Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
Easy for you to say...
Combat has been tarted up a little bit this time round. The fights are a real joy to behold with the cinematic portrayal of the action taking the expected leap in visual arrestivenss once the lightsabers come out to play. Controlling characters during the fight seemed less cumbersome than before. Once you have familiarised yourself with the controls it's possible to keep a party going in the middle of a big fight without having to rely on the pause function. KOTOR 2 is the first game where I have felt that the white (pause) and black (character select) buttons were in the right place on the Xbox controller. If things do get too hectic you can easily pause the game and set up a string of commands for each character using the X button. After a while with the game I came to the conclusion that many of the design decisions made for the control system were spot on and that going back to point and click on a PC will seem like a retrograde step.
It's a shame that the AI and pathfinding is not up to the same exacting standards. While the directness of the enclosed environments reduces the scope for your players to get stuck, in the middle of a fight they can often give up in confusion if an enemy is an awkward position. Party members also don't always make the smartest targeting choices although idiots running across the map to attack an inconsequential threat are a blessedly rare occurrence. Opening containers can also lead to an instant IQ drop in your characters, although it must be said that coding to make the model try different options if the first path is blocked is readily apparent and usually works quite well. The AI also does a good job of utilising a character's particular strengths during the well animated battles. So while it's unwise to just leave the machine to do all the fighting for you, the AI will liberally use Force powers and health packs along with special moves to ensure that the characters which are not under the player's direct control still provide useful support.
Obsidian have also done nothing to improve the underlying game engine, so occasional slowdowns and restrictive and bland environments are more prevalent than they should be. Once again much of the exploring is all about running down long corridors, whether they are indoors or out. There are some impressive locations to admire and the visual style is undeniably Star Wars yet you can almost hear the complaints of the game designers as they tried to match their vision to the technical capabilities of the Xbox. Loading times are lengthy and overly frequent, with the prospect of a trek across five or six loading screens enough to nix thoughts of tying up minor side quests. There are also a few minor bugs and glitches which could have no doubt been excised if the game wasn't pushed out the door in time for its US Christmas release.
KOTOR 2 is in my mind a superior sequel. And while it follows a recent trend of open endings designed to compel you to buy the third instalment, it offers many, many hours of RPG fun. The quality of the characters, story and writing is the biggest draw as far as I was concerned and is certainly the game's greatest strength. The characters are full of quirks, idiosyncrasies and flaws, making them seem like realistic individuals rather than the tool of a games designer. KOTOR 2 shows that to make a truly impressive RPG you really only need two things: a workable and fluid engine, and some seriously talented writers. KOTOR 2 also has superb settings, great sound and music and a combat system that strikes the right balance between action and considered confrontation. Even if you haven't touched or were left underwhelmed by the first KOTOR, if you have an affinity for either Star Wars or RPGs it's very unlikely that you won't find yourself quickly getting sucked into the sumptuous atmosphere and intrigue that is KOTOR 2.
90%
Comments
I dont doubt this is going to be a great game but i have just one problem- its been sitting at the side of my computer for over a week now because IT IS THE MOST BUGGIEST RELEASED GAME I HAVE EVER NOT PLAYED!
After three attempts, it finally managed to install (taking over 1 hour in total). Now it's installed, it wont even run!! And there are thousands more with the same or similar problems- just have a look at the obsidian/lucasarts forums.
For £30, i would expect the people involved to do a proper QA job on it, but as seems usual, the money hungers bast**s released a game they hoped would sell on the success of its predecessor, and i'm one of the fools who fell for it :-(
Any news on a Mac version being released?
Yo!!!!! Very good game!!!!!
when i bought kotor1 i though it would be like a first person or at the least a 3rd person shootem up ( as i didnt read up on it)
but after an hour i was very plase as its like shenmue in some respects.. and i will defently be getting kotor2
It's cool
Bitty
As far as the game is so far, after having it almost a week, it is fantastic. Not bugs installing. Just one and it was in a cut scene. I bought it at Best Buy for $40 bucks, while every where else it was listed for $50. I am totally satisfied with it and it follows the storyline of KoToRI really well. I rank it as A+! Go out and buy it.
It might have been worth the asking price if they hadn't cut so much material from the game in order to meet their shipping date (the Droid factory, HK47's subquests, and most of the endstories that dealt with your and your partymembers' fates), but without that material it's a pretty flawed (and buggy) product. Wait until it comes down in price, until the game is patched, and until the modding community (if the developers aren't able to get the ok from Lucasarts to do a content patch) adds the ending that the game currently lacks.
