; it’s bigger, better looking, and far smoother with less in the way of bugs and glitches. However, it also cuts away some much-needed variety, with the reduction in enemies and stages making it a far shorter, less complete adventure.

Starting off, and you can see that the combat system, the basic staple of gameplay that makes up FUII is considerably polished over and above that of the first game. Animations are instantly smoother, as is the transition between lightsabre swipes and combined force plus force moves. Combos also flow into each other with much needed fluidity, and the core components which felt a little rough around the edges before, are nicely worked over into an enjoyable mix. This sequel is definitely better put together as a whole.


Starkiller, or should that be Clone Starkiller, has a much more fully-featured repertoire of moves from the get go. His force powers and lightsabre skills are noticeably varied by FUI standards. It is possible to perform force lighting, grab, and burst moves all from the start of the game. Plus combining force moves into light sabre combos is now a regular, and rather useful strategy for combat against a multitude of foes, and not just the ones immune to your electro-powered blade of doom.

Just running around hacking down strings of clueless Storm Troopers is a distinctly satisfying affair. As is blasting them with force lighting, or grabbing them before throwing them head-on into a wall, or a platoon of more unsuspecting troopers. This is now something that actually feels like it is equating to you using Jedi powers.

Or at least initially, for the opening few minutes, after which a veil of uninterrupted similarity and boredom begin to creep in. You see, while the FUII happily smoothens over the original’s rough edges, featuring more fluid combat, and the eradication of a wide range of intrusive glitches, it also fails to amount to being anything more than a polished up version of that very same game. But without the visionary storyline, or interesting plot or character developments.


So, while at first it appears that SWFUII is plenty polished over its predecessor, it soon becomes apparent (pretty early on in fact) that the vast majority of complaints raised about the first game haven’t been addressed at all. Take for example the many QTE finishers throughout the game; the closing few hits against the various enemy druids, and planetary creatures – they all end in the same way. Each particular enemy has only one type of QTE finisher, and they get old really quick.

This is made even worse by the fact that there is only a handful or more of enemy types throughout FUII, and most of these you will have seen before even getting a quarter ways through the game. Repetition then sets in even faster than it did before in the first FU. With only a familiar few foes to dispose of over and over again, the whole notion of becoming a powerful Jedi warrior soon wares off.


Warning signs were of course echoed way back in the earlier stages of development - ever since the team at Lucas Arts stated that the overall range of enemies would be dropped for this sequel there have been concerns. The team said that they wanted fewer foes in exchange for more varied combat; better AI, a wider range of enemy attacks allowing for a more tactical approach. However in reality this boil down to some enemies needing to be disposed of using only certain force powers, whilst others need slicing up with your lightsabre. It’s hardly inspiring stuff.

Outside of the basic combat, the same old frustrating platforming sections return in full force, and began to hamper enjoyment of the game very early on. In just the second stage the game starts to draw up short but equally unappealing jumping sections, whereby judging the angle and distance of your leaps can be a tiresome process. Some even require a double jump, plus dash combo, which usually results in you dashing off the edge of the platform you are supposed to be landing on.


Being a Jedi obviously requires at least some acrobatic prowess, and sections like these should be included. But not like this. You only have to look at the likes of Ninja Gaiden and Prince Of Persia to see just how such acrobatic flair should be done. Traversing the environment, running over it, leaping and bouncing with utmost grace and fluidity is a prerequisite, and not an un-used afterthought like it is here.

This is evident that this should be the case in the game’s many cut-scenes, in which the choreographed battles, although not particular exemplary, display the kinds of things we only wish we could be doing.

Despite being a little hurriedly put together, they do at least bare resemblance to the groundbreaking, but slightly stiff direction work seen in the action scenes from original trilogy. And as a whole, the game’s cinematics do succeed in feeling like a proper Star Wars production. Sadly, they also gloss over the fact that the plot is simply a overlooked rehash of what has gone before, now simply being a series of scenes and environments which cut disjointedly into one another with no coherency, or ryme or reason why such stuff is really happening.


Starkiller’s story has already been told. There’s no need for a re-treading of history. In the first game we saw how the beginnings of the Rebel Alliance was put together, but here, we are given very little tangible expansion of that story. There’s nothing here which remotely engages you like with the last game, nothing which really needed to be told. Essentially, while the original FU provided a nice interlude in between Episodes III and IV, FUII does very little convince us of its place, other than being a short episode of a Star Wars TV show – one that is there to pad things out before Luke, Han, and co arrive to set things right.

You are in effect just a clone trying to find out just who you are in the word, and as the game rolls on you are simply confronted with more questions, and even more child-like rebuttals. Surely, it would have been better to set-up the story with another rouge Jedi warrior, one that hasn’t yet been hunted down, one that could still play a key role. Instead, the story here holds no water, and we never care about Starkiller, let alone what the story is trying to do.


