[2] Players control a clone of Starkiller, the first game's protagonist and Darth Vader's secret apprentice who sacrificed himself after helping to form the Rebel Alliance.

Production for The Force Unleashed II transpired over an approximate period of nine months; while it possesses some similarities to the previous game, producers modified several aspects such as the sound effects and gameplay.

A sequel, entitled Star Wars: The Force Unleashed III, was planned, but it was ultimately scrapped following Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012 and LucasArts's closure in 2013.

Like the original Force Unleashed, experience points earned by killing enemies and finding artifacts can be used to increase Starkiller's powers and traits.

[6] According to lead producer Vinde Kudirka, the goal of the game across all platforms is to make the player feel like "a super-powerful Jedi".

Starkiller fights his way through the Imperial forces to reach Kota, where Tarko unleashes a gargantuan beast, the Gorog, to kill both men.

Declining, Starkiller drops Kota off at the nearest spaceport and travels to Dagobah, where he meets Jedi Grand Master Yoda and enters a cave that is strong with the Dark Side.

The original Starkiller's training droid PROXY reveals that experimental Imperial forces led by Fett have infiltrated the ship and captured Juno.

[d] Enraged, Starkiller unleashes the full extent of his powers to defeat Vader, subduing him with force lightning[e] just as Kota and his men arrive.

Vader tries to goad Starkiller into killing him, but Kota reasons that they need him alive to reveal the Empire's secrets before he can be placed on trial and executed.

Darth Vader's trusted apprentice, the dark Starkiller clone, arrives on Endor with special orders to eliminate the Alliance's remaining leaders.

Slaughtering numerous Ewoks and Rebel soldiers in his path, he arrives at the shield generator protecting the Death Star, where he kills Han Solo and Chewbacca.

The dark apprentice then confronts Princess Leia Organa, who has been training as a Jedi after her brother Luke Skywalker's death on Hoth to fulfill his failed destiny of restoring balance to the Force.

In crafting the dialogue of The Force Unleashed II, Blackman sought influence from Darksiders (2010), as well as other video games such as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) and Heavy Rain (2010).

"With The Force Unleashed II, remarked Blackman, "because we’d already established this notion of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, really it was just sitting down with licensing and saying ‘this is what we want to do’ and getting a few pieces of feedback from them.

[20] Like The Force Unleashed, the game integrates three third-party technologies: Havok for varying types of body physics such as ragdoll animation, NaturalMotion's Euphoria for realistic non-player character artificial intelligence, and Digital Molecular Matter for dynamic destructible objects.

[4] LucasArts acknowledged players' frustration with the first game's targeting system, and worked to revise it in the sequel;[6] Blackman said fixing the Force grip feature was the developers' top priority.

[27] "There are many different ways to integrate our audio assets including scripting or placing sound emitters directly inside environment art and our work was unfortunately blown out many times," he stated.

[27] As production neared its conclusion, Tibbets created an emailing system with a group of engineers that would notify them after audio reference was edited.

To familiarize himself with the process, Andreev observed various 120 Hz television sets that incorporated two frames in producing an intermediate image, resulting in a smoother and clearer picture.

[28] Interpolating the graphics in 30FPS was opted due to the large variety of rendering technologies that were practical to developers, as well as a less stringent time schedule.

[59] Alexander Sliwinski of Joystiq derided it as a "desperate cash grab", which had no intentions of aspiring to be a "major part of lore or to be nearly as epic" as The Force Unleashed.

[60] "It simply cobbles together glorified fan fiction for what amounts to an unexceptional subplot as it abruptly ends in the second act screaming, 'SEQUEL GOES HERE'," remarked Sliwinski.

[60] Despite proclaiming that The Force Unleashed II had "dazzling" gameplay, The Washington Times' journalist Joseph Szadkowski concluded that it was "one of the most underachieving games of the year".

[61] In his 6.5 out of 10 rating review, Anthony Gallegos of IGN stated that The Force Unleashed II immediately captivates the audience with its visuals, albeit being plagued with repetitious gameplay, a "shoe-horned in story", and a nonexistent depth "in the experience".

[34] GamePro's Mitch Dyer and Matthew Keast of GamesRadar highlighted the game's variety of lightsaber crystals and their ability to boost Starkiller's powers.

[36][42] Keast observed that LucasArts seemed to take player feedback from the first game seriously, and made numerous subtle improvements for the sequel.

[34] GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd called the final battle repetitive, and that the game's end sequence erases the story's dramatic tension.

[36] The downloadable content was poorly received by Luke Plunkett of Kotaku, who criticized the murder of Han Solo and Chewbacca depicted in the expansion.

[39] Sam Witwer and Haden Blackman stated during an interview in February 2013 that Lucasfilm was considering the development of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed III for the next generation video game consoles PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Wii U.