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

The first KOTOR is one of the best games on the Xbox. The great story, fun gameplay, and lightsabers created a winning formula that had Star Wars fans playing through it over and over. You can expect more of the same from its sequel, KOTOR II: The Sith Lords. Sadly, The Sith Lords is a bit too similar to the first game. Pretty much every aspect of the game is the same as the original but the story isn’t as good. It is a good game, but it can’t quite match the original.

A Long Time Ago In a Galazy Far, Far Away ...

The Sith Lords takes place a few years after the first KOTOR and the dark side ending of the original is the storyline that has been continued here. Revan took control of the Sith and hunted down the Jedi until there were only a handful left. Just as quickly as he rose to power, however, Revan disappeared and threw the Sith into disarray. After years of war, the Republic is also on the verge of collapse. In the midst of all this chaos, a new evil is spreading throughout the galaxy. Your character in The Sith Lords is a former Jedi who was cast out of the order after their actions in the Mandalorian Wars and has been in exile for several years. Thinking that you are one of the last remaining Jedi, the Sith attack you and you begin down the path of re-connecting yourself with the Force. Along the way, you meet up with several characters who join your party including a handful of droids, Jedi, a bounty hunter, and more. The overall story is good, but it isn’t as grand and epic as the first game and doesn’t come to nearly as satisfying of a conclusion. It is definitely still worth experiencing on both the light and dark side, though.

Required Playing for Future Jedi

Something that both the original KOTOR and The Sith Lords do very well is that they explain a lot about the Force and the ways of the Jedi. You learn stuff in these games, and for hardcore Star Wars fans it is all very cool. The Sith Lords goes a long way towards making you understand the fine line between light and dark and also that just because you can help people doesn’t mean you should. Your character was cast out of the Jedi order because they decided to go to war to help defend the Outer Rim worlds against the Mandalorians. Even though you and the other Jedi were instrumental in helping the Republic win the war, Jedi aren’t supposed to rush to war. What makes all of this so interesting is that many of the teachings in the game conflict with what you see of the Jedi in the movies and read in the extended universe books. You have to remember that KOTOR I and II take place thousands of years before the movies, so it is especially interesting (to hardcore Star Wars geeks such as myself, anyway) to see that the Jedi have had to adapt their beliefs over time and aren’t as set in stone as they seem.

Gameplay

As far as gameplay goes, not much has changed in The Sith Lords. Combat is still the same mix of real-time and turn-based gameplay as the first game, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with it before so this is something that I’m glad to see hasn’t changed. All of your combat options, force powers, grenades, and items are easily accessed through a nifty little interface in the bottom left corner that you control with the d-pad. In The Sith Lords you also have the options of being able to assign your character two sets of weapons (one melee set and one blaster set, for example) and you can easily switch between them during gameplay if you need to. You can also easily give your other party members orders during gameplay such as having them focus on melee or projectile weapons or using their Jedi powers to help you during battle. Another new addition is that your character learns new lightsaber techniques as you play the game. Some techniques are better than others against single or multiple opponents or Jedi and it is interesting to be able to switch between them to make certain situations easier. Other than these small changes, the combat is just like it was before, but there is a lot more of it which is a good thing.

The rest of the gameplay will also be pretty familiar to KOTOR fans. You travel from planet to planet taking on missions and trying to advance the story. You talk to anyone and everyone you see in order to get new missions or to move missions forward. It is very much like a standard RPG, but set in the Star Wars universe so it is much cooler. The missions you do are very similar to those in the first game. You’ll resolve conflicts (often with your lightsaber rather than through negotiation) as well as simply going on fetch quests for NPCs. You can also play the card game Pazaak again as well as participate in swoop bike races. Again, it is all very similar to what we have seen before, but it still works very well for the most part. Something new in KOTOR II is that you collect chemicals and components as you play and you can then go to a lab station or workbench and create your own medpacks, grenades, mines, and weapon upgrades. This is a cool little option, but it isn’t all that big of a part of the overall experience. You usually find the upgrade items you need rather than having to build them yourself.