AKI Man
Legend
<iframe type='text/html' width='250' height='210' src='
' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen=''></iframe>
The story picks up five years after the events in the original game. You again start as a slightly amnesiac Jedi who has to puzzle out his past while navigating the complex moral responsibilities presented by the latest threat to the galaxy. I'll omit any summary of the story here since the surprise in discovering what's happening and why is one of the main pleasures of the game. Suffice it to say that you're being hunted down by one group of enemies, while also tracking down a second group who, at least superficially, also seem to be your enemies. A seemingly unimportant incident at the beginning of the game ripples throughout the galaxy and sparks events that could lead to the collapse of the existing political and social order.
Gamers who haven't played the original won't necessarily feel lost here but the new story does build on events and characters from the previous game. Though it's not a requirement by any means, Knights of the Old Republic II will surely mean more to those who have finished the first game, particularly so given the game's frequent mention of the relationship between Revan and Malak. Players of the original game might be disappointed that this game pretty much follows the same structure; the recycling of the "who am I?" angle was a bit of a let down. Given the similarity in the games' openings, I was glad to see there wasn't another surprising revelation waiting for you at the end this time.
Though the game starts out at an agonizingly slow pace, once you get past the first few hours, things start to pick up. I'm still ticked off that it takes so long to get your lightsaber. I had played the Xbox version already and it still took me a good 12 hours to get the lightsaber in the PC version. I respect that holding it back makes it more meaningful and dramatic once you do get it, but it's not like the developers bother to add anything dramatic around its acquisition. Once you manage to find the parts you need, a character on your ship just makes it for you. Talk about an anti-climax.
After you get your bearings, you'll have your very own starship in which you can tool about the galaxy trying to run from your pursuers and hunt down your own prey. As you land on each of the planets in the game you'll have the chance to get involved in local affairs while also making progress towards your overall goal. Some seemingly unimportant missions can lead you towards important clues or have consequences that resonate through the game. And while there are some big, important things to be done pretty much anywhere you go, they're usually composed of fetch-and-carry or assassination tasks.
While it sometimes gets tedious (never more so than when you have to run back and forth between locations again and again), the fact that you're accomplishing smaller goals that make up larger goals helps you feel like you're making progress. Being able to pick and choose how you carry out these duties also helps to keep your interest level high.
This freedom of choice works well for the game. There's a strong sense of progression in terms of the overall story events but the context of their arrival in terms or your moral choices makes the game seem very personal and spontaneous. The downside is that you can sometimes feel lost. Your journal points towards the next likely objective but if you're paying attention to the story you'll rarely wonder what you should do next
Still, there are some long-term objectives here that you can really screw up if you're not careful and painstakingly thorough. None of the really vulnerable quests are plot-stoppers but even that won't soothe your aggravation when you realize that you're suddenly unable to add a new member to your party (and open up more of the story) simply because you failed to loot an essential item off a planet that you blew up fifteen hours ago. I appreciate that the game gives you enough latitude to keep advancing in the face of your mistakes but there are some elements that you shouldn't leave to chance.
While the quests are great, the most intriguing aspect of the game's design is the moral ambiguity of the world around you. In the aftermath of the war, many of the people you meet don't seem to care about the distinction between the Jedi and the Sith. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to outline the difference yourself. Determining who was right and who was wrong in the previous conflict is a big part of defining your character's sense of moral responsibility throughout the game. This comes out through discussions with almost everyone in the game but particularly with your interactions with the morally ambiguous members of your party.
Your moral character also grows out of your decisions and actions throughout the game and there are opportunities at every turn to influence your overall moral direction here. You can even find dark/light side choices at two or three different points in a single conversation. I was particularly pleased to see that you could set people up now, pretending to do the right thing only to lower the hammer on them once they're sure you've helped them escape harm or embarrassment. "Oh, don't worry. I wouldn't dream of revealing your horrible secret. (Tee hee!)"