In that respect it is clear that with FUII the developers weren’t really aiming to tell an engrossing story, but instead try to deliver on some of the technical promises they failed on the last time around. And although they have, on some levels at least, succeeded, they have also completely forgotten to take care of some of the major design and gameplay issues which almost broke the original FU, to the point where the latter half of the game (that Star Destroyer incident) was utterly un-redeemable.

FUII isn’t anywhere near that bad, though it isn’t anywhere near as good as it should have been for a sequel. The opening stage is fairly well done, but really, that is all the game has to offer, right there. Later on things just get more repetitive, and more frustrating, with poorly implemented platform segments being broken up with overly familiar combat. The overall graphical polish is superb (good use of AA, better shaders and facial details), and the animations and combat flow far more smoothly than before. Most of the game-breaking glitches and bugs have also been dealt with.


However, despite this as the story draws to a close, and the inevitable final encounter looms, you can’t help but feel that things should have dramatically moved on. Instead, what we are left with is a technically impressive reminder of what the first game could have been, but chopped up, cut down, and delivered with a distinct lack of focus, or narrative care and attention. Combat is fun for a while, and being a Jedi is pretty cool for the most part, but the small and samey nature of the overall experience quickly breeds in boredom.

The Force Unleashed II could have been a thrilling, excitingly fun, and solidly diversive experience in its usage of the Euphoria engine, and cool Star Wars setting. Unfortunately, it is just a glorified tech demo, with some mildly enjoyable gameplay tacked on the end of it, lacking in focus and outstaying its welcome all too soon. It’s such a shame, as the franchise still has so much unused potential. Although we are unlikely to see that now.

VERDICT: 6/10

Tech Analysis: Star Wars Force Unleashed II Demo (PS3 vs 360)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II has already impressed us with its custom anti-aliasing solution. On Friday we took a look at the title’s use of DLAA and how it impacts on the overall image quality present in the game, focusing on the 360 demo and analysing some direct-feed pre-release screenshots for our report. Since then I’ve had a chance to get a hold of both demos (PS3 and 360), and I have to say the results are pretty impressive.

Interesting to say the least, is that SWFU II is the first game that we know of that actively uses a custom method of anti-aliasing across all platforms, whilst also taking the time to implement PS3 specific adaptations of certain visual effects (notion blur and shader effects), which result in tangible improvements to the Sony version of the game. Some of these differences are indeed subtle, and the 360 version gets its own plus points too. However SWFU II also manages to look and perform almost identically across both formats, being far closer than anyone first expected.


Just to recap, we can see that SWFU II is using the custom DLAA technique for edge smoothing on both platforms. The results are clearly apparent in the screenshots on this page. Pretty much most of the game’s jagged lines are taken care of, being smoothed over in a way that is far superior than that of traditional MSAA solutions. The look is undoubtedly similar to Santa Monica Studio’s implementation of MLAA in God Of War 3, although not quite as clean and artifact free.

Initially the use of DLAA gives the game a somewhat soft, almost sub-HD appearance. However, when zoomed in we can see that the edge steps on each pixel are the same, and it is apparent that despite the blur, SWFU II is indeed rendering in 720p on both formats.

The dark, low contrast nature of the demo means that the edge smoothing is never properly stress tested, and that nearly all offending edges are handled with relative ease. In terms of artifacting caused by how the AA works, we can still see it clearly when there is fast motion occurring on screen, and in particular when the use of motion blur is in effect. (see below)

It will be interesting to see how well the AA copes with edges in high-contrast scenes, and how much greater the extent of the artifacting will be in the final game. Although, the quality on offer here in the demo, and in the pre-release screens is still pretty impressive to say the least. The soft, but smooth look reveals a level of image quality absent in many multiplatform titles today.


Above we can see both the effect of the game’s DLAA solution in fast moving sequences, and when combined with an advanced implementation of motion blur. The use of blur clearly makes some low res artifacting stand out – a consequence of the way DLAA is implemented, but at the same time doesn’t affect IQ too much, and is mostly only subtly negative to the image.

Whilst both versions of the game feature heavy use of motion blur, it is the PS3 build which benefits from having a more refined, higher precision version of the effect. Initially it looks like the blur has been paired back slightly on the PS3. However, when looking a little closer, you can actually see that the blur preserves more detail when compared to its implementation on the 360.

The reason for this difference is that for the PS3 build the developers at Lucas Arts are actually running the effect over several of the CELL processor’s SPU’s, benefiting from the advantages of heavy parallelism and the results that it provides. By contrast the effect is being done on the GPU in the 360 game, with less overall processing being available to maintain such high levels of precision.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen such an effect benefit from using the PS3’s SPU’s. Uncharted 2 did a similar thing with its motion blur effect, spreading the processing load over five SPU’s to better maximise overall performance, and to obtain greater precision.


