It is time once again to journey to a galaxy far, far away: where two-foot tall, wrinkled puppets are considered wise and it is perfectly all right to French-kiss your sister. We return once again to the Star Wars Universe with “Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords” for the X-Box.
SW:KOTOR II is the sequel to 2003’s “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic,” a game which many, including yours truly, believed to be that year’s best console-based video game.
Does SW:KOTOR II match the high standards set by the original, not to mention the dozens of other role-playing games that have recently flooded the market? The answer is a resounding “sort of.”
KOTOR II takes place about five years after the original. You assume the role of a young Jedi, who wakes up on a mining station, without any recollection of how you got there.
In the next 30 to 40 hours, it will be your duty to form a party of like-minded souls to discover who is trying to kill all the Jedi and take over the universe.
Just like in the previous KOTOR, it is up to you to decide if you want to be a good, benevolent Jedi who helps people or a mass-murdering Dark Jedi, who kills everybody and laughs while doing it.
Every one of your actions dictates where you and your allies end up on the Light and Dark side meter. About midway through the game, you are given the opportunity to help a widow and her two small children off a planet that is about to erupt in civil war. You can help her for some Light side bonus points or you can choose to help an arms dealer escape the planet for some Dark side points and an ample helping of credits.
Game play is very similar to the original KOTOR with a few minor changes made to improve the overall flow. Game play is top-notch, and I never felt that the flow of the game was interrupted by needless item management that has become a staple in most other RPGs. All the fighting takes place in real time; you and your comrades will not line up and take turns hitting the enemy. This is my main complaint with most RPGs: you often look more like you are participating in a country line dance than waging battle with your enemies. Although you can switch between your teammates at any time, you never directly control your whole squad all at once.
The A.I. for your teammates is pretty good. They will back you up and fight as you would want them to do for the most part, although on more than one occasion while trying to be stealthy, one or both of my party members would get themselves killed by running headlong into fighting a much stronger opponent. While this didn’t happen very often, it did occur with enough frequency to be noticeably annoying.
Sound, like almost all Star Wars games, is fantastic. If you have watched a Star Wars movie, you know what to expect. The voice work is great and helps to convey the emotion behind each character. The weapon sounds are realistic or as realistic as they can be when you are dealing with light sabers and ion blasters.
KOTOR II is a good game, and while it doesn’t match the level of quality or enjoyment of the original, it is still a fun game. It just doesn’t have as compelling a story or as interesting characters as the original did.
If you are a fan of the original or just a fan of RPGs in general, then you will probably enjoy this game. It is worth a rental at the very least. I give it 8 out of 10.