Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords (KOTOR 2)

Graphics (7/10)

The graphics are recycled from the first game, with some objects being smoother then before. It seems a little outdated for 2005. A lot of people complain about the smoke in areas slowing down the frame rate, but this doesn’t seem to occur in my game.


Image comes from IGN.com

Story (8/10)

The story revolves around a Jedi Exile that followed Darth Revan to fight in the Mandalorian Wars. The Exile lost connection of the force, and disappeared until the beginning of the game. The focus of the game is to search for the remaining Jedi Council members and either eliminate them, or forge an alliance against the returning Sith. The canon story is the Exile is a human female, and she follows the light side story. Due to the game being rushed, a lot of planned events never occur, although some are hinted at.

Gameplay (8/10)

The gameplay is the same as in KOTOR. The fights are turned based, but do not seem that way, by how it all flows together. As fun as KOTOR 2 is, it has some flaws that ruin parts of the game. Number one is that at times, the NPCs dialogue is skipped, so making decisions is harder, as you have know idea what the NPC said. Number two is no matter how I customise my Exile, they can never hit the enemy towards the beginning of the game. An improvements over the first game is that there’s a higher level cap, so more force powers are available, and you can use them more often. A new feature is companions alignment, so how the companion reacts to the Exile changes throughout the game.

Sound (9/10)

The music is pretty good, with action music during battles, and more relaxed music during exploration. The voice acting is also good.

Replay Value (9/10)

There are a lot of side quests to complete, with some only being available depending on the alignment of your character. There are also numerous endings, and the companions have the ability to become Jedi if there approval is high enough.

Overall

While some people say the first game is better, I believe KOTOR 2 is better. The only real problem I have with it is the skipping of dialogue, and the cut content, but despite this, I would recommend buying this game. Unlike other Star Wars games, the plot is not as predictable, due to no conflict with the Separatists/Galactic Empire, and it shows off some aspects of Star Wars not seen anywhere else.