It's a pisser when games get content cut and are relased in a less then fully functioning form so as to hit a particular sales period. And for LucasArts to not have fixed the PC version in the last three months before its UK release is inexcusable.
Fortunately, the reviewed Xbox version is as good as bug free. Let's hope they get everything in order by the time KOTOR 3 comes out.
Is there a Demo for this game on PC?
It's obvious this review didn't really complete the game. KOTOR 2 is chock full of plot holes, programming holes, dialogue holes. Clearly no beta testing was even done on this game.
starwars kotor 2 is a good game though the plot keeps you guessing.their were many improvments made on the over all gameplay.i was starting to get tired when i had to talk to mandolore his axcent was to austrailian.but still im ainxtios for kotor3
I cant beat kreia whats the ending? : (
if u dont want to know what teh ending is look away NOW
baisically u kill her and throw her down into a big pit thingy in malacore...
(to beat kria run and use force storm over and over!!!!)
Well surfer guy the ending depends on if you are dark or light. if you are light you fly off in the ebon hawk and if you are dark then you stay on malachor 5
is there anyone having a problem with dissapearing characters
This game rock. I've pasted it 6 times with both the male and female characters (without cheats)
i will never trust another review from sam gibson again. if you think this game is so great, try to explain away this:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?kotor2
this:
http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=29709
this:
http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=29527
and this:
http://forums.lucasarts.com/thread.jspa?threadID=31173&start=0
I think the game would get boring second time around
Tis game is awfull
I have this game. I'm still trying to beat it. It's fun, but it has some glithes. I mean, could'nt they have done some testing??? Idiots. Peragus is very boring too. It gave me a bad headache. It is a good game though. It's REALLY fun. IT'S VERY, VERY, EXTREMELY, SUPREMELY, VERY. VERY, ADDICTIVE!!!!
I have this game. I'm still trying to beat it. It's fun, but it has some glithes. I mean, could'nt they have done some testing??? Idiots. Peragus is very boring too. It gave me a bad headache. It is a good game though. It's REALLY fun. IT'S VERY, VERY, EXTREMELY, SUPREMELY, VERY. VERY, ADDICTIVE!!!!
I an stuck in a part where i am t3-m4 and I am versing the mining robots with shields and i am stuck and i keep dying what do I do?
this game is gud but i cant get past the sith acadamy
Both endings suck ive finished it like 8 times hoping that with different comments it would be a different ending what sucks too is that there are no unique robes or armors only 1 saber that ive gotten and it has been freedon nadds short lightsaber i didnt really used it so i sold it for like 650 creds heh i wish i had it in pc though so i could download unique robes and armor (patches) i found the first 1 more exciting then this 1 this 1 was too short. but i liked some new feats and all and the upgradable saber and armor well that is all if you have any info on unique robes plz email me Aze_zal@yahoo.com thx.
oh also Dancer palanca the sith academy is easy to beat if you remember the first Kotor. oh and for any dudes or Ladies having problem defeating Darth sion he is easy if your in Dark side with sith lord all you have to do is keep force crushing him and he will be easy or if your Light and are jedi weapon master he is fun to duel and Very! easy. Darth kreia is A bit Hard in dark side especially with the 3 sabers.. i defeated the sabers by running from them and force storming them heh oh and i started playing again for 9th time and i got stuck on a wall in nar shadaa Damn you.. MAKERS!!!
oh And im trying to dowload Kotor 1st but have no luck nor in google or yahoo websurfing If ANY! of you downloaded it plz the site would be gratefull just make a comment or send site to Aze_zal@yahoo.com PLZ IM DESPERATE!!!!!
The reviewer obviously didnt finish the game, otherwise he would have noticed that part of the game which was rushed and an example of poor storytelling - the ending. No character conclusions, no explanations and a cheapening experience after you had played for 30+ hours....shame on Lucas Arts for forcing the developers to rush the game so it could be out for christmas...as though people dont buy computer games during the rest of the year or something.
the story is so screwed up at the end i was really annoyed that it was nothing like the huge plot twists of KOTOR 1. i still dont understand what the hell happened at the end with me and kreia
wat the hell is a force wound?!
fu all
why didn't you used the jedis in the first battlefront?