Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - Sith Lords (PC)

Initial gameplay expectations were somewhat blunted. Whilst the plot expanded itself in the typical RPG-fashion (stepped encounters, whilst gameplay is explained and the player familiarizes themselves with aspects of fighting and other interactions), I felt it was somewhat lacking in depth compared to the first chapter.

There was littler intra-planet interactions, with each planet seemingly encompassing its own discrete Universe, unlike the first, where several quests could only be completed across two or three planets.

This had the added bonus of making for more challenging gameplay, as well as enabling the storytellers to incorporate changes in your environment, ostensibly based on your gameplay, but skillfully carried out, nonetheless.

The graphics were somewhat more simplistic than the first - if you recall the breathtaking views on the mysterious "Unnamed" world - and seemed altogether less smooth, especially during combat, and when turning corners, or running. Game sprites "skipped" round corners, or sometimes, ended up in a totally different area in a corridor, when simply running straight down the centre of it!

Combat itsef was mostly unchanged. Although mysterious new "lightsaber forms" are added, I have completed the game and still fail to see their true usefulness when weighed against a good belt of "force lightening". Considering you do not get them until later, you cannot really even see any benefits from them when your characters are weaker, and such techniques might count for more.

More mature players will enjoy the possibilities opened by such additions as the Workbench and Labstation - facilities enabling a player to manufacture and upgrade armour, and recycle unwanted items, or duplicates, with each individual character outperforming others at certain abilities, thus opening new or advanced items for creation. Ultimately, though, such features are not truly required to complete the game.

Then, the finale. After thoroughly playing the build-up to these events, I was anticipating an earth-shattering finale with amazing spangly graphics as a reward for taking on half the Sith, single-handedly (a minor disappointed, too, having spent the whole game building up my comrades). Your allies play virtually no part in this endgame, and you only know of the events thereafter from questioning your nemesis prior to their ultimate defeat.

No spangly graphics. No amazingness in pixels. No closing shots or conversations afterwards, with allies. Just a few short sentences describing the immediate (in most cases) hereafter before your nemesis croaks it.

There were even inaccessible places on the map where it was obvious the developers had sliced great chunks out of the plot, as well as the disjointing occuring with the final activation of the shadow drive mission, with the Droid. SO disappointing.

After having taken so long to build up the storyline, I felt short-changed at such a meagre ending and would have spent my time differently, throughout the game, had I known. Additionally, the introduction in the game of various characters from the first installment, hinted at far better end-scenes to conclude the multi-layered plot. There was, however, no end scene to speak of, other than a three second (yes, seriously) cut scene, followed by the credits.

The first KOTOR displayed that the development team could produce gold. The second KOTOR displayed what happens when idiots take over the time-line, instead of listening to the people who understand gameplay. I would have happily waited another year, if I had to, to play a second installment with a sculpted, polished ending, as opposed to one so obviously spun out in the last minute, that payed little heed to the efforts of the game player and ultimately provided little in the way of a sense of accomplishment (remember defeating the final boss in KOTOR?? That guy just wouldn't die...), let alone answers to dangling issues left by other characters.

Lastly, I had hoped that this installment would draw upon the saved game of the old installment - at least basic elements, such as Revan's gender for instance. Instead one must manually set such aspects and the game does not incorporate this easily (Revan is referred to as both genders in one sentance, at a certain point in the game!). I feel sure that such a thing would be emminently possible, with a fall-back plotline provided where no existing saved games were found. I would even tollerate physically pointing the game at whichever old installment save that I wished to use, if it would have meant a more complete game play experience.

Final words on this, then: Great gameplay, good plot efforts (at least at first), lousy finale (- the downfall of so many promising RPGs).


Playable, but a let-down nevertheless   June 7, 2005
17 out of 19 found this review helpful

The original KOTOR game was, quite simply, amazing. It easily earned its 92% PC Gamer review, with its immersive world, excellent gameplay, first-class musical score, top-notch voice acting, fantastic replayability, and a story infinitely better than any of the prequel films. The 'Game of the Year 2003' award was perfectly justified.