In the first either/or alliance you should be able to guess that helping the altruistic ecologists will lead you toward the light side and that helping the profit-minded corporate types will lead you down the path to the dark side. I disliked that the early portions of the game equated the dark side with simple bullying but things get a lot more sophisticated and subtle later on when who you're helping isn't as important as why or how you decide to help them. Suddenly you can be a bad person doing good things for bad reasons, or a good person doing bad things for good reasons, or even a simple AC/DC fan doing dirty deeds dirt-cheap. There are plenty of intriguing shades of gray between the light and dark sides.
There's a lot more variability in terms of your party members now as well. While the previous game allowed your party members to respond to your moral choices, the sequel allows you to sway their outlook towards your own. Watching characters be corrupted or redeemed based on your attitudes is a nice addition and makes your own choices so much more meaningful.
Some characters even clash with each other over these differences. Trying to get the goodie-two-shoes Handmaiden warrior to accept the dark Jedi assassin is a hoot. You gain or lose influence with characters based on how you treat them and what you do when they're around. You can even lose influence with a character based on what you say about them to other characters.
While it's a lot of fun to play around with these relationships, I'm kind of disappointed that it doesn't matter more in terms of the game's narrative. In one situation, I had to convince one of my female characters to do something completely degrading in order to advance the plot. Even though I had lost almost all my influence with her (she was pissed because I totally thought this other girl character was, like, wicked hot) she went ahead and performed the task anyway.
Combat is almost completely unchanged from the previous game. The real-time turn-based format still works well thanks to the ability to pause the action. Since the action is divided into discrete turns, it barely relies on player reflexes at all. The combat mechanics are all based on your characters' attributes and equipment with a random element thrown in to keep things interesting
When playing the previous game, I remember I spent a lot of time managing the actions of my team. This time around, I pretty much stuck with the main character and let the AI control the behavior of the other members of the party. Though you can always squeeze more efficiency out of the system by taking charge of it yourself, the AI makes smart decisions during combat so you won't need to babysit them too much. The variable behaviors for the AI make it even easier to let them run on autopilot.
The only real downside to combat is that the interface obscures too much of the action. Having the main attack buttons located right in the middle of the screen certainly makes it easy to run through your options but it just distracts from the action too much. Many times you can't even see the guy you're attacking because he's covered up with your attack options.
One new feature in Knights of the Old Republic II is the concept of lightsaber forms. These are like different martial arts styles, each suited to a specific type of conflict. Some styles are better for fighting lots of people (beating up groups for local charities, say), while others are more suited for fighting users of the Force, or for deflecting blaster fire. While it's a neat idea, I never found it as effective as some of the other people around the office did. I did like the forms that conferred bonuses to your Force powers but the difference a +1 or +2 makes to a combat roll isn't that noticeable, especially once you've become powerful enough to already learn the more advanced forms.
While we're on the subject of being powerful, there are some new feats and powers here and a six new prestige classes, three each on both the Jedi and Sith side of the equation. The prestige classes follow the general pattern of the starting character classes: you can focus on combat, Force powers or a less potent but more balanced mix of the two. Each starting class and each prestige class come with unique feats and powers at certain levels, so there's even more incentive to go back and play through the game again just to see how the other half lives.
With all that said, there are two problems with the level advancement in Knights of the Old Republic. First, I think it's great that you eventually reach a point where you can slice through the rank and file with no problem at all. But some of the bigger confrontations in the game don't seem scaled to offer an adequate challenge. Taking out large monsters or top-tier villains is a bit too easy at the later stages in the game. A little scalability here would definitely help me care about the small advantages gained in choosing one lightsaber form over another.
