Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Score: 90% ESRB: Teen Publisher: LucasArts Developer: Obsidian Entertainment Media: CD/4 Players: 1 Genre: RPG
Graphics & Sound: Condescending Observation: Obsidian Entertainment had its work cut out for it. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is one of the most popular Star Wars games to be released in recent memory. They were tasked with taking Bioware’s RPG masterpiece and crafting a suitable sequel. In this, they succeeded beautifully, though not without a few small technical issues here and there. Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is a fantastic game that, for good or ill, does not stray very far from the original. Rather than rebuild a new engine from scratch, Obsidian seems to have opted to build upon the one used in the original Knights of the Old Republic. Because of this, The Sith Lords contains the same visual spectacle of Jedi battles and blaster fire that made the original so wonderful to look at. By the same token, however, it is also encumbered by the same problems that hampered the original, most notably a rather extreme demand for higher-end hardware that doesn’t give the same visual quality as games with similar system requirements. The game also makes judicious use of previous people and areas. You’ll visit a few familiar places on your trip, but they are considerably altered given the events since the last game. What is Star Wars without great sound and music? The Sith Lords lives up to the high expectations required of it, and contains the proper mix of classic and new sounds to let you know you’re in the Star Wars universe, but in a brand new adventure. Composer Mark Griskey nails the musical score dead on with his pieces that sound every bit as good as John Williams’ original themes.
Gameplay: Skeptical Affirmation: For obvious reasons, Knights of the Old Republic II doesn’t stray far from the original. Obsidian did such a wonderful job you’d be hard pressed to tell that an entirely different development studio created the sequel, unless you were really looking. Sometimes it feels a little too similar however. Aside from a few tweaks to the lists of feats and force powers, and incorporating alignment change with your companions, it’s hard to find any major changes in the game system at all. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; the original was wonderful, and “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” However, because of this strict adherence to the original, with little in the way of innovations, The Sith Lords feels more like an expansion pack to the original than a brand new game. Despite how the outcome may have looked at the end of KOTOR, the situation looks grim at the onset of The Sith Lords. After the tyranny of Revan and Malak ended, a new Sith threat rose to take their place. Rather than try to fight a full-fledged war with the Republic, this new set of enemies opts for a far more cloak-and-dagger operation in an attempt to rid the galaxy of all Jedi... and they’ve been incredibly successful so far. You play as a former Jedi who was exiled for joining Revan in the Mandalorian wars. Exiled or not, the Sith figure you’re close enough to being a Jedi to be a target. The story of The Sith Lords is probably one of the more original plotlines I’ve ever seen crafted in the Star Wars universe. I won’t ruin anything, but this new Sith Lord could give Palpatine a run for his money in the “imminent threat department.” If the story has any faults, it’s probably trying to throw too much at you at once and can get a little broad, thus losing some focus. During more than one conversation you’ll find yourself scratching your head trying to figure out just what a character is trying to say.
Difficulty: Simple Declaration: Like the original, the story and difficulty of The Sith Lords can change dramatically depending on your own personal choices. As you make decisions during the game, your alignment will shift between the light side and the dark side. In general, you will have a much easier time of it if you decide to succumb to the temptations of the dark side. It’s not the quick and easy path for nothing. Being evil tends to make the game a tad bit easier, but it’s nothing substantial and the combat in the game is, on the whole, easier than its predecessor. However, you must pay special attention to your secondary characters as there are several sequences that require you to soldier on only in control of a few of your friends. The options are less clear cut this time around. While the immediate impact of choices you make are usually pretty obvious to discern, the longer lasting implications can be surprising. Like the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Only making this process more difficult is the presence of your “mentor” throughout the game, Kreia, a woman who defies scrutiny and is the very epitome of neutrality.
Game Mechanics: Brilliant Double Entendre: Unlike just about every other Star Wars game out there, The Sith Lords is strictly a classic-style RPG. While the action may look fast and furious, the speed of your trigger finger won’t help you much. The battles flow visually in real-time, but are all on a turn-based system where it’s your skills and hit points that decide a battle, not your speed with a mouse and keyboard. If you want to successfully “facilitate communications,” you had better make sure you build your character intelligently. Every time you level up, you get to choose which attributes, skills, feats (special abilities and attributes), and force powers you acquire. You’ll need the right set of skills and powers to successfully “end hostilities.” That’s not to say The Sith Lords is a carbon copy of its predecessor, certainly not; there are some major changes. As I mentioned before, they’ve removed a few of the more worthless skills from the original and incorporated new ones. It’s unfortunate, however, that the ball seems to have been dropped in regard to the auto level up feature. Perhaps I’m just out of my league, but most of the time it seemed the choices made were odd at best, and crippling at worst. The most substantial change is in the way you interact with your companions. In the original, you were able to alter your own alignment, but your companions were forever trapped in their roles as light side and dark side. This time around you have greater influence on your comrades. When you interact with them, your choices can increase and decrease your influence over that character and they will respond more to your own alignment. So if you take a thoroughly evil character and succeed in raising your influence over them while gaining light side points, you can turn them back to the light. One disappointing aspect of the game is the mini-games. Rather than introduce some fresh new things to do, the same three games found in KOTOR are repeated in The Sith Lords: Pazaak, Turret games, and Swoop Racing. To be fair, both Pazaak and Swoop Racing have incorporated a few new aspects, though Swoop Racing seemed rather broken as I would often run directly over a speed back and receive no boost. So it seems Obsidian played it safe with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, not changing very much from the original and producing what ends up being an expansion pack more than a real sequel. But hey, who can blame them? The original was incredibly fun, and the sequel is just as entertaining as the original. This is a great purchase for anyone, but especially for Star Wars fans.
-Alucard, GameVortex Communications AKA Stephen Triche
Minimum System Requirements: Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, Pentium III 1 GHz or faster, 256 MB of memory, 32 MB Graphics card with Hardware T&L, 100% DirectX9.0c compatible sound card   Test System: Windows XP, Pentium IV 2.8 GHz, 1024 MB of memory, Radeon 9800 with 256 MB of memory, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound card
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