And so, with all the inevitability of both death and taxes, a sequel has been released. From a gameplay-perspective, it is a massive improvement. Everything is even more customisable than before, and in this way, KOTOR II succeeds its predecessor admirably. You also now begin the game as a Force-sensitive character (with the ability to use the Force), rather than working up to it last time.

Unfortunately, many people were most interested in the intriguing story of KOTOR, and in this department, the game falls flat on its face with all the grace of an epileptic yeti. The story is abysmally structured, and upon completion, it is woefully obvious that Lucasarts forced this product out in time for the Christmas sales in America, without one iota of regard for the quality of the game. Assuming that the Star Wars license is an excuse to print money (which it is), they have conned the fans out of what could have been a truly fantastic game.

There are a horrendous number of glitches. In a three hour sitting, you'll probably crash at least once in each of those three hours. If you're lucky. The swoop racing minigame doesn't actually work at all. The sound quality is appaling, which makes absolutely no sense, given that Lucasarts is affiliated with a man who single-handedly brought the world of digital cinema forward about ten years. The story exposition is dull. You begin on a deserted mining colony, and fight nothing but droids for about 2 hours. This was orginally intended to be tense and creepy, since bodies litter the floor, but with the mono sound and the crashes any time something exciting happens, the effort fails.

The end of the game, without revealing anything, is even worse. To call it an 'end' is actually pretty generous of me. Bits of it just don't make sense. The reason for this is not that the game wasn't poor from the beginning. The guilt lies entirely with Lucasarts, and this buggy mess should not reflect badly on Obsidian, because it isn't their fault (although it will). Intrepid gamers, dissatisfied with the dismal game, have searched the code on the discs and found files that weren't used. Putting these together, the story makes sense. It's actually really good, and makes sense, unlike the convoluted mess that was published. The reason that these lines weren't used is that Lucasarts imposed unreasonable deadlines on the Obsidian team, and forced them to cut aspects of the game so as to publish it earlier. These weren't even cut very well. Characters tell you of things that will happen, but then never do because they got removed. An entire planet got cut for fear of missing sales.

Lucasarts also deserves to be brutally criticised for their abyssmal post-production support. The first patch was promised 'soon'. It took 2 months. The second patch was promised 'in a few days'. That was two months and a bit ago, and we're still waiting. Not only do they mess the fans around, but they have also abandoned all boards and forums, and given no explanations or updates as to what is going on.

In conclusion, this is a dismal disappointment. Star Wars fans will buy it, and RPG-lovers will buy it, but anyone who was expecting a worthy successor to the KOTOR legacy should avoid this like bubonic plague.


I wish I'd read the reviews before buying.   March 6, 2006
Davywavy2
14 out of 21 found this review helpful

It all starts so well.
The sequel to the phenomenally popular Knights of the Old Republic, The Sith Lords begins several years after the events of that game with the last of the Jedi (you) on the run from mysterious attackers, both Sith and Bounty Hunter. As you travel the galaxy you will find out more about your character's backstory, as well as gathering a party of followers each of whom has a backstory and a plot of their own and as you interact with them your relationships and stories become richer, more developed and more interesting. With missions traversing several worlds and an overaching backplot which grows more dangerous and strange as you travel the whole package is an intiguing one. You can select from amongst your followers to accompany you on your missions and adventures according to their skills (although, to be honest, when you get another couple of lightsabre-wielding jedi there isn't much point taking anyone else) and as you make decisions which lead you to the light or dark side of the force, so they will be influenced and fall or rise with you. There are one or two minor bugs and inconsistencies, but nothing I couldn't live with.
So far, so great. However, about three-quarters of the way through, it all goes badly wrong.
Other reviews have said that this game was rushed through production in order to meat sales deadlines and the last quarter of the game makes this abundantly clear. The relationships and backplots established with your companions are completely forgotten saving for ten seconds of exposition right at the end. The endgame jumps from one major set piece to the next with no linking plot and a bare minimum of story to explain what is going on and, considering the quality of what has gone before, this is a major letdown. The endgame makes no attempt to explain the first three quarters of the game and if you're hoping that the plots which you've just spent the last week investigating will be resolved, well, you're in for a nasty surprise. Instead what you get is hastily-written filler to end the game which often makes no sense, ending with a dramatic escape in a spaceship which you saw destroyed not five minutes prevoiusly.
What a disappointment. After a tremendous setup, the whole thing just collapses into a rushed mishmash which left this reviewer feeling cheated. KOTOR 2 is the gaming equivalent of The Phantom Menace: pretty and with a lot of potential, but ultimately not what it promised on the box.
I could not recommend anyone spend their hard-earned cash on this game, and so I'll recommend Jedi Academy and Far Cry instead. Now those are games worth buying.


