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

[Shinmaru]

[quote=Gamespot]In our last look at Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, we gave you a general idea of what to expect from the game. Today, we'll offer you some even meatier details on the upcoming RPG. While developer Obsidian Entertainment and LucasArts are pretty tightlipped about the many aspects of the game, we were at least able to get some good bits on the story and gameplay out of them.

The Sith Lords will start out by offering you two mysteries to solve, depending on whether or not you choose to play through the in-game tutorial (which is folded into the storyline). If you choose to play the tutorial, [spoiler]you'll take control of T3-M4, ancestor to the R2 units we all know and love. Your job will be to make your way around the Ebon Hawk, which has apparently gotten quite an *** whooping, and repair the ship's damaged systems.[/spoiler] As you do this, you'll be able to piece together some of what's happened. If you choose to skip the tutorial, you'll jump right into the proper game and take control of your custom-built character. The character creation process has remained roughly the same as in the original game, but Obsidian is aiming to build on the options open to you by offering you more choices when creating your virtual self.

Once all that's sorted, you'll start out on [spoiler]Peragus Station, a mining complex situated in a rather inhospitable asteroid field. You wake in the medical bay, and the last thing you remember is blacking out in a Republic warship. How you wound up there--and why the heck you're in your skivvies--are mysteries you'll need to sort out. Unlike the original Knights of the Old Republic, though, you'll begin the game as a Jedi and so you'll be pretty capable at handling whatever you encounter, regardless of your limited state of attire. As you explore the station you'll encounter an enigmatic woman named Krea who asks you to explore the station and warns you that you're being hunted. Awfully nice of her to actually help you out, but there you go? In any event, you'll soon learn that Krea's pretty in tune with the Force (even if you aren't quite as attuned as you used to be), as she'll have telepathic conversations with you by using her mystical power. As you continue to look around the station, you'll eventually meet Atton Rand, who fills you in on Peragus and its dangerous locale. As you might have guessed, Krea and Atton will form the core of your first party in the game.[/spoiler]

One of the most interesting things we discovered about The Sith Lords' intro is that, while the game won't actually read your save from the original KOTOR, Obsidian will use an old-school method to have the storyline in The Sith Lords reflect the way your story in KOTOR played out. Conversations with Krea and other characters in the early part of the game will let you provide the game with information on what happened in your own particular game of KOTOR, and this will ensure that your experience in The Sith Lords reflects those events.

As we mentioned in our last look at the game, the gameplay in The Sith Lords is seeing some refinement of the original KOTOR based on user feedback. The core combat system hasn't changed, but the animation system has been tied more closely to your level of experience, so your character will gain more and better animations for their attacks as they progress. For example, the animation for a character's critical strikes will become more grandiose as they level up and become more powerful.

In terms of presentation, The Sith Lords features a tweaked interface that affords you some nice perks. One of the most useful is that you'll be able to configure two distinct weapon configurations for your character, which you'll be able to switch on the fly with the press of a button. This ought to come in pretty handy when, for example, you're alternating in combat between organic and droid foes. Other, more-subtle changes include a new party-select tab on the menu screen which replaces the messages tab. Messages will now be filed under the journal tab, which should clean up text clutter a bit.

The skills system in The Sith Lords won't be radically different from what you saw in KOTOR, but it'll definitely give you more options. For instance, you'll now be able to use mines to unlock doors if your security skill fails you. Speaking of skills, you'll find the same eight skill categories as before, but this time out you'll be able to do more with them. For example, workbenches will now limit the number of items and upgrades you can make based on your current skill level. As before, you'll be able to modify your lightsabers with various crystals in order to personalize them. Thankfully, the somewhat stifling level caps in the first game, which limited how your character could evolve, are being tweaked this time around to offer something extra for the power-leveling player.

KOTOR'S minigames are back once again, although they're more than just simple retreads of the originals. We got a peek at the new turret minigame, which puts you in control of an automatic weapon situated on the belly of the Ebon Hawk as Sith troops attempt to get onboard. While everything will be hunky dory if you manage to take out all the Sith with the big gun, if some manage to get onboard you'll have to dispatch them manually. As for the rest of the games, you can expect to see facelifts and refinements all around. The game looks sharp and moves well, which is no surprise given that it uses the same capable engine as the original KOTOR. Understandably, the music is still underway at this early stage of development. To complete the rich graphics, you'll hear a new score from Mark Grisky, who intends to stay true to the franchise while introducing some cool new elements in the game's two-hour score that will draw on many classic themes from the earlier games.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is slated to ship early next year for the PC and Xbox, and the game will make its playable debut at E3 next week. Look for more coverage from the show floor at that time, when we'll bring you exclusive footage of The Sith Lords in motion that you won't find anywhere else.[/quote]

I had limited experience with Knights of the Old Republic (a few sessions of it with a friend of mine), but it was pretty cool from what I saw. By all accounts, Sith Lords should improve on just about every facet of the original game. When EGM did their cover story on Sith Lords last month, the game looked as if it was pretty early in development (a bunch of character models had not been created as of that time), but since the game is going to be playable at E3, it's obvious that a lot has been added since Obsidian Entertainment was interviewed.

