Some technical issues keep KOTOR 2 from reaching the level of perfection that was found in the first game.
User Rating: 10 | Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords XBOX
Introduction: I want to start off by saying that I loved KOTOR and the sequal is good but it could have easily benefited from a few more months in development. Does that make KOTOR 2 a bad game? Certainly not KOTOR 2 is a great game in it's own right but some technical issues scream that the publishers wanted to get the game out before christmas which is really too bad because that hurt the game more then anything else. Graphics: 7/10 The graphics are not quite as good as maybe you'd hoped. They have some nice little touches like the swishing of your characters jedi robes and the animation during the combat is really nice too and the cinematics are absolutly wonderfull. But for all the good things you can say about the graphics there are several bad things as well such as how the game actually looks dated. Give or take the fact that the worlds are massive and the facial animations are good even though not quite as good as those found in Half Life 2. On top of that there is a ton of frame loss in the game especialy in combat. Now I know there was frame loss in the first game too but not to this extent. During combat in the first game for the most part the frame rate kept up unless you were faced with maybe a dozen enemies or more at once but in this game the frame rate went plumeting even when you were faced with one or two opponents at once. It gets even worse when they chuck more enemies at you and on top of that I had to repeat one sequence 3 times because my game kept crashing. So overall the graphics are not half bad but they are definetly the weak point in KOTOR 2 and bring the game down quite a bit. Sound: 10/10 On the audio side the game does very well. All the sounds are consistent with the star wars theme like the firing of a blaster and the swishing of a lightsaber. Some of the other effects like when you build something or the menu sounds are a little superficial but are effective none the less. The game uses a nice mix of tunes from the various star wars films to original tracks which fit right in none the less and set the mood really well. As with the first game the best part of the audio is the vioce acting of which there must be hours and hours of. Most of the voice acting is adequete but there are really only a few performances you'll likely remember in years to come coming from Kreia and a model of HK assassin droid which has been sent to kill you. The alien voice overs are not quite as good as the human voices because they are really just like 5 minutes of recording for each race that you will hear repeated over and over again. The reason I didn't bring the game down for this was because they could have easily had everyone speaking english or as they call it basic but it is nice presentation to keep reminding you that you are in the star wars universe. Overall the audio is outstanding much like the original. Gameplay: 9/10 KOTOR 2 does some very nice things to the gameplay but keep it very much what Bioware had imagined for this series. Now for instance you discover you and one of your companions share a bond through the force. In the first game this was just a story element but in the sequal it is gameplay for example if Kreia (the one you share the bond with) casts knight speed on herself, the ability only effects one person, your main character will get the benefit as well and this works both ways and with any spell. Not that it changes the game drastically but it is nice. Not to give anything away but I will say you gain other abilities like that as you play the game. The gameplay does have problems though unfortunatly like in the opening sequence on Peragus you will have to escape and your hand isn't being held through it like it is in the first game you will fell like you've acomplished something because of the cool logic puzzles that is pretty much that entire sequence but at the same time they overdid it and the developers are actually pretty bad at telling you where you are supposed to be going a lot of the time. The combat is still a lot of fun and it hasn't changed much so I won't say too much beyond the important things. KOTOR 2 is'nt an action RPG it is a turn based RPG played out in real time. What I mean by that is you give orders to your team by way of an action menu and all the characters fighting play out the actions in real time. Again I'm not going too in depth on the Role-Playing elements because you for the most part know them. You choose your moral alignment by your actions in conversation with other characters in the game and the story plays out differently depending on which side of the force you are on. The rest of the stuff is pretty standard stuff you choose your armor and weapons upgrade your characters attack and defense ratings and what have you. Ranged weapons feel underpowered again and with melee weapons you will begin to feel pretty much unstopable. Another thing you can do is gain influence over other people in your party which will allow you to bring them with you to the light or dark side of the force if your influence is high enough and it will also effect how they react to your decisions and when you talk to them. So the gameplay is good. Sorry it was so long but if you read it all you should be able to tell whether or not this game is for you. If you still aren't quite sure the next 2 sections are for you. Story: 8/10 The story is not quite as inspired as that of the original. The protagonist who can't remember anything idea has been done to death in both games and movies alike but other then that interesting characters and an interesting premise keep the 30-40 hour long story line quite interesting. If you like questions being answered though you will probably be upset with the story because it ends out of seemingly nowhere and there are some pretty strange twists and things that don't make sense. But it is hard to fault KOTOR 2 for these things because it is obviously a middle chapter in a much bigger, longer and more complex story. Negatives: If you don't want to search the entire review for the negatives here they are all in one place. The graphics should have been updated even though the original only came out a year ago those graphics could'nt be considered state of the art anyway so they should have been upgraded somewhat. On top of that though the loading times are still long and there is a ton of frame loss, my game even crashed on me this morning. Some of the sounds are repeated a little too much. The game screams De Ja Vous. The combat is fairly unbalanced and the game's difficulty is all over the place ranging from ubsurdly easy to impossibly hard. Also the game is hard to settle into. It takes half an hour to finish the prologue and another 4 hours to get out of Peragus. Another 3 until the game finally opens up and it takes about another 3 hours to get your lightsaber back equalling about 10-11 hours before you see a lightsaber. There is also the infamous Nar Shaada glitch where you can't progress in the game at all and because it follows so close to the original a lot of the detail has been lost such as romance with your party members and the ability to kill some of them at the end depending on the decisions you make. Overall: 9/10 When KOTOR 2 was originaly anounced it was scheduled to be released in Feb 05 but then in november the game went gold and came out a month later. After playing The Sith Lords I think the Feb 05 release date should have been kept because the developers could have had more time to iron out the creases and technical issues that plague this game. That doesn't mean the game is bad far from it. KOTOR 2 is a great game and fans of the original who have been looking forward to the sequal should not hesitate to pick this one up because you know exactly what you are in for. New comers to the series and people who are'nt sure if this game is for them should assume it's not. This game is obviously aimed at fans of the original and if you fall into one of those categories you should find some way of playing the first game by renting it, buying it (it's a platinum hit now) or borrowing it from a friend. Not only in my opinion is the original a better game but it will give you an idea if this style of game is for you and if it isn't you have not wasted as much money as you would have done by picking up the second game directly. Given the success that this game will recieve from fans I am already counting down the days until KOTOR 3 even though Obsidian aren't saying anything yet. We'll see when E3 comes around won't we. 
