A common thread that runs through all gamers and unites us is a little thing called Star Wars. If you consider yourself a gamer and don’t like Star Wars, then either you’re in denial or you’re just some n00b that thinks someone cares about your defiance and insecure need to stand out. If that’s the case, go find some other website and whine ...]]> Pookie feared rewriting War and Peace for this review, but LilPickle likes to live dangerously. You’ll need a potty break at some point–it’s that long.

A common thread that runs through all gamers and unites us is a little thing called Star Wars. If you consider yourself a gamer and don’t like Star Wars, then either you’re in denial or you’re just some n00b that thinks someone cares about your defiance and insecure need to stand out. If that’s the case, go find some other website and whine and flame on their forum. You’re bound to get attention that way.

Ah yes, the game. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords isn’t just a sequel with a very long title, it’s yet another fine game based in the Star Wars universe that doesn’t entirely suck. It is most disappointing when the biggest movies of all time have video game relatives that don’t capture our imagination on the scale that the movies have, let alone the fact that they don’t even compare to the quality of many non-movie games. But Knights of the Old Republic changed all that. Since its release, people have nearly forgiven and forgotten the previous releases that were oh so painful. Rebel Assault II comes to mind as well as the dancing wookies of Galaxies. And Battlefront isn’t nearly as good as people believe it to be. I no longer trust the gaming websites out there for Star Wars games reviews after seeing they gave Jedi Power Battles low scores compared to Rebel Assault II. So from this point on, this is the best source for Star Wars reviews. Not a single bias. Nope, not-a-one.

In case you were in a coma in 2003

Under development from BioWare, Knights of the Old Republic wiped the floor with all other games in 2003, taking numerous “Game of the year” awards from all the big magazines and reviewers. I still think it is one of the best games ever. But for the sequel, the development responsibilities were handed over to Obsidian Entertainment for only God knows what reasons. Oh well, it’s the same engine, all they have to do is fix the minor problems and write a new story. How much could they screw it up, right?

A long time ago in a galaxy far,
far away….

As the story goes, the Republic has fallen into a state of disrepair after Revan’s disappearance from known space, and the Republic’s restoration projects on war-ravaged planets are very delicate. You play an exiled Jedi that was cast out because of your participation in the Mandalorian Wars under Revan and Malak and are now living out the rest of your life without a connection to the Force. In your absence, the Sith have been striking from the darkness, slowly dwindling the numbers of the Jedi–eventually they come after you. Rather than minding their Ps and Qs, the rest of the galaxy soon takes notice of you as you are the last Jedi. Sith assassins, dark lords, bounty hunters, the Exchange, and even disgruntled civilians all seek you out for different reasons. You’ll soon be making decisions that appear to be between light and dark on the surface but can have even greater repercussions for the galaxy than you might think. All the while, you’ll gain companions in your quest to figure out exactly what happened to you after the Mandalorian Wars when the Jedi Council exiled you. And as your role finally starts to make sense, battles between light and dark erupt, forcing you to decide the fate of the galaxy.

It’s like they read my mind when I dreamed of one day owning a viridian colored lightsaber

Considering the gameplay in KotOR was near perfection, not much needed to be changed for the sequel. Tweaks here and there to fix issues, maybe vehicles to use when running across vast expanses of planets (that Tatooine sun was a scorcher), possibly some unique Force powers–that’s all I asked for. The new features they did give us, however, are a mix of good and bad.

Not once playing this game did I find a glitch or bug, as could occasionally be done in the first one, but I did get some of the worst frame rates since Steamboat Willie. Actually, if KotORII ran even that good and constant all the time, it might be preferable to the sudden xbox brain farts that drop the average fps so much. I mean I’ve seen games of tic-tac-toe that were faster and more exciting. This sort of thing drives me crazy, and it really takes away from the experience. You’re just about fully enthralled by the battles when suddenly you’re stuck in some awkward pose for a few seconds then awaken to find yourself in a conversation with a random person trying their best to thank you or whatever waiting for you to decide if your gonna be a Jedi or Dark Lord in this conversation. Other technical things that trouble the game are unreliable friendly AIs and loading screens that take way too long and occur way too often. The abundance of loading screens I was sure would be something they’d try to fix from the first game.

So what about those vehicles? sorta… but it isn’t exactly what I was thinking. Each planet provides some unique way of quickly moving from point to point, but it does so through a dialog window simply asking you where you want to go. And it will only let you use the quick transport if you’ve been to that place before and have accomplished some miniature task to get the quick transport working. While this is functional, it doesn’t add any to the experience or even feel Star Warsy. I wanted a little Luke Skywalker speeder or Darth Maul’s Harley, not ANOTHER dialog window to scroll through.

And finally, the biggest changes they made turn out to be the multitude of little additions. There are a few more Force powers to learn, most of your companions have a unique ability, many items are slightly more upgradeable (namely lightsabers have 3 more slots for gizmos), and there are a number of new lightsaber color crystals. Again, these are functional additions and can be fun, but there comes a point where you have to stop shaving the wookie. As an example, they took it too far when they changed Pazaak to have new “special” cards, or when the swoop races have you hopping to avoid obstacles or doing other such hoop-jumping. I would have loved it if they left those alone and added any other kind of minigame–like that holo-chess type thing or foosball or something.