Other than running the motion blur algorithm on the PS3’s CELL processor, there’s little else in the game that benefits from such specialised offloading of graphics tasks, although, without speaking to the developers directly we can’t know for sure.

There are however, other rendering differences between the two versions of the game. During cut-scenes it is apparent that the 360 build gains a slight edge, having slightly more detailed textures on parts of the characters - possibly slightly higher-res in nature, and slightly better surface shaders.

Looking at the cut-scenes for instance, Starkiller obviously features more detailed wrinkles on his face on the 360 – a result of some higher-res texturing, and better normal map blending. In particular his face has moving creases absent from the PS3 build, due to the 360 version having additional normal maps being blended together to create this effect.

This seems to be more down to a memory bandwidth issue on PS3 than anything else, as more intricate details are only visible in the cut-scenes and not during actual gameplay. The use of additional normal maps can eat into available texture memory, which appears to be the cause here.

There is an unexplained oddity however. Lightsabres appear to have a slightly fatter appearance on the PS3, compared to a skinnier look on 360. It looks like the glow effect on the PS3 is benefiting from additional shaders, and possibly texture changes. Quite why though, I’m not too sure. But the effect is noticeable during both gameplay and cut-scenes, and can be seen in the screenshot above.



For the most part, during gameplay things generally look like-for-like across both platforms, with almost equal amounts of texturing, shaders, and lighting. Occasional things are still subtly noticeable, like what looks like better specular effects on certain parts of the PS3 game, although this is more down to rendering differences than any specific advantages cross platform. Sometimes these things may look ever so slightly different, but one version certainly isn’t better than the other.

Still, texture detail in both versions itself isn’t all that great, sometimes being lower-res in nature, though this is nicely offset by plentiful use of normal mapping. Most surfaces in the game feature this effect, and it really helps to convey a sense of more detail in the overall image. It’s clear that the developers are simply balancing out memory cost issues of rendering an array of shaders and post process effects by using lower-res textures and plenty of normal maps, in creating a detailed look to the whole scene.


One thing that does stand out though, whilst looking pretty cool, is the lighting: it’s reasonably accomplished and sees plenty of scope throughout this opening level. Your force powers in particular cast light on surrounding surfaces, along with being reflected. Plus the entire environment is full of real-time light sources, which work well in this dark and stormy scene. Some of these are dynamic in nature, whilst others appear pre-baked using traditional shadow maps.

Strangely it looks like your light sabre is only reflected in the environment, although the light given off is not. In one particular area your lightsabre is reflected on both the floor and surrounding wall, but no real-time lighting is present with its use. This appears to be mainly confined to indoor areas of the game.

Complementing the blend of real-time lighting and baked shadowing, SWFU2 throws in SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion) into the mix, bringing a greater sense of depth to the scene. Its implementation is both clean and virtually artifact free.

The look of the rain itself is also pretty impressive, engulfing the scene and creating a dark and forboding atmosphere remanicient of that from near the end of Episode III – where Anakin Skywalker makes the transformation from Dark Jedi to Darth Vader. However from a tech point of view it is relatively simple. The rain is essentially created by using a series of moving texture maps, which are arranged into basic, randomly occuring strips, with alpha coverage for transparency. It is convincing without demanding much in the way of rendering time.


So while much of the game is basically like for like, arguably reaching parity, and with the PS3 version seeing some small rendering benefits through custom use of the CELL processor’s SPU’s, it is the 360 game which commands a small lead in terms of performance.

SWFU2 basically runs at a maximum of 30fps for most of the time, dropping framerate when the engine comes under stress, and losing v-sync in order to preserve overall smoothness. Both versions only suffer from small, sometimes barely noticeable drops in framerate, although it is the 360 build which fares a little better.

The PS3 demo drops from its targeted 30fps slightly more often than the 360 one, tearing more frames as the engine attempts to keep up with rendering the next frame. Most of the time the worst bouts of tearing will often occur in quiet, enclosed indoor spaces in which there is little going on (on both formats) – moving and turning the camera is the main culprit here. Whereas on the 360 things are a little more stable, with less small drops occurring, and noticeably less tearing, regardless of situation.

In any case both versions exhibit mild screen tearing and drops in framerate, although it is the 360 build which remains the most consistent, with little to no noticeable drops in framerate throughout. That said putting things into perspective, when concentrating on playing the game these differences don’t exactly come to the forefront of the experience. Screen tearing in particular is often barely visible during the dark, low contrast outside scenes, and appears briefly for only a split second or so, and the drops in framerate can often be so small as to go unnoticed.

