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Knights
of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Score: 8.0 / 10
Let me begin this by saying that there are
two things in this world that I love much more than is healthy. The
first is Star Wars, an entity in which I am completely absorbed. From
reading books that expand on the original greatness of the films, to
uber-nerdy all night pen-and-paper roleplaying, I am at the mercy of all
things sprung from the mind of George Lucas. The second thing I find
myself equally engrossed with are excellent, challenging, emotionally
rivetting, roleplaying games. And for both of these things I walked away
from Knights II pleased, feeling I’d gotten something for my money, but
knowing that I could’ve been given a better experience if they had have
just used a newer engine.
The story begins with the Ebon Hawk, your chariot from the previous
installment of the series, limping through space with an injured Hyper
Drive. From that scene
you’ll be launched into a tutorial that,
while I’m sure it’s helpful to those who have never played, well, any
RPGs before, I couldn’t help but find it a pain. I played through it in
hopes of it easing the transition to whatever was next, as some
tutorials are apt to do. But if you want to skip it, go right ahead. It
doesn’t ease anything. You’ll find yourself on a mysteriously abandoned
mining colony, with no
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lightsaber, no clothes, and in fact no connection to the force at all.
But fear not; in the next fourty hours of gameplay you’ll find all of
those things over again.
But before all of that comes character creation. I’m pretty touchy about
character creation, myself. A poorly designed or under-developed system
can actually turn me off a game entirely. After all, roleplaying is
supposed to be about slipping into the role of a character. What good is
a roleplaying game then if you can’t create a character you sympathize
with, and enjoy playing?
The character creation system in KotOR II lacks. For those of you
familiar with the first game, you can pretty much expect to see the same
system used in that one, but with one or two new faces. Character
creation amounts to picking a head, and a class. No separate options for
skin colour, and hair colour.
Not even the ability to pick face and hair separately. Any roleplaying
game that has come out since Morrowind and has this little character
customization in it should have shame heaped upon said system. But for
KotOR II this is just the first of several ways that the decision to
make a run at the sequel using the original game engine has caught up to
it. As for the other part of the character creation, you’re looking at
the same three Jedi classes that were in the last game as well (Jedi
Guardian, Consular, and Sentinel). And since they serve pretty much the
same purpose as in the last game, I won’t list their functions here.
The storyline of Knights II captures the essence of being a Jedi, the
essence of having the power and responsibility to make the choices
between right and wrong. This is one area where this game outshines the
first almost drastically. Be benevolent and a give a beggar more than he
asks for, and watch him get jumped by street thugs. Return stolen
property to an annoyed spacer and see him get butchered so someone else
can take it from him. There were times playing KotOR II that I
questioned my own boundaries of right and wrong, as well as my
characters. And while there are times when the story is a tad fuzzy, the
innumerable side quests, choices between light and dark, and solid Star
Wars feel, make the storyline a definite plus.
One of the biggest additions to the game was the influence system, and
the ability to turn your cohorts and travel companions into Jedi. It was
astonishing to watch not only my own character change as he fell into
darkness, but his three apprentices embraced the Dark Side along with
him. And what’s more, the characters that I had no influence with were
pushed in the opposite direction, going farther and farther towards the
light. And while there isn’t a truly tangible change in personality when
a character is of the light or dark side, I can only hope this is a
stepping stone to something much greater should they make a third
installment in the series. But even on it’s own it adds significantly to
the roleplaying aspect of the game.
The game is also graced with a new edition in the form of it’s item and
upgrade creation systems. Essentially, any items in your inventory can
be broken down into parts or chemicals. Then these can be used at a
Workbench or Lab Station, respectively, to assemble valuable medpacs,
dangerous frag grenades, or a new lens upgrade for your lightsaber. And
while the system is light, not too detailed or intensive, it feels in
balance with the rest of the game. It’s not obtrusive, or unwieldy,
which means it lends itself well to the casual player.
The combat system is the same fare as last time as well, but for those
who don’t know I’ll go over it. KotOR II utilizes a combination
turn-based/realtime system, where you input commands and then on your
characters turn they’ll execute them. It also features a pause button,
for those moments when you want to control exactly what all of your
characters are going to do next. The system is almost identical to the
one in the first game, but in this case it doesn’t bother me. The user
interface was smooth, easy to use, and unobtrusive. And the system makes
for quick-paced, but well planned combat.
And while that covers many of the major bases, there are a whole host of
qualities that are hard to quantify, and that help to make the game such
a fun ride. The appearance of characters from the last game, for one.
The more advanced lightsaber customization was another one of those
things that made me think that the developers really did have a good
grip on what being a Jedi is about. The instances where I caught myself
actually unsure as to what was the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ course of action
always made me realize the strength of the game I was playing; it’s
ability to pull you in and hold onto you until your three hour game
session has turned into a ten hour one. And the simple fact that the
developers had gone through and made everything feel smoother, and
easier to grasp. Overall, KotOR II is not another game of the year, not
even a contender; really. But it’s a solid game, and it’s a fun game,
and it’s one that every game-starved, RPG loving, owner of the X-Box
should pick up immediately.