A game in dire need of patching   February 18, 2005
13 out of 21 found this review helpful

The original Knights was one of the top games of last year; this sequel takes all the elements of its predecessor (almost to the point of cloning the plot) and comes out with distinctly less than the sum of its parts. The game feels rushed and (because its so similar to its predecessor) more like an inferior addon pack than a new game (its generous length not withstanding). This is a shame because (assuming you enjoyed the first one) there would be few gaming experiences better than another adventure in the world Bethesda created. Sadly Obsidian (the new developer) have released what feels like a beta version of the finished game, characters often get stuck on invisible scenery, animations often look stilted, play at the wrong time or stutter (trust me this is definatly not a hardware thing), key segments are often missing from cutscenes (the replies of droids to questions are particulaly bad for this glitch), pod racers can end up glued to the ceiling, etc etc, the list of niggles is almost endless. Added to this the game begins with an unessecerily long and tedious prelude on a destroyed mining facility; its just not fun like the previous game which dragged you in and didnt let go from the very first scene. This game will probably edge up to a 4 star rating once obsidian have done some major patching and ironed out all the bugs, the dull segments of the game cannot be patched away and so will always cost it a star. I'm sad to say that after a year of happy anticipation this game has been a disapointment.


A great game, but...   February 17, 2005
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Let's start with the positives. This game is very good. If you've played KOTOR (and you really should!), then this game offers much of the same in terms of gameplay, plus a little more. There are more force powers and more feats, most of which are worth using at some stage in the game. The skills system is also much improved; whereas there was really no need to develop a range of skills in KOTOR, the player is now rewarded for developing skills in that they open new dialogue options in conversation with other characters. Finally in addition to upgrading weapons at workbenches, it is now possible to create items as well, meaning that you do not have to rely upon finding items in the game.
This game pulls you into the atmosphere of the Star Wars universe and doesn't let go; the development of the main character is just as enjoyable, if not more so, than the first game. There are also cameo appearences from certain characters in the first game; although they seem out of touch with the personalities developed in KOTOR, which is a shame.

So why only four stars?
Well, the game does have its faults, notably regarding the storyline. Firstly, it is too linear; there are no real sidequests relating to other characters. Secondly, after a certain point in the game, the story feels rushed. Events unravel too quickly and too easily, and offer little chance for reflection. There are also major gaps in the story; cutscenes appear at certain points in the game that have no relation to the storyline at that point, or indeed at any point in the game. For example, at one point a non-human character is destroyed in a cutscene, only to appear well and functional again a few minutes later, with no explanation given. This sort of thing happens regularly. It just feels unpolished and rushed.
Dialogue between the playable characters is reduced significantly. Once you've asked them all the questions available on first meeting them, that's pretty much it for most of the game. The depth of interaction between playable characters in evidence in KOTOR just isn't there in this game.
There are also some minor technical glitches (that i won't go into because i don't understand them!) but expect a patch.
Finally, the ending. It's quick: very quick. It leaves many things unexplained, both regarding characters and the main plot. After 40 hours of gameplay i just felt...empty. I wanted to know what happens to my character, and the other characters for that matter. And Revan. Revan is mentioned throughout the game; there is even a cutscene where an NPC says, 'If you see Revan tell him...'; the game is set up for an appearance that would redeem the holes in the plot, and...nothing.

Everything was in place to make this a better game than the original, but it falls short because whereas gameplay has improved, depth and attention to detail regarding charcters and storyline has been reduced. Pehaps I expected too much; I shouldn't judge it by the standards of the first game. In reflection, I'm glad that what I have is a very, very good game and I recommend it to Star Wars and RPG fans alike.