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

Score: 96%
ESRB: Teen
Publisher: LucasArts
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
Media: DVD/1
Players: 1
Genre: RPG


Graphics & Sound:

Much about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, from presentation to gameplay, is similar to its predecessor. Instead of rebuilding the game from the ground up, Obsidian has instead opted to upgrade and clean up the previous game. This is most evident in both the game’s visuals and sound design. The selection of character models, both those you can use to create your playable character and those you will meet during quests, have been expanded. You’ll still run into a few clones here and there, but there’s much more to see while exploring the galaxy, making it feel much more alive than before.

The more unique characters that will join you on your quest have their own unique traits and are designed well. This is complimented by excellent voice acting and a deeper “background quest” system for each character. Whereas you only got to know and feel for one or two of your party members in the previous game, you now care about everyone in your party. This helps to give more weight to the new “Influence” system, causing you to think about long-reaching benefits and consequences to what you tell party members.

Environments are much larger than the previous game and also have their own “life” to them. Several new planets have been added to the game including Telos, Onderon, and Nar Shaddaa. Planets from the previous games, more importantly Dantoonie and Korriban, return and show visible scars -- altering familiar maps just enough to make them feel new.

Once again, an excellent job is done with the soundtrack, mixing new music in with John Williams’ familiar “Star Wars” themes.


Gameplay:

The aftermath of Knights of the Old Republic saw a dramatic shift in the Jedi population, leaving your character as one of the last remaining Jedi Knights in the galaxy. Little else is known about your character other than you were exiled from the Order for following Revan in the Mandalorian Wars. Because of your long exile, your connection to the Force is weak and your light-saber is gone.

Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords lets you jump into being a Jedi from the start -- or at least a recovering Jedi. At the game’s start, you are completely shut off from the Force. In addition, your light-saber is missing. This means that you will spend a significant amount of time trying to rebuild both your connections to the Force and your weapon. Just how long this takes depends mostly on how you plan on going through the story and the choices you make.

You’ll start the game as one of three distinct Jedi classes, each with their own abilities. These initial classes will remain the same from the previous game. As you advance through the game, you’ll be able to access unique Prestige classes that will be alignment specific. The Dark Side player will be able to choose from Sith Lord, Sith Marauder, and Sith Assassin, while the Light Side will host the Jedi Master, Jedi Watchman, and Jedi Weapon Master classes. Prestige classes are mostly tweaks of the initial three choices, but unlock powers that are unique to each.

Given the complexities of the original’s narrative, which unlocked multiple paths for you to follow, The Sith Lords supplies plenty of plot twists and mysteries. While some are a little confusing and don’t quite carry the same impact as the previous game, the narrative is still very good and better than anything to come out of the recent “Star Wars” movies.

Not long after your quest begins, you are given the chance to address key points from the original. Who betrayed whom? Did your character submit to the Dark Side? These choices set the initial groundwork for some of the game’s later plot elements as well as setting up the entire game.

Cast members from the last game return and will help fill in the blanks as to what happened since the first game. Fan favorites like HK-47 and Carth make a return, as do a few others. While some may not have as large of roles, it’s still like seeing an old friend -- a testament to the character development set up in the first game. A cast of new characters are introduced in The Sith Lords and are even more likeable than the first cast given the influence system and expanded side-quest system.

How you choose to play the game has the biggest impact on the events in the game. More choices and side-quests are offered this time around. As with last time, you will be able to choose your own path through the game. Will you choose the way of the Light Side, or take the quick and easy path in pursuit of the Dark Side. Choices aren’t as easy to make. A few choices are obvious as to where they fall on the Light/Dark scale, but others fall into the gray area. One choice might seem like a good idea at the time, but could turn to a bad one somewhere down the line. To further complicate things, your choices also impact your party members and their personal plot lines.

The overall result is a game that is even deeper than the first. So much of the hows and whys of things are based on what you are doing at a certain time that it’s impossible to see everything in one pass. More side quests are available and will now span several planets, requiring some travel time in order to complete them.


Difficulty:

As with the first, Knights of the Old Republic: The Sith Lords is what you make of it. Depending on how the game is played, it can either be an incredibly challenging experience or a cakewalk. For example, you can explore the alternatives to fighting or enter “aggressive negotiations” with everyone you meet. The trick to the game is remembering that everything you do will have consequences down the road. All of the decisions you’ll have to make are not clear cut either, since sometimes the best of intentions can be the first step towards the worst results.

Not to give away any big twists in the game, but several sections find you controlling your other party members and not your main character. Players who choose to simply Auto-level up their supporting party members instead of assigning traits themselves will find these sections frustrating since you won’t know what skills the characters have.

Character A.I. is decent alone, but does require you to set up parameters as to how the character will act in combat. All begin on the default setting of “Aggressive,” which sends them charging into battle at a moment’s notice. For the warriors in your group, this is great. But it can hurt some of the weaker characters. Again, this is where knowing your party member’s abilities come in handy.


Game Mechanics:

The character creation system remains largely intact, although more choices are offered. The system still doesn’t allow for custom characters, but there are more models available, so you should be able to find something close to what you want. Beyond looks, the system is very open in regards to setting up skills. You can still set stat and skill points to where you want, allowing you to adapt your character to your play-style. Distribution of skills points also play a larger role in the game as certain dialog choices and story paths are only available if you have a high skill rating in a selected field.

Whatever path you choose, you have access to a host of 30 new Force powers in addition to those from the last game. Force Confusion, a more devastating version of Influence Mind, allows you to control weak-minded characters in battle, while Force Sense allows you to see beyond sight and peek though walls and see character alignments. Other powers include Clairvoyance (a more powerful version of Sense), Dark Rage, and Battle Meditation.

The Feats system has been reworked, removing some of the less useful skills that cluttered up the system.

The hybrid real-time/turn-based combat system from the original Knights makes a return in The Sith Lords. After entering combat, battles can be played out in a real-time setting as you quickly switch between characters and special moves, or you can pause the game and carefully plan out who does what. The menu bar has been slightly revamped to include a new play feature: fighting styles. As your Jedi progresses, it will learn new light-saber fighting styles, each of which work for different situations. Some styles can be learned through simple progression while others can be learned from other characters or your choice of profession.

Although the game makes significant progress in every category, The Sith Lords takes a few steps back in terms of technical quality. Frame-rate issues crop up during the game, slowing it down to a near crawl in some situations. Slowdown never lasts for more than a few seconds, but is still annoying. I also ran into several clipping issues where my characters would walk right through doors without opening them. I also had to work through one or two game crashes and lock-ups.

A few technical hiccups aside, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords manages to build on everything that made the first game great. Even if you haven’t tried out the first one, The Sith Lords is a game that few should miss out on.


-Starscream, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ricky Tucker

Windows Deer Hunter 4 Sony PlayStation 2 Mega Man X8

 
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