EDIT: Added spoiler tags here and there.

[Brasil]

This game has quite a name to live up to. The original is probably one of my favorite RPGs. I easily logged some 20 hours in it, and still haven't come close to the halfway point.

I think my favorite part of this preview is, "We got a peek at the new turret minigame, which puts you in control of an automatic weapon situated on the belly of the Ebon Hawk as Sith troops attempt to get onboard." The throwback to A New Hope (the hangar in Mos Eisley) is undeniable here, and that's one of the best things about the KOTOR franchise. It takes place in the Star Wars universe and never pulls us out. These throwbacks serve a terrific immersive effect, and I'm really looking forward to KOTOR II even now, with just a bit of a preview.

[BlueYoshi]

I found KOTOR very enjoyable, not only as an RPG, but also for the action element added to it. I can only hope that the second release can remedy its flaws to bring something even better to the Xbox and PC.

With new developers aboard the project, Obsidian now call the shots with KOTORII, promising 30 new force powers, along with 7 new areas, though not much seems to have changed about the control system so far, but for them to be focusing on animation instead is a rather large obligation, and brings up the question: are Obsidian really serious about this? My hopes are high for the series and I'd really hate to see them drop over idol ness.

The Star Wars franchise in the gaming world come in many different genres, and have little to offer in terms of quality - just games to promote the movies more or less, but KOTOR does actually live up to the Star Wars name as opposed to other poor spin-offs like Pod Racing. Bleh.

[Brasil]

Wow, funny me posting in a thread about a Star Wars game...twice. :p

KOTOR II was released today, and IGN has their review up already. You can find it [url=http://xbox.ign.com/articles/569/569096p1.html][u]here[/u][/url].

Rarely in the past two years have I actually gotten giddy and bubbily excited about a game, but I'm absolutely bouncy about KOTOR II. I'm going to rent the game this weekend, so I'll post my review then, but this little tidbit from the IGN review has me going absolutely apesh-t:

[quote name='IGN']KOTOR II's overall story is not quite as strong as the sweeping epic of the original, but its pieces are more compelling. Kreia, your de facto mentor, raises some interesting philosophical questions throughout your journey. KOTOR II is one of the rare Star Wars games that doesn't seem mystified by the universe, but instead approaches it with a sociologist's eye. What is the real difference between Jedi and Sith? How is that difference perceived by the common man (or Wookie or Twi'lek)? Does the Republic -- on the brink of dissolution -- deserve to be saved? Many raise these questions throughout KOTOR II, but Kreia is the main source of great dialogue and philosophizing.[/quote]
Yes, Star Wars as told from the vantage point of what it really is: social, political, economic, and historical criticism.

[Semjaza]

Personally, I'm going to wait for more reviews to pour in. I don't trust any of IGNs sections (other than Pocket) for scores I personally agree with.

I must be one of three people who really didn't get into the original game. It does a lot of things well, but it also does a lot of things rather poorly. I really enjoyed the character development and your control over it, but the story (outside of involving Star Wars, which seems like enough for many people) was rather disappointing and predictable. Battle system was rather eh, the reuse of character graphics was pretty saddening (why an important character would look just like a non-important one standing ten feet away is beyond me).

Maybe I would be more blown away if I never played a decent PC-RPG in my life, but I've had enough experience with Bioware to know they have done much better.

With that in my head (and that the major development was handed to Obsidian - who knows if that'll help my opinion lol), I just am not very excited about this game. I hope it is as good as the review makes it seem, because I would like to be surprised.

[Brasil]

Tony, I know what you mean about IGN, and I'm pretty leery of their reviews usually, but I checked out GameRankings.com, and the game is getting high marks across the board. ^_^

[Endymion]

[COLOR=Navy][SIZE=1]KOTOR II is definitly a must-buy game for the season. I had to sit around in EB for a couple hours(well, I just walked around the mall it was located in during that time) until the shipment came in. I totally got the first copy from the box, one of my buddy's was working. I drove home slapped that disc into my x-box and let the good times roll. Since then I've put in about 15 hours of gameplay, don't think I'm close to completion yet. I am rocking some groovy Sith Padawan robes, and have a nice red aura in the character viewing screen :D. No lightsaber yet, but I only need one more piece. Being evil is fun...[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Sol-Blade]

[SIZE=-3]Yeah, I went to check my local EB Games today...they were sold out of their orginal shipment. Sigh, ah well. Guess I'll have to wait another day or so...

