For this one we head back a few years. Knights of the Old Republic was one of the best RPGs on the original Xbox but the sequel had some troubles out of the gate. Nothing major but it never really garnered the same amount of praise that the first one did.
Character- Rather obviously the main character, the exile, has no personality beyond what the player ascribes to them. Dictating their actions and power ups as they see fit. While a couple of characters return all of the new ones have some manner of good personality inherent to them and it works well. My personal favorite of the new batch of characters is probably Mira. They are all distinct and different, even though most people will probably find their preferred team and run with that for most of the game.
Story- Now here is what makes or breaks RPGs. In this case Sith lords is good. A good overarching goal while you explore planets. I'm not so keen on returning to two of the ones we went to in the first game but that doesn't hurt the game. In addition I thank Obsidian for not making us go to Tatooine again. The place where the game is let down is that the big reveal of the game isn't as well done as the first game. It also is pretty easy to see coming. You obviously can choose your path on how exactly to go about completing it but you will go to each one eventually.
Gameplay- Ok this was a problem in both games. Since it uses the D20 system all combat is turn based. I don't have a problem with it but I have talked to a friend of mine who has been unable to actually play the game because the combat is so terrible. Most of the game though will be walking around and entering loading screens. The game is littered with the things. And unfortunately many of the quests take place in areas that the player must go back and forth between loading screens making the 20+ hour playtimes a misnomer as much of that is loading the next area. The game can also be obtuse at times Nar Shadaa is a good example of this. You have to do something very specific to get the appropriate event to trigger properly and allow you to continue the story. I really enjoyed the ability to make any of your character party (excluding the droids) into Jedi. Though doing so almost requires a guide and creates a dearth of lightsabers. The force powers availible consists of many varied choices from healing to force lightning. My personal beef with this is that in Kotor one using an ability that was contrary to the characters alignment cost double. In two they changed it to making the majority of your force powers be discounted. This creates a weird situation where the character can be a light jedi and be throwing around life drains and force lightning.
Graphics- Well its old what do you want. They aren't the best but for the time the game was good looking. I really don't have anything to say on that. The voice acting was good and other sounds were authentic.
Odds and Sods- Well the game is buggy at times. The disc that I have includes the republic commando demo and when I began the game I couldn't use any of the workbenches. Completion of the demo unlocked the benches and allowed me to continue. Also a problem with how they did things is that the first of the sith you kill, the biggest guy on the box and the one played up to kill planets is the first one you kill and he goes down like a chump.
Good Gaming.
Hambone out
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