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

"The Force seems a little diluted in this one, my Master..."

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (or KotOR 2, for short) is the sequel to the 2003 Game of the Year, which was developed by BioWare Corporation (famous for Dungeons & Dragons-style RPGs like Neverwinter Nights) and published by LucasArts, which has all the rights relating to the making of games based on Star Wars, among other things. Anyway, for the sequel, BioWare handed the reins (or should I say, rights of and engine for the game) to a company called Obsidian Entertainment...who are they and why was a newbie company given this nigh-impossible task? We may never know...(or until most of us bother to check the old news on it at GameSpot, I guess) Anyway, it seems they did a good job of it: it has the very same game engine that the original KotOR used (the Odyssey), so it's not too hard to get into, whether you recently played KotOR, or you haven't played it SINCE 2003 (if you haven't played it AT ALL, go rent it some time soon). Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), since Obsidian decided to stick with what BioWare set up and not make too many big leaps from the original ideas, you won't see a lot of completely new things in this sequel, asides from most of the characters and the plot, of course. Speaking of which, I should get started in the review.

Gameplay/Control: 4/5

Gameplay's as good as KotOR's was, with a few tweaks to make it somewhat more convenient. The Odyssey engine uses a version of the rules of 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons. (It's modified so it will make sense in the Star Wars universe) Once again, you don't actually control the action directly, but rather by telling the character how to interact with objects and animate objects and only actually moving the character using the control stick. Combat, unlocking doors and containers, disabling traps, and other things are once again decided mainly by the cyberspace-equivalent of dice rolls, difficulty checks, and saves that are modified by Attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma). Skills are the same as the first game (Computer Use, Demolitions, Stealth, Awareness, Persuade, Repair, Security, and Treat Injury), and rely on your Attributes. Feats allow certain equipment and weapons to be used, give bonuses to Attributes or Skills, among other things. You choose a Class that gives you bonus feats and advantages and disadvantages. You control one character at a time and can pause the game to issue a queue of commands, swap characters, or assign behaviors (A. I. Scripts that allow them to act independently) to your other characters. You equip a suit of armor, a weapon in each hand, a belt, two arm devices (mostly types of energy shields), a type of headgear, an implant, and a pair of gloves. You earn credits instead of gold. You can still play Pazaak, a cross between Blackjack, Poker, and Hearts, race swoop bikes in a drag, and operate a gun turret to shoot down attacking ships for mini-games. You use lightsabers instead of metal swords (the swords in this game are actually laced with a cortosis weave that allow them to stand up to anything, even a lightsaber). You use Force powers instead of magic, which deplete your Force Points (instead of Magic Points), like traditional RPGs. You can customize equipment to your liking. You have a lot of conversations and make a lot of choices that determine the path of a Jedi you walk, as the hero or the villain, or whether you get in a fight or manage to talk your way through to an even greater reward. You lead a rag-tag party of adventurers on a quest to save or doom the galaxy, with a lot of side-quests in between. Your alignment not only determined your appearance, whether you can use some items, and which Force powers are more suited to you, but also how the story played out. That's what made the original KotOR supreme to most other RPGs.

In short, KotOR 2's gameplay system is very similar to the first game's. However, you can equip two sets of weapons that you can swap at any time without going into the menu (which comes in handy for your A.I.-controlled partners who use ranged weapons, so you can have them automatically swap to a melee weapon if enemies get too close). You also start off as a Jedi this time and have quicker access to the Force powers than you did in the original, where you had to go through one-sixth of the game before becoming a Jedi. The starting classes are the same as the original game's Jedi classes: Guardians (who focus on lightsaber combat and traditionally have blue lightsabers), Sentinels (who focus on Force powers and normally have yellow lightsabers), and Consulars (who strike a balance between the two and often have green lightsabers). On the Normal difficulty, the game recommends Consular for experienced players, but the choice is up to you. You also can break down and create minor items (such as healing MedPacs or grenades), and equipment customization is even more deep here, as you can create the things needed for the upgrade right at the same workbench, provided you have enough components. The three main differences between this game and its predecessor is the addition of Prestige classes (a long-standing thing in most D&D games, but new to KotOR), the lightsaber and Force Forms, and the Influence system. Whether your alignment is for the Jedi or the Sith, you get three Prestige classes from which to choose from at a certain point in the game: Weapon Master, Master, or Watchman for the Jedi, and Marauder, Lord, or Assassin for the Sith. This Prestige class affects your character's further development, meaning it will affect your character's progression in Vitality Points (VP, KotOR's equivalent of HP, or Hit Points), FP, Skills, Feats, and Force Powers. You also get a new Force Power exclusive to that Prestige Class. The second major change is the lightsaber and Force Forms. These Forms are learned over the course of the game, and are applied during combat automatically (you can change which Form you are using via the D-Pad menu) to your advantage or disadvantage. For example, one Form is effective against lightsaber-wielders, but is rather useless against multiple blaster users. There are eleven Forms in total, and the seven that you learn depend on your Class and how you progress through the game. Finally, the major change is the Influence system, which determines your party members' opinion of you. Someone you have a high Influence on will probably tell you more about his/her background then someone you don't have as much Influence on. Also, once you have enough Influence on someone, they'll shift to your current alignment, so you could turn a formerly evil apprentice of a Sith Lord to the light if you play your cards right. In fact, you can actually make some of the non-Jedi in your party become Jedi, fully capable of learning the ways of the lightsaber and the Force. It gets complicated on paper, but since it's understandable, it adds a lot more to the role you have as the main character in this game, a true leader who has an influence on his pawns or teammates, however you decide to view it.

