Previews// Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

The graphics are simply stunning – easily one of the best looking games I've seen for a long time – and there's a pleasing element of puzzle-platforming that has been emphasised to complete stages

Of the enemies, there are only around 25 unique varieties in the sequel, compared to over 100 in The Force Unleashed 1. But this means that you get some unique mixes, including a brand new Carbonite Trooper that sprays icy cold gas in the area to ensnare you.

“The cool thing about the Carbonite Trooper is that if it catches you, the character turns into DMM,” explains Blackman with a glint in his eye. “When the character is in that state, the Trooper can then shatter Starkiller all over the place. It's awesome, and something we'd never have been able to achieve in The Force Unleashed 1.”

“We're still exploring the limits of DMM. We had a proprietary engine build for The Force Unleashed called Ronin, and this game's now using Ronin 2.0, with advances in lighting and streaming... we'd not have had any of these benefits if we didn't let ourselves play with the mechanics of the tech every now and then.”

Although Blackman says that every designer is asked to be willing to “lose control sometimes,” it doesn't mean that every area in The Force Unleashed II is a wide open playground. There are definitely some heavily scripted events in the first few segments of the game, so there seems to be a healthy balance of tight action-based sequences and arenas in which the player can mess around.

One might think that the playful nature of the Lucasarts team can't be extended to the actual handling of the Star Wars licence – after all, there's more than thirty years worth of universe lore in there, you can't dream about messing it up, right? “Actually, this is one of the greatest misconceptions about Star Wars that I'd love to address,” Blackman laughs, “because I had the same fear of touching the franchise when I started at the company 13 years ago.”

“Before I even started, people were warning me – even people who were working at Lucasarts – that I was going to run into so many continuity issues and have trouble making sure pieces fit together. The reality is that Lucasfilm Licensing has done such a good job over the last decade with making sure everything works for creators. We don't have to worry about that, and the company's really great about letting us create new things.”

“In fact, for The Force Unleashed we were incredibly lucky, because we decided to go for a time period that nobody else had really mined yet. We were given free reign to create new material for that space, and there were very few restrictions. I would say, from talking to those who work on other licenses with other big companies, that we have far more leeway than almost every other major licensee that I have talked to.”

That freedom includes creating new worlds and adding to existing ones – The Force Unleashed II will feature levels based on the aforementioned Kamino, the infamous Degobah and Cato Neimoidia. The latter is a planet that's only seen in Episode III for a few seconds, but within the Lucasfilm archives is a vast amount of concept artwork. In The Force Unleashed II, Lucasarts took inspiration from those concepts and added a casino. Just for the hell of it, really.

Blackman explains that the studio designs new elements of the Star Wars universe based entirely on what could be considered great gameplay. Which is refreshing, given that the priority in design for new locations is enjoying the game rather than the franchise. Raxus Prime was expanded upon in the first Force Unleashed game solely because the junkyard “would be a cool place to throw enemies about.”

But if continuity in licensing isn't a challenge for the Lucasarts team, what is? “I think the bigger challenge – which is more exciting for me – is how do we take something like Star Wars, re-imagine it and re-invent it but make it feel familiar,” Blackman said. “Whenever we made a new character, that was our mantra – 'familiar, but new.'

“It had to feel like a familiar archetype, but with a new spin. With Kota, we took Qui-Gon Jinn and sort of made the anti-Qui-Gonn. Jinn's character is very peaceful and touchy-feely, while Kota has no connection to his own emotions and is completely militant.

"When you encounter him in the second half of the game he's a drunk! There's never been a drunk Jedi before, it was awesome. He looks like a samurai and he's badass. So for us that element in design was really exciting, but when it resonates with the fans that's an even better feeling.”