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

"An awesome game that you've already played."

2004: The year of the sequels.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (whew… long name) was probably the last game of the year to solidify that statement, and it does so perfectly. Nothing so blatantly shouts “Sequel!” like Sith Lords does. It's almost a little insulting. In the midst of a string of games like Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Burnout 3 (among many other big-name sequels that came out around that time) that actually added something to the formula that their predecessors came up with, Sith Lords comes along and does absolutely nothing new. It's certainly always a tremendous task to create a sequel to one of the most beloved games of all time, and while I definitely won't say Sith Lords is bad, I can't give it full credit.

Maybe it's because the original KOTOR is among the greatest RPG's of all time – it's one of my favorite games, and certainly one of the generation's best. Maybe it's because the project was handed from the RPG vets at BioWare to some developer I'd never even heard of before Sith Lords came along (it's Obsidian, by the way). Or maybe it was because the developers pushed for a release less than a year and a half after the first KOTOR – and this is a massive game, by the way. I think it's a sum of all three of those parts. Obsidian, who is essentially a bit of a rookie, did not have enough time to polish the game out or even create anything particularly new, so instead, they opted for a sequel that retains the original's fantastic gameplay, but without the shock factor, originality, or perfect pacing. Unfortunately, the interface problems, cruddy graphics and numerous bugs are all intact. This is the definition of “rushed sequel.”

I mean, even the menus are identical. Sheesh.

Let's just try to put that aside for a moment. This is a review and I must get the story out of the way. Really, this is a category I was looking forward to. The original KOTOR's story was excellent, thanks to the “big twist” in the middle (which, by the way, beats the hell out of Aeris getting killed). So Sith Lords had a lot to live up to. Assuming you have a general idea of everything that happened in KOTOR, Sith Lords starts at what seems like several years after the first game's ending. The galaxy is recovering from the Mandalorian Wars, which were just touched upon in KOTOR. All of the Jedi having seemingly been wiped out, save for one – you. The Sith now raid the galaxy in search of you. When you boot up the game, you'll take control of a familiar face (T3-M4, the utility droid from the first game) in a familiar ship (you guessed it, the Ebon Hawk). In an informative but somewhat unnecessary intro sequence, you've got to repair the ship from a Sith attack and dock it.

Once you finally take control of your character (which, by the way, you'll create from the ground up), you'll discover that you've spent quite some time healing in a kolto tank after the attack. You're on the remote mining facility of Peragus, which has suffered from some sort of disaster and has been seemingly abandoned, save for a mysterious old woman named Kreia. Though you're supposedly the last of the Jedi, Kreia is obviously very wise and possesses very Jedi-like qualities. Together, you must search for survivors, find a way off of the doomed facility, and from there find a way to fight the Sith forces that now crowd the galaxy… Or rise to the peak of the Sith empire, if that is your goal.

Although there's much more to the story than just what I've described here, I don't want to spoil it because it's really worth experience for yourself. Although the basic setup eventually becomes very simple (it's really just another “go here and collect this” mission – you'll understand), it's extremely complex provided you're willing to delve deep into what's available. What I found particularly intriguing was the main character. Your character actually has a large history and back-story. Apparently, you were once a part of the Jedi Order, but you fell to the Dark Side and joined Revan and Malak in the war, and therefore the Jedi Council banished you from the Order. It's very detailed and very complex. And while there are no twists on the scale of the original's first encounter with Malak (honestly, that was the first time my jaw literally dropped while I was playing a game), the story takes some surprising turns that will entertain you all the way through.

In truth, the main character is the star of this game, but that should come as nothing new to you. BioWare, in its console RPG's (i.e., the first KOTOR and then Jade Empire, later), has been putting an emphasis on character customization, and namely the concept that the character you're using is a representation of you. Obsidian has continued that trend here. Whenever you are engaged in a conversation with someone, you are given a selection of responses to what the other character just said. Some responses are polite and generous, while others are mean, twisted and evil. Some responses lead to help and peace, while others lead to violence and death. Through your voice and actions, you will rise to the Light Side, fall to the Dark Side, or (if you want to play through a really boring game) lie in between on a neutral path.

I have played through several games (including the original KOTOR, Jade Empire, and Fable – all curiously on Xbox) that give the player a choice between good and bad, and I can say with some backup that no game does it as well as Sith Lords. There's certainly a very distinct difference between the two sides of the Force. Light Side players will have to play nice – you'll be given money, helping others, and just genuinely being a hero. Dark Siders will be far more cruel, as they will be stealing, threatening, cheating, and killing to make things easier. And while the Dark Side path can be more profitable and action-packed, you'd be surprised how difficult it can sometimes become to commit so many cruel acts, usually on innocents. That is why every player should beat Sith Lords twice, each time with a different alignment. The story goes in such different directions that the two play-throughs will be drastically different. After I beat Sith Lords for the first time, I immediately – without even putting the controller down – started a new game.

