LucasArts was kind enough to give us a shot at Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, the sequel to the company’s most successful game. Starkiller is back as what Darth Vader informs him is a clone of the original. There’s an uncertainty in how the continuity of the original game carries over (due to the multiple endings), but it appears Starkiller is dead and gone.

The demo begins in sort of a tutorial section, with the original Starkiller’s love interest, Juno Eclipse, taking on an antagonistic form as a droid replicant. Once the arbitrary number of her accompanying soldiers bite the force-powered dust, the Starkiller clone barrels out of the window and a God of War III-style free-fall session ensues. Moving to avoid the protruding obstacles is one option to survive the escape, but several Stormtrooper-ridden balconies provide good opportunity to Force Push the baddies into the watery Kamino depths below.

The Force Unleashed II looks breathtakingly good. Running on the Xbox 360, there were essentially no graphical glitches or slowdown. Close-ups on the characters approach near photo-realism and the actual in-game visuals are close to the same level of quality. The silky-smooth on-screen action carries over to the combat to an extent, as the transitions between lightsaber strikes and force powers seem to work together a bit better than in the previous game.

Force Throw came into distinct focus as another corridor opened up, requiring a quick grab-and-throw into a nearby control panel. The forcefield deactivated, sending the canon-busting impervious electro-staff Stormtroopers to Starkiller’s blade. Force powers disabled the foe’s blocking ability and a forcefield grid became the newest obstacle.

Several varieties of Stormtrooper murder ensued as I made my way past the grids, coming to a conclusion as a door opened and a giant shielded droid appeared. Attacking this variety of boss involved some quicktime events, as in the original Force Unleashed. Unfortunately, the button presses were identical in sequence with both of the boss droids I encountered. Hopefully there’s a bit more variety and challenge in the full game.

Hands down, The Force Unleashed II looks great. The combat and movement issues (however minor) from the original title seem to have been corrected. Since the version I sampled was a mish-mash of various vertical slices from the Kamino level, it’s hard to tell whether or not the critical mission design flaws have carried over from The Force Unleashed. LucasArt’s latest (and possibly final) self-developed game is set to drop October 26, 2010.