Dark times for the galaxy

All things considered, it’s still the same great game but just not as awesome as the first one. The story seems distant from you and your actions; so even though it is far from linear, it still ends up feeling that way. There are also moments you must make conversation choices that leave you bewildered, thinking, “That’s not what I meant!” I’m saddened they didn’t do a better job of catching these in play testing because contradictory parts and logic gaps make for a story more confusing than an episode of CSI as told by a kid with Dyslexia. Then as if the story didn’t feel disconnected enough yet, the game plays it off that you don’t even know what happened in the first game. All comments you make about Revan, even being male or female, are ignored, and instead you are told about his mysterious disappearance and lack of role in everything. Way to make the 20 times I played the previous 40 hour game meaningless! I understand that to make this new story completely compatible and still valid concerning the number of paths that can be taken would be quite the undertaking. Even just fixing it to say “he” or “she” as appropriate is difficult enough (and a few slip-ups still made it through, making for one extremely confusing segment; stupid pronouns)–don’t even bring up how many variations of every dialog there have to be for light and dark, male and female interactions, and any consequence of your actions.

But considering 95% of the programming and engine were already done for them, it seems like all they had to concentrate on were story, art and voice-acting (which still impresses me with the sheer quantity of it). If the first story branched out to have so many different endings, it seems reasonable to say that it is just as much work to make an upside down tree of the same size to close any story possibility. And was it too far-fetched to think of loading any KOTOR gamesaves and continuing the story from there?

At least Ewoks had nothing to do with the downfall

I love this game, and it is a shining example for Star Wars games, but too many superficial changes and such a disjointed story can’t go unpunished. If the number of times I’ve played each of the two games is any indication, this one just doesn’t live up to its older brother. That’s why I give KotOR II: The Sith Lords 3 shorn wookies out of 5.

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To start off, this isn’t exactly a new game, but this one is definitely worth the time. And when do we ever actually get to review the new stuff? If you have played the first one and liked it, then you are in for a treat. The Sith Lords uses the same engine as the first, so the controls and graphics are the same. But even if you never played the first game, ...]]> LilPickle: “I swear, if you play it one more time Matt, I’ll teabag you!”

To start off, this isn’t exactly a new game, but this one is definitely worth the time. And when do we ever actually get to review the new stuff? If you have played the first one and liked it, then you are in for a treat. The Sith Lords uses the same engine as the first, so the controls and graphics are the same. But even if you never played the first game, this one will help make you a less terrible gamer. Now on with the show!

Gameplay

Since this uses the same engine as the first, the combat and basic gameplay are relatively the same. One of the new additions is the whole mess of the influence you wield. Honestly, this is one of the better points of the game. The concept that your actions and words can affect your companions is one of the things that make this game great. So what’s the point of all that crap? Well, with some of the characters, you can train them to become a Jedi. Others, you can unlock different “Easter eggs” that can give you some back story in between the games or other tidbits.

The combat in this game is just like the first, but there are tons of new powers. My favorites are Force Crush and Force Sight. Force Crush is a neat-o darkside power that you learn on your own, so you can’t choose it as one of your level-ups. But at any rate, it’s almost as fun as squishing mice under your boots, and it sounds about the same too–only there are no mouse parts and goo left on your shoes, so it keeps all those duck-squeezers happy. Stupid duck-squeezers. Tell them I hate them and that I’ll eat their children. Alas, I digress. Using this power on just about anyone will flat out kill them. And Force Sight is cool cuz you can “see” a NPC or other character’s alignment whether light or dark. So either way you go, you know who to support and who to pwn.

As with the first game, your main choice of weapon is of course the lightsaber. Unlike the first one, however, there are three more slots to buff up your s-word, and with the right upgrades, you can deliver a beat down that would make Chuck Norris proud. Just remember most places don’t cash Chuck Norris brownie points out of fear of being blinked out of existence.

Characters

With TSL, you can get up to 10 characters in your gang. Who follows you depends on your alignment dark or light and your gender. Also, there are a few characters in the game that are left over from the first. Each of these characters has their own personality with plenty of depth to them.

But now for the bad

If you are a fan of the first KOTOR then you might have issues with this installment. Some of the force powers seem almost too powerful. The ability to wipe the floor with 15 bad guys in just 2 rounds is a little too much. And unlike the first, there is no big secret in the end. In fact, the ending is a bit disappointing. There is no great revelation at the end, and it leaves you feeling short-changed.

Well before I blather on much more, there is plenty that I didn’t talk about for fear of rewriting “War and Peace” and all that other fun on a bun. Here are the results: because of the old engine, combat problems, and the lack of the whiz-bang ending like in the first, I can’t give a perfect score. Fortunately, this game is now available for about 20 bucks. It does have some decent replay value, and it is a great rental if you’re too cheap to shell out the money for it. All in all, I give Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords a lightsaber-wielding, jedi-hacking, bone-crushing, hyphen-ated 4 out of 5.

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