"Bye Bye Social Life"

This is the sequel to the Game of the Year of 2003, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords. Now, my expectations were very high for this game, Bioware or not. The first one in 2003 is my favorite game of all time, and I would be royally pissed if this one didn't meet my standards, but it did by a very long shot.

Story 9
Now, the story of this one is different than the first one. What I mean by different is, it has a different tone to it. It's a lot darker than the first one, and you can feel more of a sense of panic in it. You start out just waking up on Peragus, having no idea where you are. Don't worry, it's not another "amnesia" stunt. You are actually an exile, exiled from the order and lost the ability to use the force. You do a little looking around and you find an old lady by the name of Kreia, who tells you that you still have the ability to use the force. Then after escaping, you go throughout 5 different worlds to figure out what really happened to you, why you were exiled, finding the Sith Lord, helping/dooming planets on the way, and being Dark or Light or right in that little gray area. Now what's different this time around is, your companions can go on the same path you are now. You can now influence them to be dark or light. But, the keyword is influence. You have to get them to like you, or they will go in the opposite direction from you. You can also train some of them to become Jedi, you being the master. Your companion's history isn't as interesting as it was in the first one, but its good enough to keep your attention. Can get a little confusing, sometimes very confusing, but all in all it's a good story.

Sound 10
Of course, a ten on sound. Were you actually expecting less? The music is excellent, as it always is. Star Wars has always managed to shine in this and then forget about the rest. Luckily, it isn't the case with this series. The buzzing of the lightsaber is exceptionally good, blasters sound like blasters, and the music is well done. The voice acting is damn good. When they are dark, they SOUND dark, they have that evil tone. While Light Side characters you meet will sound like full of wisdom and know-it-all. Your main character does not talk also, as there are dialogue trees to choose from. But he/she will not speak a word. Sound is nothing you're going to be complaining about.

Graphics 9
I find it strange that a lot of people just can't seem to stand the graphics. I mean the cut scenes are beautiful, the robes are cool looking, dark side users have deformed looking faces, buildings look nice, I mean what else do you frigging want? There are just some people that cannot be pleased. But unless you just love to nitpick little stuff you will be happy with the graphics, trust me. The only thing that is worth complaining about is the frame rate. It can go down quite a bit when you're in one of those tough battles with a dozen or so people and you using force storm all the time, but it was also a problem in the first game. For me, that's just a little thing compared to how many bugs this game really has. I'll get to that later.

Gameplay 10
Now this is what makes these games so damn good, is the gameplay. It is sort of a real time-turn based fighting, you don't really know how or why it's so good because it's hard to put your finger on it, but it is truly addicting. Moving around seems to be handled better, as they no longer walk as if they just crapped in their pants. Force powers are easy enough to use. The difficulty level of this game is… well in my opinion easier than the first one. Not by much, but it's down there. And I think I know why. You see one thing that was cut from the last game is the level cap. You can now level up as far as you want. It isn't easy to get REALLY high, even over level 25 by the end of the game would be a challenge. But going across the 4 worlds, the creatures you will meet there will always be just as powerful if you were on level 10 or level 20 by the time you got there. Because you can go in these worlds in the order you choose. It's harder at the start, but towards the middle of the game you basically become a well oiled machine God who destroys anything that looks at you wrong without a scratch. I make it sound good of course ;) but I would still like the difficulty level to be higher, even on Hard it is still pretty easy. But still it manages to be really fun, so I still give it a ten.

Player Customization 10
Before you do anything you have to make your character. First you decide if you are to be a Jedi Consular, Jedi Sentinel, or Jedi Guardian. Consulars tend to rely on force powers, sentinels balance strength and powers, and Gaurdians on melee combat. You then can choose to be a male or female, whichever one can change things during the game. There is a load of faces for each of them, so take your pick. Some are obviously made for Dark Side characters, but it doesn't really matter. Then, you go down to skills. Skill are what can help you during the game. Examples: Security: These unlock locked doors, they unlock locked containers, and can be used to make items. Repair: you can repair droids to help you in battle. Demolitions: Set, disable, or recover mines on the field. Computer: Able to slice computers with minimum computer spikes. Persuasion: Able to persuade your companions, people, or anything to do anything you wish. Awareness: Able to notice mines on the field. Treat Injury: Able to heal yourself with minimum medipacs. Stealth: Able to hide yourself from enemies. Then, after choosing those, you choose your attributes which are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma, Wisdom, Intelligence, and a few more I can't think of at the moment. Then finally your force powers, there are a lot of these which are both Light Side and Dark Side powers. There are about 8 or 9 more added from the first one.

Replay Value 9
Well I literally played the first one 20 times over. I took all the replay value out of that game and then some. But this one doesn't seem to have that thing to make you want to play it over and over as much as that one did. Sure, you want to play it at least twice to see the different endings for Dark and Light, and maybe see it different from a male/female perspective, but after that its over. But that's not a bad thing, that's at least 60 hours gameplay which is VERY good compared to a lot of RPGs today. But comparing it to the first one, it doesn't necessarily stack up, but it still holds its own.

ATTN:THOMPSON DISK DRIVE USERS
This game, plays horribly on it. So badly it could drive you to throw the whole damn Xbox out the window, like I almost did >_> It will freeze a lot while loading, some lucky people who have Thompsons have hardly seen anything wrong, but be warned. If you use a Thompson, prepare to damage your xbox into a little scrap once you play it.

FINAL WORD (finally)
This was a great job by Obsidian, this was actually their first game and I commend them for a job well done. Not many could create a game that would be as good as the first one, but they did it. You might not get the same feeling as you did in the first one, but new people will fall in love with it, and the old vets of the game will enjoy it. I recommend you buy this game, immediately.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/04