See, this is what I get for dwelling over every piece of info that was released about the game. I can't stand to wait another day now. I hate it when this happens to me, because it happens everytime![/SIZE]

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]Heh I was going to post here sooner, actually I ran a search for this on the same day that Alex revived it. I've still yet to play the original Knights of the Old Republic game, it's still sitting in my locker awaiting the arrival of my new PC, but lucky for me I have until March to beat it before the second comes out on PC. I've been reading reviews for the game as well as watching video clips of it, which can be found at [I]Gamefaqs[/I], or whatever subsidiary does the video clip previews.

It's supposed to be the [B]Empire Strikes Back[/B] to the originals [B]Star Wars[/B], which pretty much means it's better in many ways, although I'm only basing that on reviews in a PC magazine I trust. Overall it's something to look forward to when it comes out in March as I have neither the X-Box to play it on now, nor the desire to go out and buy both.[/SIZE]

[Brasil]

I have to return the game today, haha, so I've had an entire week with it.

Overall, it's a great game. There's a lot of meat to the story, and the characters and dialogue are really well-written.

I'm most impressed so far with Atton's voice-acting. It's impressive. Some have said that Atton is the Carth character for KOTOR II, but that's really inaccurate. Atton is far more a wise-*** than Carth ever was, and he doesn't really whine so much as criticize you, or wonder why he suddenly went nuts in the heat of battle, muahaha.

And really, there are no weak characters in KOTOR II, which is especially nice. I always found Mission and Zaalbar to have absolutely no purpose at all, both from a gameplay and a character dynamics standpoint. They were just useless, lol.

Their replacement so far seems to be Atton and this Zabrak, Bao-Dur, a veteran of the Jedi Civil War, and who served under the main character. Bao-Dur is really interesting. He seems to suffer from PTSD, with a blank, spaced voice, and what looks like the "Thousand-Yard Stare."

Gotta catch the train, so I'll edit this later, haha.

[center]***EDIT***[/center]

I'm pretty much finished Dantooine for now, and just repelled a Mercenary assault. It was pretty neat. I also finally got my lightsaber...and the new Create/Upgrade system is a blessing, and if you use it correctly, your first lightsaber will be something like the following:

[QUOTE]Damage: Energy, 7-40
Damage Bonus: +1 Dark Side
Attack Mod: +1
Blaster Bolt Deflection: +1
Charisma: +2
Dexterity: +1
Strenght: +3
Double-bladed[/QUOTE]
And I have a very strong feeling that what I did for my lightsaber is really only scratching the surface of what can be done with the new system.

As I play more and more, I find that KOTOR II is essentially a complete opposite of the first game.

Where the first game's opening level, the Endar Spire, was exciting to play through, KOTOR II's Peragus Mining Facility is bleh, almost boring and tedious.

Where KOTOR I had fairly basic character development and abilities, the sequel actually utilizes skills like Intelligence, and the various physical skills of your team. There are times during conversation where your Awareness skill comes into play and you spot a fake Holocron, and thus put the salvager on the spot.

I never experienced anything like that in the first game, and that gameplay addition really helps to provide some character dynamic incentive to pumping up a skill or attribute like Intelligence.

For me, in the first game, putting points into Intelligence never seemed all that fruitful, except for actual character skill development. In KOTOR II, however, you get more of a sense that every single aspect of your character will have an effect, and it works really well.

Considering the new Influence system, I think it's a reasonable assessment. Nearly everything you say or do in the sequel will have an effect on your party, and if you say the wrong thing, you're going to lose Influence. Kreia is turning away from me more and more, heh.

I think that once you get past the various technical snags, and a few bits of blerghy pacing, the game will grab you, even moreso than the first. The characters are far better, even at 17 hours into the game, the dialogue is more engaging, the action pieces are more exciting, and generally, it feels like a much more "whole" game.

I'd say ANH/KOTOR I and ESB/KOTOR II parallel is an accurate one. Where KOTOR I laid the groundwork, KOTOR II is building an Empire. :p

[center]***EDIT #2 AT 3:30 AM***[/center]
[left] [/left]
[left]KotOR II is sex. Pure, unadulterated, steamy, hot, passionate sex. I'm running around with the double-bladed saber...and it's [i]Orange[/i].[/left]

[Helios]

[COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Palatino Linotype]I'm excited to see how they handle single-sabers. In KOTOR I, single-sabers were entirely useless. They claim to have improved them enough to be usable.