That said, it's really not all that different from KOTOR at all. In fact, the two games are, as far as presentation goes, practically identical. Sith Lords is a carbon copy of its predecessor, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because the first game is one of the greatest of all time. It's also not a very good thing. The moment I booted up Sith Lords, I was already unimpressed. This is it? This is the sequel? I was disappointed, because I was hoping for a jump ahead. Instead, all I got was what felt like an expansion of the original game. Even the graphics (a low point of the first game) had not changed – while the character models are okay, the animation is jerky, the textures are blurry, the framerate is atrocious, the load times are long, and the cutscenes are sometimes jagged and glitchy.

Sith Lords does take some time to get into. The first few hours of the game really drag, as they are spent wandering around the abandoned Peragus mining facility, without many of the character interactions and such that helped to make the first game so great. Once you finally get off of Peragus, the game picks up, as you're taken to the planet of Telos. Once I got to Telos I was finally hooked. You'll land at Citadel Station, an urban region with loads of side quests and opportunities to earn money and experience. It was at this point that the game really took off and you're able to appreciate it for what it is. At the very least, your character has Jedi powers from the get-go (as opposed to the first game, in which you didn't become a Jedi until at least ten hours in). However, you still won't get your hands on a lightsaber for quite a while, so don't get too excited.

In general, though, after you actually get off of the Peragus bore factory and into the real game, the pacing is quite good. You'll spend quite a fair amount of time on various parts of Telos before you're finally able to roam the galaxy at your own free will. This is after you receive your “mission” which I won't spoil as it concerns some minor spoilers. Needless to say, as with the original, Sith Lords then provides you with four different planets, each of which contains a “piece” of what you're looking for. And, again like the first game, you can complete them in any order you like. While all of the planets were enjoyable to explore, I thought the section on Korriban (an area from the first game) felt short and extremely rushed. On the other hand, Nar Shadaa was one of the high points of the adventure (I just like those “big city” environments), and the final section of Onderon was thrilling and a lot of fun.

The KOTOR system is one of the most flexible RPG systems around. Every time a character levels up, you can go through a step-by-step process that allows you to manually upgrade all the character's attributes, skills, feats, and Force powers to your liking. This means you have complete control of how exactly your characters develop. Since you can only have three characters in your party at once, you've got to balance out your party members' abilities perfectly so you're ready for any situation. Since my main character is the one doing the talking, I made sure he had a high “persuade” ability so I could easily manipulate others (it's evil, I know). I main character also had a high “treat injury,” so he was the one healing others. My stealth specialist, Atton, also had specialties in demolitions and awareness, so he could spot mines and recover them. Finally, I had a tech specialist by the name of Bao-Dur, who had high computer, security, and repair abilities. It all worked out perfectly.

The idea here is that when you're faced with a situation that calls for some critical thinking, you're given several options and can simply do whatever you feel like doing at the time. Every result will usually give you experience points, so that's not the problem. You've simply got to decide the best course of action. Let's say that you've got to get into a facility that's covered with armed guards who will shoot you on sight. If you've leveled up your characters to have good combat skills, you can run in and wipe them all, but let's take a step back and look at some other options. You could hack into a nearby computer, access the remote camera controls, and find a way to, say, overload a terminal and electrocute a room full of guards. You can find a set of broken droids and have your repair guy fix them up into battle condition to do the killing for you. Or you could get tricky by using your stealth ability to sneak around and place mines everywhere as traps for the guards. You do what you want in KOTOR games.

The battle system is still amazingly flexible in that it gives you so many options and ways of taking down your foes. Again, it's all about choices. Since you've got three characters in your party at once, it's good to make sure that those three characters are varied in what they specialize in when it comes to battles. It's usually good to have two characters that specialize in physical combat – that way they can get up close and personal with their enemies. Then, you should have one ranged fighter for support. You can only control one character at a time, but you can pause at any time and input up to four actions for each of your characters. AI scripts can now be switched on the fly, so you can quickly assign the AI to different traits, whether it be aggressive, ranged, stationary, Jedi support, or grenadier. Positioning and order of attacks are all important, and even the smallest battles can take a hell of a lot of strategy. It works almost exactly like it did in the first KOTOR, which means that while it's still great, it's also got a lot of the same bugs (deleted inputs, AI pathfinding issues, etc.).