In the end neither version really deviates that far from maintaining a solid 30fps, with the 360 having a small, but still visible advantage in this area, and with having subtler, less noticeable levels of screen tearing – usually next to none during outside gameplay scenes. However, both versions are more than acceptable in this regard, and the slight issues present don’t take away anything from either game, meaning that both demos generally perform well.


After our initial look at the game on last Friday, it is apparent that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is way ahead of the first game – it looks far, far better for sure, and overall performance across both formats is a distinctly more closely matched affair. The use of DLAA on both versions, and the higher precision motion blur on the PS3 is most impressive, delivering a smooth, albeit soft look to the proceedings.

While it is indeed too early to tell how well the AA will fare in the final game, in which high contrast areas could have a detrimental affect on image quality, with larger amounts of visible artifacting, and lesser levels of successful edge smoothing, the demo nonetheless is a promising starting point.

Visually the rest of the game’s graphical make up is well balanced, mildly playing to the strengths of each format without breaking overall parity, and showcasing to developers that the PS3 needn’t be on the receiving end of another sub-par port. Although, this is just the demo. And in the confines of small spaces, and given the lack of any real scene-busting action, the finished product may different significantly, especially with regards to performance.

That said however, things are indeed looking good, and the game’s blend of DLAA, motion blur, and a range of nicely integrated shader effects sure makes for an interesting concoction. But I guess we’ll have to wait until the finished game to find out the final results. If we get suitable screenshots (I'm definitely going to have access to both games, guaranteed), then look out for a follow-up report.

Thanks go out to Dominic Eskofier and the team at Cynamite.de for the screens. The full gallery of uncompressed shots can be found here.

Tech Report: DLAA Used In SW:Force Unleashed II

Nowadays it seems like everyone is experimenting with various forms of anti-aliasing. Titles such as MGS4, DMC4, and Halo Reach use a form of temporal AA - edge smoothing which works by blending two frames together to eliminate jaggies, whilst others like God Of War 3 and Little Big Planet 2 use morpthalogical AA, a method that works on depth buffers and individual pixels in each frame resulting in up to 16xMSAA on some surfaces, and 4x on most. Now LucasArts are joining the club with their latest Star Wars action game.

In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, the developers are using something called Directionally Localized Anti-Aliasing (DLAA), which looks to be similar to MLAA in its effects and implementation, though it appears to work on a directional, positional type basis (possibly multiple frame) leading to some undesirable artefacts in motion.

The tech is undeniably impressive, and the 360 demo showcases what looks like being the most accomplished form of AA on the platform so far, regardless of a few noticeable shortcomings.

The screenshots below (thanks IGN) show the DLAA working under somewhat ideal conditions, with very little in the way of inconsistant, fast-paced movement present in the scene. Notice how clean looking the entire image is. There’s very little, to no aliasing at all, and even smaller pixels get smoothened over successfully.



Unfortunitely, due to the way this form of AA seems to work, in scenes with quick camera pans, and fast moving objects there is noticeable artifacting. This also seems to be the case when directionality and positioning of the light sources in the scene change in accordance with the action. When this happens not all surfaces get AA, with some missing out on edge smoothing almost entirely.

The artifacting caused by the AA in these screens is also joined by other undesired side effects from the game’s use of motion blur, which tends to accentuate the overall amount of artifacting in the scene. However, it is also hard to tell whether it is just the AA causing problems, the motion blur, or a combination of both.

You can see this below:




Either way the use of DLAA in SWFU2 is very impressive, though not faultless, and has a very similar effect to MLAA with regards to edge smoothing. It’s not quite as polished, or a beautifully clean as MLAA however, although it does provide a workable alternative to traditional 2x and 4xMSAA at a lesser cost.

A high quality implementation of SSAO is also visible in the screenshots, and in the actual demo. There’s minimal artifacting, and a nice amount of additional depth.

And another thing. Despite being released by the press, these screens certainly are not bullshots - the demo available on the Xbox Live looks exactly the same. SWFU2 renders in 1280x720p on the 360 at least, with DLAA providing the high quality edge smoothing on offer here.

This is the first time that any developer has attempted this type of AA on the Xbox 360, and the results are very impressive, and the outlook positively optimistic. The use of alternative, less memory intensive forms of edge smoothing could easily have a beneficial effect on use of the 360’s EDRAM for other rendering tasks, freeing it up for developers to use on improving other graphical areas in the pipeline, pushing the boundaries of the hardware further than initially thought possible. But until then, this is a firm shift in the right direction.

DLAA is also being used in the PS3 build of the game (implemented on the SPU’s) and on the PC (on the GPU), although we haven’t had a chance to try either version out. But I imagine that overall image quality should be the same, assuming identical rendering resolutions and alpha buffers for effects.

Thanks go out to AlStrong for counting those pixels, and IGN for the screens.