The Force Unleashed II continues the story of Starkiller, despite the fact that he was killed in the first game. Darth Vader, upset that his apprentice did not finish the job of helping him to take over the universe, decides to clone him and leave him on a distant world. With very little memory of his former life, he must fight back against the Dark Lord and find his past love Juno Eclipse (who was a pilot in the first game).
The new adventure is an onslaught of action with wave after wave of enemies that Starkiller has to destroy. There is more variety in this one, giving you many more enemies to take down with your force powers, but the constant fighting will leave some players bored with little in between. This makes the game considerably shorter than the first one, almost to the point of being too short for experienced players.
In 1986, Disney was very interested in a ride where they could use a military simulator, often used for pilot training, to create an attraction in which visitors would literally ride through scenes from a film. Initially, the movie was to be Black Hole and it would follow the journey of the Cygnus through the vortex. While it sounded exciting on paper, the cost and the fact that the film had limited popularity made it very impractical. But Imagineering didn’t forget about the idea.
At that time, George Lucas had started a relationship with Disney while producing Captain EO, a 3D space adventure with Michael Jackson. Audiences would sit in a theatre and a 3D film would be shown along with real world special effects. The attraction proved quite popular and ran for many years, even making a comeback after Michael’s death.
His involvement in that project gave the designers an idea. With the wildly popular Star Wars as a backdrop, they could create an awesome and crowd pleasing ride that would span generations. Lucas agreed and Disney would create it’s first attraction based on a movie that wasn’t owned by the mouse.
The story of the ride in a nutshell is that you are a tourist who wants to vacation on the beautiful planet of Endor, to join in the celebration with the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi. Unfortunately, the pilot of the Star Speeder 3000 gets a little confused and thus your trip takes an unexpected turn.
Instead, you overshoot the planet into a comet cluster, escape and destroy a Star Destroyer with the help of the rebel alliance and finally join in on the Death Star battle at the end of New Hope. Sounds exciting, eh?
Well unfortunately, this version of the experience can only be had at the Tokyo and Paris parks, but don’t get too upset. For in the US, the rides are being refitted for an even more exciting attraction. Star Tours II: The Adventure Continues was introduced last year and will feature an upgraded motion simulator, a new HiDef 3D film, and more special effects. Details of the story are sketchy, but previews have shown flyovers of Coruscant and the pod racing scene from Phantom Menace. The tale is set somewhere between Star Wars III and IV.
And despite his hatred for space travel, we are promised that C3PO will somehow have to take over piloting duties of the Star Speeder 1000, after Ace, the original pilot blows a fuse or something. Disney fans will no doubt miss Rex, the original robotic pilot, played by Pee Wee Herman, but they say that he will find a place somewhere in the ride.
Returning will be Darth Vader (James Earl Jones), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) and of course, Anthony Daniels as our favorite gold robot. C3PO will be featured as a full audio-animatronic, just as he was in the original show.
The new adventure is scheduled to be opened Summer of 2011 assuming no delays.