One new element that Sith Lords adds is the influence system. When you make a decision in front of one of your party members that they agree or disagree with, you will gain or lose influence with that character, respectively. Some characters respect cruelty towards the people you deal with, while others prefer charity and generosity. Influence on characters can be gained by talking to them or performing good or bad deeds in front of them. The more influence you have on a character, the more they support you and follow your path. What's more is that high influence with a character can unlock certain conversational branches that will allow you to learn more about that character. By doing this, you'll get a surprising number of results. Some characters can even be taught to become Jedi through careful wording and a lot of trust. Getting to know your characters makes them seem amazingly human, and some of the game's most memorable moments come in the form of text – I had a long conversation with Atton on Nar Shadaa that I swear I will never forget.

The characters themselves are actually much more balanced this time around than the original KOTOR set. Whereas there were plenty of characters in the first game that – face it – you never used, every Sith Lords character can be useful if you're willing to spend enough time to develop their abilities and gain influence. As I said, just about every human (or humanoid) character in the game can become a Jedi if you talk with them enough and gain influence, while all of the droid characters can provide tech support and can even fire a good blaster shot. To make things better, I actually liked the characters in this game. The original cast was filled with dorks like Carth and Mission that almost made the quest feel like a Star Wars nerd's homemade play-voyage, the cast of Sith Lords is full of interesting characters that you'll grow to like. Fan favorites T3-M4 and HK-47 make a return and are just as hilarious as they ever were.

What follows is an adventure that becomes fun eventually and stays fun until about thirty-five hours in. This is where I really started to get the feeling that they rushed through the game, especially when the project was coming to a close. After you've been to the four planets and done what you have to do, the game takes a turn for the worse. The last few hours of the game are extremely anticlimactic and headache-inducing with not much thought or creativity pumped into the level design. The game's final area is boring and tedious. The final boss is not very difficult. The endings (one for each alignment to the Force) last about ten seconds each and positively suck. It's as if Obsidian had a great fifty-hour game planned out but then had to shorten it to forty hours when they realized they had a deadline to make. I was supremely disappointed with the way this worked out in the end.

One of my problems with the game's final hours is that the game's two central villains have had no time to build themselves up as evil, detestable, unlikable baddies before that time. Darth Sion is the one that gets more screen time, and even then, we only really get a glimpse of him once early on in the game before he disappears for thirty hours. I must admit that the final battle with him was pretty cool, but needless to say, what's so bad about him, other than the fact that he's hideous? (Seriously, why do all Star Wars villains have deformed faces?) The other main villain is Darth Nihilus, who has much potential as a bad guy since he doesn't talk, wears a freaky mask, and has the ability to devour all the life on an entire planet. You won't even meet him until it's time to face him, and you won't even see him before then, save for a cutscene that (depending on how you play) you may or may not even unlock. At least with Malak, I had reason to get him – he destroyed an entire planet just to kill me! After I come all this way, it'd be more fun to kill these guys if I actually had more motivation to do so.

At the very least, Sith Lords will last you a very, very long time. I'm personally glad that Sith Lords doesn't go on for too long – the average completion time will probably be around thirty-five to forty hours – though the last segment of the game certainly could have used some more development, as there's little reward and a lot of very blatant buildup for KOTOR III (which, in a way, makes me happy). All of the mini-games from the first one return, so expect to be spending a lot of time playing the card game of pazaak and racing around tracks in a swoop bike. There are also an insane number of side quests. Finally, the game puts a strong barrier between Light Side and Dark Side, and any fan of Sith Lords will want to play through the game at least twice… And even then, I doubt you'd have seen everything there is to see.

Pros

+ It's a lot like the first KOTOR (which was awesome).
+ Still immeasurably deep and flexible for any play style.
+ New “influence” system adds to character interaction.
+ Story is detailed and provides much enjoyment to follow.
+ The choice of Light/Dark Side leaves you with two distinct adventures.
+ Battles system is flowing with possibilities.
+ An enormous quest with many memorable moments.
+ Great voice acting, authentic sound effects and a sweeping score.

Cons

- It's identical to the first game.
- The graphics are still unpleasant and glitch-ridden.
- Buggy interface, pathfinding issues.
- The first portion of the game drags…
- …While the last few hours feels rushed.
- No development on the villains' part.

Overall: 8/10

I liked Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords a lot. In fact, there were times when I positively adored it. And then again, there were also times when I hated the fact that the game felt rushed, buggy, and incomplete. At the very least, Obsidian did their best to improve interactions with party members to at least give the game something new, and it worked in that regard. Sith Lords is without question a game that I can recommend to any fan of the first KOTOR provided they can deal with the fact that nothing had really changed. This means that while the game still retains the amazing amount of depth and customization that made the first game so great, it's also preserving many of the first game's minor flaws and making them more obvious (such as the unfortunate graphics and numerous bugs). I wouldn't recommend it over the first game, but if you've completed KOTOR, you'll get a lot of entertainment out of this sequel.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/05