"Obsidian's first game is indeed a hearty effort."

When Bioware gave the world KotOR, no one knew that they had released what may be the most important Western RPG ever. Before this, games like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, although respected by PC gamers, would never be truly appreciated by your average console gamer. KotOR was the game that made these people sit up and take notice. But then after it's release, Bioware obviously became bored with licensed games, as it left KotOR in the hands of Obsidian software to create their own Intellectual Properties.

Obsidian Entertainment is a new developer, albeit not one without experience, as Obsidian contains many of the Black Isle staff, the people who brought us classics such as Fallout, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment. With such a wide range of great titles under their belts, there was little doubt that Obsidian Entertainment would be able to make a sequel worthy enough to beat the KotOR moniker.

Gameplay: 7/10

As the same engine is used from the previous instalment of the series, the Gameplay in general has remained largely the same. For those new to the series the gameplay may be difficult to grasp at first, especially those who are more comfortable with Japanese RPGs, but the premise really is quite simple.

You begin by creating your character, this involves choosing a class, be it a Jedi Guardian (Specialises in physical attacks), a Consular (specialises in Force powers), or a Sentinel (balanced class that gains more skill points). Then assign the attribute and skill points to your character and you're good to go

The meat of the game involves the player roaming the Star Wars universe, and the control for this is very well done. You can have a party of up to 3 characters, all led by the main character, and have full control other the current party leader (which can be switched by pressing the black button on the XBOX controller. When a fight starts you can assign commands to each one via the bottom left menu (which is divided into sections such as regular attacks, force attacks, defensive force powers, items, etc.). When not in control of a party member, they will attack according to how you have set their AI script. The Auto pause feature can be used to transform the battles into a more turn-based affair, which creates a more strategic battle system.

New features to the gameplay from the previous instalment include lightsabre forms (Fighting styles that can be switched to gain bonuses/penalties to various opponents, e.g. Force users, or Blaster users). There are also many new force powers to choose from, such as Force Body (allows the user to use Health as well as Force points when using Force powers), and Force scream (A cone shaped shock wave attack), as well as new feats, such as Duel strike (Adds bonuses to attack ratings when attacking a target with another character) and Stealth Run (enables the character to run while cloaked). Finally, the level cap has been raised much higher, it's unlikely you'll get higher then 30 on your first play through, but this puts an end to the problem faced with the original KotOR, where the main character stopped gaining levels near the end of the game.

The planets in the game are bigger and more interesting then the original, and also more varied. Nar Shadaa is a futuristic cesspool city, bustling with life and home to a crime syndicate roughing up the locals. Peragus is a mining colony devoid of life and populated with druids who have a desire to mine all organic life. Onderon is a planet that is on the brink of civil war, and the capital city of Iziz shows a great unrest with the citizens, contributing to the atmosphere perfectly. Fortunately, there are no planets that are flat out boring such as Manaan from KotOR I.

You now have the ability to choose a prestige class in the game, this is much like the Jedi classes from KotOR I except the type of prestige classes you can get depend on alignment, and you have more control over when you wish to upgrade your class.

Overall I found the gameplay largely remained the same as the original, but the new features are enough to make the game fresh and different from the original, while the planets were a big improvement.

Story: 7/10

KotOR II takes place 5 years after the events of the first. You play a Jedi, who left the Mandalorian War and was severed from his connection from the force and exiled by the Jedi order. The story takes place during his return from exile, waking up in a mining facility where everyone has died, and quickly find out you are the last of the Jedi, and the Sith are bent on destroying you. As you'd expect, the story doesn't turn out to be this simple, and it's not long before your sent out searching for the last remaining Jedi Masters, in order to find out the answers to your past.

The characters in this game are really fleshed out, and the influence system plays a large part in this. Whereas most RPGs would have you not really care if you performed an action you don't agree with, KotOR II really forces you to think before you speak. For example, help a sickly man recover from an illness, and one character will congratulate you for performing a brave act, while another would chastise you for weakening yourself, on the other hand, evil characters may be impressed with acts of wanton slaughter, but trying this in front of a good character won't please them on bit. This leads to you carefully about how your actions will affect those around you. When you gain enough influence however, the fun really begins. Choose the path of the dark side, and those with high influence to you will follow, gaining the decaying facial appearances commonly associated with those who wield the dark side of the force. This works for both light side and dark side characters. A further advantage to high influence is the back-story you can gain. Some characters may be unwilling to speak to you about certain parts of their past until they feel they can trust you, and the only way to do this is by high influence.

As for the characters themselves they struck me as very deep. Every character in the game has a back-story, and all of this can be gained using the influence system above, as well as having enough points in certain skills. The most notable characters in my opinion included Kreia (a neutral aligned Jedi, who appreciates your character manipulating situations to their advantage), Atton Rand (A Han Solo style character with a dark secret) and Bao-dur (a good natured character fiercely loyal to the main character). There are 11 characters total that will join your party, and your alignment and gender will affect just who joins your part.

One major disappointing aspect for this game was that the end game felt a little rushed. Much of the content that was actually written for the end was scrapped, and replaced with something that did obviously not fit in with the rest of the game. This led to a feeling of disappointment during the final planet.

Despite the problems with the end game, the story of the game is defiantly great and the characterisation is done to a quality I have rarely seen before.

Graphics: 7/10

The graphics of the game are essentially the same as the previous title, with a glossy overcoat. The new character models for the main character are a big improvement, and are now more varied and not completely generic. The Jedi robes have undergone a major improvement, and now the robes flow behind your character as you run, making Jedi's look very nice on the battlefield. I found the textures to be improved slightly, as well as more character models added, meaning your less likely to constantly bump into the same guy four times in a matter of minutes.

Overall the game has had a noticeable increase in graphics, although it's obvious that it shares the same engine as it's predecessor from a graphical standpoint, and it would have been nice had there been more effort put into the visual appearance of the game.

Sound/Music: 10/10

As far as I can tell, there is absolutely no problem here. Obsidian Entertainment has excelled themselves here. The music maintains a distinctive Star War feel while also having it's own identity, resulting in a score of very nicely composed music. The sound effects of the game are also excellent, lightsabres, ship turrets and blaster fire all sound authentic.

I can't think of anything wrong with the music, and for this Obsidian is to be commended for a job well done in this section.

Replay: 8/10

As I mentioned before, there are four characters that rely on the players Alignment/Gender, meaning to see them all, you have to complete the game at least twice. There are also the different prestige classes to choose, and it is fun to replay through the game and then try to build a new class using a different combination of regular classes and prestige classes.

One major flaw in the replay value of the game is that the opening portion of the game is very long, and multiple play-throughs of this can get boring, which can result in becoming too bored to carry on to the main portion of the game.

Rent/Buy: As this is an RPG, I'd recommend buying this game. It merits a purchase on it's own grounds, and has enough reply value to make itself worth the asking price.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/05