Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

"Fixes nearly everything from the first game, even if it doesn't have an ending."

As my previous review for the first Knights of the Old Republic (also on GameFAQs) indicates, I found it fairly dull. The Sith Lords however, is very much an improvement upon the first game and fixes most of what I found wrong with the first game.

Combat is still pretty bad gameplay wise, but balance is improved to the point that everything is at least "usable", instead of only Lightsabers being of use. The AI is both better and worse at the same time. Instead of showing too much initiative and run off at distant opponents while ignoring the ones close to them, characters show too little and often need to be manually commanded to act. While the seperate AI settings are changeable at a click instead of hidden in the menus (which is nice), they don't really change anything, characters set to buff don't use buffs for instance. A temporary retreat is possible as foes no longer bite at your heels and with give up after a bit, and are of some use in a few battles, allowing the player to heal or rebuff, or at least just keep distance while you attack them with ranged weapons or offensive force powers. The areas now shuffle between "few powerful" and "many weak" enemies.

The interface has become a bit more cumbersome thanks to the additions. While the player always had to cycle a whell menu to choose a friendly targeting force power to use, it is more clumbersome because the higher level cap and many plot given powers result in further verried force power sets (that is, there is more to cycle though to find what you want). This could have easily been fixed with power specific hot keys, or using a list instead of a wheel.

Dialogue is, while no Torment, a lot better. The skill "Awareness", formerly restricted to rather uselessly spotting mines (see below) works as a "sense motives" in conversations, allowing the player to catch lies or hidden feelings. This allows the conversation to be taken in a new direction entirely or allow new insight to a character The Lawful stupid and Chaotic Stupid choices while not entirely wiped out, are drastically reduced. The "evil" options are a lot more entertaining. Some of my favorite examples are encouraging a woman to sell herself into slavery so she can be with her enslaved daughter, or convince a plague carrier to kill themselves to prevent the spread.

The players allies are much deeper, all possessing interesting personalities and interests beyond light/dark . A new influence system, where choices that agree or disagree with a character (or doing things along their lines of thinking) will gain or lose points with the character. Rewards for keeping influnce high include background information, permanent boosts to stats (Some for them, some for the player character), and for a few, ability to train them as Jedi. This system (along with non-Jedi being of reasonable power) gives the player a good reason to rotate hir party, instead of picking the same 2 characters each time. Many characters also have unique abilities that further help make them more than "solider" or "Jedi Guardian". These include sharing buffs with the main character or an improved (usable) unarmed attack.

The story is a lot nicer. The story goal in The Sith lords is more personal, find out why a group of "Sith" won't leave you alone (and for evil characters, revenge) and is much more believable than the tired "save the world". Instead of the Star Maps of the original, the player travels the planets in search of 4 hidden Jedi Masters. As the Jedi are living beings, they can be interacted with beyond "Activate it, return to the Ebon Hawk.". As they can actively hide, the methods for locating them is much more interesting than they were for the Star Maps. Also an improvident from the Star Maps of the first game is that now it feels as though you are actively looking for them, instead of stumbling upon them while investigating whatever quest you got. The villains also have more depth and are quite unique in design and gimmick.

Like the title mentions, The Sith Lords is marred by cut content, most noticeably the lack of a proper ending. The ending consists of the player character escaping the final bosses lair and the credits rolling. Beyond the final planet (were it is blatantly incomplete) this isn't blatant in the other areas so it isn't a detriment to the quality of the rest of the game.

Skills are now important to consider. Every skill (except persuade) can be used to craft powerful upgrades for items. Bashing opening locked containers instead of picking them may destroy the items inside. Awareness (see above) is important in conversation. Repair is required to obtain parts for item crafting and High mental attributes unlock new conversation options. These make it worthwhile to play a "skilled" character. Many segments where the player character is alone allow stealth to open encounters on a better footing and can be used to evesdrop on a few NPCs.

The interface is now a lot cleaner. Many items (such as party selection) now have dedicated buttons instead of being located within parts of the menu. At higher resolutions in the first game, every menu would have annoying, functionless borders, this has been fixed. Datapads you locate are now automatically read, instead of forcing you to shuffle though your massive inventory to find them. The camera has been changed a bit to feel better in indoor and outdoor areas.

The Sith Lords is a great, but unfinished, game. If you played the first game (even if you disliked it), play the second, as it improves on the first in nearly every way. If you haven't played the first game, it isn't exactly worth playing the first game to be able to get into this one.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/28/09, Updated 09/14/09

Game Release: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (US, 02/08/05)