he first Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic was a Star Wars and RPG fans’ dream come true.  Unique turn-based combat melded with one of the most engrossing Star Wars storylines to date made for one of the most exceptional console gaming experiences seen in quite a few years.  Well, LucasArts has taken the game to a new developer, Obsidian Entertainment, and while you might think that such a move might hurt a sequel, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is even better than the first.  While the game still adheres quite strongly to the gameplay elements found in the first KOTOR, enough has been tweaked and upgraded to ensure that KOTOR II has a most decidedly original feel.

One of the strongest aspects of the first KOTOR was its deep and multi-faceted storyline, and KOTOR II carries on this tradition in spades.  While I won’t spoil the entire thing for you, I will let you in on some of the early plot points that help set up the game.  Much like the last game, you start off everything by assembling your custom character from a wide number of different skin options.  Once you’ve assembled your hero, you find yourself awakening on a strange space station with blurred memories of your past.  It seems that the ship has been completely overrun and the crew killed off.  Alone and in your skivvies, you set out on the ship to discover exactly where you are and what’s happened.  Early on you run into a familiar and helpful T3-M4 who aids you in your exploration, as well as Atton Rand, a man with an unsavory background.  But, in your dire situations, an ally proves more helpful than an enemy and you form a sort of rag tag team with him.  Further along you also gain the company of Kreia, a Jedi Consular who seems to share a special Force bond with your character, but like you’d expect, Kreia is a fan of cryptic and often confusing dialogue and she makes sure to only let you in on as much as she wants you to.

Eventually you learn that were on the Ebon Hawk, and currently find yourself on the Peragus Mining Station.  The entire base has fallen prey to sabotage and the crew of the mining facility has been killed off by rampaging mining droids. To make matters worse, a mysterious freighter has docked at Peragus, carrying a dead crew and a legion of Sith assassins and an even more imposing foe ­- Darth Sion.

The storyline in KOTOR II is probably the most enjoyable aspect of the game, and it’s filled with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing at every corner.  Interestingly, it seems that Obsidian has gone down a different road than previous developer BioWare by only letting you in on what’s going on around you in very specific ways.  You essentially start off the game only knowing as much as your character does and you’re never really given all that much information to go on.  If you’re a fan of always knowing what’s happening, the game may prove a bit frustrating, but for those of you out there who love to get a plot relayed to you piece by piece, KOTOR II will have you on the edge of your seat.

If you’ve played through the first KOTOR, many of the core gameplay elements of KOTOR II won’t come as a surprise to you.  Aside from combat and Force powers, which I’ll discuss later, much of the game centers on your ability to interact and talk with people around you.  You’ll travel to a large number of Star Wars specific areas and planets, each of which is filled with an astounding number of different races and people.  This time around, your character and allies (most of them at least) are directly tied to the light and dark paths of the Force.  So, what you do and say ultimately affects which path of the Force you’ll travel down.  Being kind to people and performing heroic deeds will earn you light points, while being a jerk and instilling fear in those around you will earn you dark points. 

Someone seems be getting in touch with their dark side

And, dark and light tendencies will eventually mold the physical appearance of your characters as well as influence how those around you react to your presence.  A select few characters can’t be drawn down the paths of the Force with you, but manipulating those that can is worth the price of admission all by itself.  There’s something magical about being able to extort and strong arm innocent folks for your own benefit, as well as helping the needy and being lauded as hero, that truly makes for one heck of a good time.

But, the Force isn’t just walking around and wagging tongues with the folk around you.  As a Jedi you have at your disposal a wide number of different powers and Feats, some of which are used in combat while others are relegated for support purposes.  Added to the mix are some new powers, including Force Crush, Battle Meditation, Force Body, Force Scream, Force Deflection, and Force Camouflage.  There are also some new Feats that allow you to take skills and make them class skills. 

Force powers make you a formidable foe

For example, if Stealth isn’t a class skill, you can use a special Feat to make it one.  There are also some more combat minded Feats that prove quite handy, especially one that lets you target one enemy with two characters and receive a hit bonus as a result.