Controls are relatively simple: use the control stick to move, D-Pad to access Action Menu, L and R triggers to change targets, A to use the Action selected in the Action Menu, B to cancel, Y to cancel an action in combat (or brandish your weapon(s) when you're not in combat), X to queue up actions in combat, White to Pause, Black to Switch characters, Back to enter Solo Mode, and Start to access Menus. At times the controls are a bit unresponsive, especially immediately after combat, but it's minor and quick, and easily tolerated. Use of the rumble feature wasn't really necessary for this type of game, but I decided to use it, and I must say that it actually felt realistic. Well, of course none of us can ever really test what a dozen blaster bolts at the same time feels like, but it seemed pretty realistic for an RPG.
The only qualms I could have for the gameplay is that aside from those three major changes, there isn't a lot of new things gameplay-wise to really satisfy me. But then again, that's where the Story makes up for it…

(Genre-Specific, RPG) Story: 4/5

The game takes place at least four millennia before the rise of the Galactic Empire, but at least five years after the events of the original KotOR. Your character is a semi-amnesic veteran of the Mandalorian Wars, which took place almost 50 years before the Jedi Civil War began. In the Mandalorian Wars, you fought alongside the Jedi who eagerly, against your Masters' will, joined the Jedi Revan and Malak to join the fight against the Mandalorians, who were attacking the Galactic Republic. After returning from the final battle and the destruction of the planet Malachor V (now a dark place with jagged rocks, acidic geysers, and near a gravity well), the Jedi Council apparently (at first) cut your very connection to the Force, which explains why you seem to have so few Force powers when you start out. You became an exile. So you forsook the way of the Jedi, and some time later, you have found yourself in the medical bay of the orbital mining colony of Peragus, the major source of energy for the nearby planet Telos, which was bombarded during the Jedi Civil War and has recently started to rebuild the ecosystem on the actual surface with most of the sentient population located on a large network of atmospheric platforms forming one, large city. Shortly after awakening, you meet Kreia, a strange Force-user who claims to have no actual ties to either the light or the dark side of the Force. She aids you through the Force, however, and begins to ‘re-train' you in its ways. Later you find that she was on the same ship you were on en route to the colony, the Ebon Hawk, a smuggling vessel. Later in the colony you meet Atton, a cocky individual who was imprisoned for odd reasons. Trying to find a way to get back on the Ebon Hawk, you eventually meet your droid, T3-M3. Later on, outside the building on a platform in a space suit, you witness the docking of a Republic freighter carrying a Sith Lord. Eventually you have to fight your way through the ship to find an alternate way to the Ebon Hawk, during mentioned fight you do not meet the Sith Lord. You eventually escape the Peragus Mining Facility, which is destroyed. Upon arrival on Telos, the real story starts to unfold, a story involving the living former members of the Jedi Council, conversations that your character wasn't supposed to hear, three Sith Lords, the Sith, the Jedi, the Republic, several planets, lightsabers, blasters, and a lot of betrayal, manipulation, lies, and revelations…

This story is a lot better than the original game's, with a lot more betrayal, manipulation, and lies involved. However, unlike in the original game, you can only learn about your party member's background stories if you have a high influence on them, which should come naturally, but it seems rather inconvenient compared to the original's, traditional method where you learn more as you progress in experience. But it adds to the realism factor (after all, you wouldn't give away your whole background story just because the person who asked was a level 10, right?), so it's mildly acceptable.

Audio: 4/5

Most of the music is recycled from the original Star Wars movies (Episode IV through VI), but you won't hear any of the few excellent pieces from the new movies, but otherwise, the music is acceptable.

Sound effects are excellent. For some reason, the hum of a lightsaber being activated will never become stupid, and blaster fire sounds as natural as it should, considering that most of us have paid attention to the Star Wars universe nearly our whole lives.

Voice acting is excellent, though you'll notice that the aliens of the same race repeat the same voice clips for different things, but it's easy to ignore. It's hard to tell whether KotOR 2 has more human voice acting than the original, but suffice to say that it's enough.

Visuals: 4/5

The sequel's graphics have improved, albeit very little, over the original. The characters' lip-synching with the voices have improved a little, and emotions are easier to understand, though the game doesn't take full advantage of the X-Box's graphics capabilities, probably because the gameplay engine is so complicated. Foliage isn't as animated as beautifully as the buildings. However, lighting and special affects are top-notch, provided you don't pause too much (if you do, you'll notice that the graphics will often rush to keep up with the gameplay and sound). Subtle little touches, such as the world blurring by as you zip past in a Force Speed mode, are quite cool, too. Frame rate gets a little choppy during fights where there are lots of enemies in the area, but for the most part, it's unnoticeable. However, occasionally when opening or closing the Pause Menu, you'll notice a weird flash of a weird, red image that will quickly disappear. Maybe it's just my copy, but that was a weird glitch.

Enjoyability (Tilt)/Replayability: 5/5

It's fun while it lasts. Which is, thankfully, a decent amount of time: you can always go back to play something out as the good/bad guy, depending on how you play it. I clocked in somewhere around 40 hours when I first finished it. Plus, it's a STAR WARS game, and it's Knights of the Old Republic, and it's not half-bad. It's fun.

Overall Score: 21/25 (Roughly Equivalent to 9/10)
Star Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Grade: A

Final Verdict:

OK, so it's not as new as I would have preferred it to be. Sure it's pretty much the same old experience as the original KotOR. But the story is new, and that's worth spending roughly 40 hours just to go through, even if the ending is rather disappointing. So is it worth your time? Heck yeah. Just rent it first. Then (unless you're a diehard RPG or Star Wars fan like me, in which case, you should've bought it anyway) if you like what you play, buy it. You'd think I'd take my own philosophy, but I rarely do…oh, well.

Thus ends this excruciatingly long review. I apologize to those who brought down agony upon them for having to read this far, but felt like reading it anyway. This is just my first review, as well…

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/05