Hopefully.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Meggido]

I can't wait for this to be released in Australia. I own the first and from what I've seen of the second it looks awesome.

Edit: I recently discovered that the Australian release date is mid Feb for this game. I was wondering whether the game was CD rom like the first or if it is DVD rom.

[Brasil]

[QUOTE=Helios]I'm excited to see how they handle single-sabers. In KOTOR I, single-sabers were entirely useless. They claim to have improved them enough to be usable.

Hopefully.[/QUOTE]
I'd say so. When upgraded, they can do just as much damage as upgraded double-bladed sabers.

I just beat the game on Light Side. It took roughly the same amount of time, maybe a few hours less as it did on Dark Side, and the game is even better on Light Side, I think, because much more of the plot is developed. It's almost as if Obsidian wanted the player to go through on LS, because the LS ending is much, much more...whole.

The DS ending felt too short, and I was surprised (actually, disappointed) that [spoiler]the Ebon Hawk falls into the core of Malachor V and doesn't fly out or anything in the DS ending[/spoiler]. LS, however, it does, and there's a greater sense of closure, and at the same time, a nice cliffhanger for the third KOTOR, and there's going to be a third, lol.

The way they set-up the cliffhanger is quite brilliantly handled, too. Throughout the game, various characters mention how Revan either saved the Republic or destroyed it, based on your response choice at the start of the game.

The twist thrown in there is that the Jedi Civil War (the war you fought in the first game) was [spoiler]only the first skirmish in a much larger conflict, a conflict where the petty differences of Sith and Jedi don't matter. Revan knew this, and understood that the heart of the war lied elsewhere, in an unknown region, where only Force Sensitives could venture, it seems. The LS ending cuts to credits as the Ebon Hawk flies off into a distant nebula, presumably headed in the direction of the unknown region.[/spoiler]

To end my rambly little post, if you were even remotely fond of the original, do yourself a favor and play this game all the way through, both Force Alignments. It's spectacular.

[natetron46]

When is the PC release? I loved KOTOR, but on the xbox I thought the controls were a little bit spacey. I think they could be done much better on the PC and I heard that they were so I am more interested in the PC release of this game.

[Meggido]

I don't know if other places have the PC version yet but Australia is getting it about mid feb. I was wondering whether the PC version was on CD rom or DVD rom. I was also wondering what the exact specs were because that could affact whether I can get the game.

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]I bought KOTOR II [PC Version] on Friday and completed the Light Side storyline to it in roughly 27 hours, but not before deleting my first game by accident not knowing about having to "Switch Characters" to access different saves [It was set at my younger brothers]. All and all I have to admit I find the game in some ways far superior and others far inferior to the prequel, the biggest failing being that Obsidian randomised the items you received. Now that might not sound so bad but when you get Jedi Knight robes off a Trandoshan and a Construction Kit off a Sith, and never really know what you're in for it grates on you severely.

That said however I do find the storyline to the game slightly less fluid that the last one, [spoiler]the Sith in the game are simply horrendous, Nihilus was pointless, sure like you he drains the Force from others but he was just so... pointless. Sion was simply an annoyance, and at best a major irritation with his whole "[I]Look at me I can't be killed[/I]" routine. The end battle against Darth Traya then was one that you could see coming from a mile away, although yes her character did appear to have some reason to it. I just found them to be wholly inferior to Malak and the Sith from the previous game, a pity although the Light Side ending does prove that this may just be the middle ground in a much larger battle.[/spoiler]

I have to admit that the character, at least some of them, feel much less personal than in the last game. Although that is perhaps because you only learn a small bit about them without the proper Influence levels, that said there seems to be very little to speak about with them. [spoiler][Mandalore being the most obvious case][/spoiler] However in saying that there were also only a few character you actually gave a damn about in the previous instalment [Mission being one you didn't really give a damn about]. [spoiler]I do like the addition of being able to transform not one but four of your non-Jedi characters into Force-users.[/spoiler]

I have to admit that KOTOR II seemed to me to have a look to great new additions but to suffer from a lot of common RPG failings, the randomised items being my main gripe. I just hope that for the next KOTOR [As Alex hinted about] they manage to fix some of the mistakes and bring the game back to the same levels of greatness that KOTOR I reached.

One last thing, did anyone else find that their Swoop Bikes began about 2 meters about the ground and would just run along the track without hitting the obstacles or repulsor boosts. I found the only track I can actually win on is the [spoiler]Onderon[/spoiler] one and only because I can hit against something to get me down onto the ground, is the a glitch or is there something I'm not doing ?[/SIZE]