For those of you more skilled with a lightsaber than using the powers of the Force, KOTOR II provides plenty of unique combat.  Weapons are broken down into two categories: melee and ranged.  But don’t fret; you’ll still have access to a ton of different weapons including blasters, swords, and lightsabers (including single and double hilts).  For the most part, the combat system remains mostly untouched from the first game in terms of wielding weapons and using them.  Obsidian has, however, tweaked a number of features that make combat easier to pull off.  First of all, characters can now be assigned different roles other than the “attack, Force power, grenadier” system seem in the first KOTOR and can now be appointed duties such as Aggressive, Jedi Support, Stationary, and Ranged.  You’ll also notice that item management and usage is a bit easier to deal with, especially with the new ability to use medpacs on various characters, instead of having to switch to a character needing healing and then administering the medical device.

On the visual side of things KOTOR II is looking quite a bit better than the first game, thanks to more detailed and diverse character models as well as more expansive and realistic environments.  Character models feature more variances, so fewer characters end up sharing the same face model.  And true, it may just be a cosmetic feature, but the inclusion of it really helps add quite a bit more realism.  Environments, while suffering from some blandness every now and then, for the most part incorporate more subtle and secondary details to give them some more life. 

Character models are now more highly detailed and realistic

Lighting and shadowing are used a bit more liberally to create atmosphere and things like computer terminals and communication consoles feature flickering lights and nodes, instead of simply remaining static objects.  While there are relatively few cutscenes in the game, the ones that you are treated to show off the game’s heavier focus on character detail.  More polygons mean more fluidity when it comes to movement and animation and the difference between this feature in the sequel compared to the first game is quite noticeable.  Also, you can’t beat the visual changes your characters undergo as they begin to align towards the light or dark sides of the Force, as well as some of humorous responses you’ll get from NPCs as they notice your “odd” appearance.

Aurally KOTOR II is about on par with the first game.  Voice over dialogue is well delivered and appropriate for each scene, especially any one that includes everyone’s favorite homicidal droid HK-47.  NPC dialogue tends to get repetitive pretty quickly, but for those characters who do have something important to tell you, the realism and delivery of their dialogue is usually intriguing.  Musically the game contains a bunch of Star Wars specific tunes, some of which really help to add either poignancy or desperation, depending on what situation you’re in. 

While much of the KOTOR II puts the first game to shame, I did run into some concerns that seem to be remnants from the first adventure.  First of all, while the game is noticeably better looking in terms of graphics, I still noticed that the game suffers from some choppy framerate, especially during combat.  While the game is nice looking, it’s by no means topping off the power of the Xbox, so framerate loss seems a bit perplexing. The first time you see a character “warp” across a room to attack an enemy or when a blaster shot stutters by you in slow motion, you’ll probably scratch your head in disbelief.  Also, the game still runs into some issues when it comes to targeting enemies.  The new combat assignments do help out quite a bit, but the game seems to still contain a nasty tendency to prioritize melee combat over ranged.  For example, say I run into a room and opt to cast Force Storm on a distant enemy.  That sounds like a simple enough strategy, right?  Well, frequently the game will actually have my character run up to the enemy, melee attack, and then cast Force Bolt.  Needless to say, the entire sequence results in quite a bit of frustration since it ultimately makes my initial battle plan moot.  For all the new features and upgrades Obsidian did add to KOTOR II, it feels a bit disappointing that more time wasn’t focus on fixing some of the technical issues from the first game.

But, don’t let those minor issues deter you.  For the most part, KOTOR II delivers plenty of the thrills that the first game did.  The new Force powers and Feats are both handy and a blast to use and the storyline will have you guessing to the end.  You also run into a host of characters from the first game, which serves not only as a nice trip down memory lane but also helps add to the expansive plot.  If you were a fan of the first KOTOR, this latest installment will keep you happy for quite some time (at least 40 or so hours, we’d say).  But, thanks to its addictive and unique gameplay, even gamers who have never touched the first KOTOR will find plenty of reasons to get in touch with the light or dark sides.