The second problem isn't as aggravating. It's great that the game doesn't penalize you for not using a certain character but I came to dread the level up sound cue because I knew it meant I would have to level up six or seven different characters at once. It's also ridiculous to level brand new party members several levels in succession once they join. Late in the game, I had a soldier join me and I had to level him ten times in a row before moving on. If the developers are going to stick with this formula, they ought to at least let you select all the feats and powers and assign all skill points at once rather than haltingly stepping your way through ten levels one at a time. Does anybody enjoy this?
The graphics are definitely starting to show the weaknesses of the engine. The running animations are very stiff and the static talking heads of the cutscenes are beginning to wear thin. I do like the combat animations; the characters really look like they're fighting their opponents, even if they do sometimes swing through the bodies of their allies.
Though the atmosphere of the worlds is nice, the environments are more than just a little monotonous, much more so than the Star Wars tradition of an entire planet defined by a single ecology usually is. The levels also seem to lack the clutter that might make them feel like real spaces. The new rain and snow effects are a nice touch but this engine can't get by with the addition of small touches like that.
The performance leaves a bit to be desired as well. We ran the game on Alienware's Area 51 machines and still got some stuttering from time to time, nowhere worse than in the toxin-choked bar of Nar Shaddaa. The upside is that load times are an absolute breeze if you've got plenty of RAM.
As always, the sound is first rate. LucasArts always manages to make these games sound just like the films in terms of effects and music and Knights of the Old Republic II is no exception. The blaster fire, the hum of lightsabers, and the snatches of the John Williams score are all pitch perfect and completely sell the experience. The voice acting is also very high quality. With as many parts and as many lines as there are in this game, I'm amazed that it's as consistently good as it is. You'll find the odd readings here and there but the overall effect is undeniably impressive.
The first game was great in spite of some technical problems and the sequel still suffers from a few. A few people have reported bad pathfinding bugs but we haven't seen any beyond some small inconveniences in trying to get around characters in a narrow space. There are some odd camera problems in the cutscenes. Sometimes the camera gets stuck in a character or cuts them out of the shot altogether. Playing through the entire story, we've had the game crash about four or five times. Frequent use of the quick save key can minimize the frustration here.
That same play-through also revealed a few quest problems with some quests not updating or being out of synch in the journal. While there are one or two instances where this is almost definitely a glitch, it is sometimes also the consequence of poorly designed quest triggers. We'd be more inclined to be forgiving of these shortcomings if they hadn't all been seen in the previous game a year and a half ago.
Closing Comments
If you like roleplaying games or if you like Star Wars, you'll be hard pressed to find a game as enjoyable as Knights of the Old Republic II. Sure, it's got some technical problems and, sure, it starts fairly slowly but if you can see past those flaws, you're in for one hell of a treat. The moral choices are much more varied and integrated into the overall experience this time around. I wish the new influence system had more of an effect on the actual narrative but the idea is intriguing in any case.
More importantly, all these mechanics -- the moral slider, the influence system, combat, etc. -- are surrounded by a first rate story that's almost as mythic and fantastic as the films themselves. Like I said, if you like RPGs or if you like Star Wars, you'll definitely like Knights of the Old Republic II. And if you like both? Man, oh, man. Get this game.
8.5 Presentation
A great story and an authentic Star Wars experience. Problems from the original should have been fixed by now.
7.5 Graphics
The overall effect is good but the individual parts are weak. The world needs more detail.
9.0 Sound
No less impressive for living up to the standards we've come to expect from LucasArts treatment of this franchise.
9.0 Gameplay
The influence mechanic is the only really new thing here and it works fine. The rest of the elements are as good as they were in the first game.
9.5 Lasting Appeal
You could (and assuredly will) play it again. The variety of experiences will definitely tempt you back
The story picks up five years after the events in the original game. You again start as a slightly amnesiac Jedi who has to puzzle out his past while navigating the complex moral responsibilities presented by the latest threat to the galaxy. I'll omit any summary of the story here since the surprise in discovering what's happening and why is one of the main pleasures of the game. Suffice it to say that you're being hunted down by one group of enemies, while also tracking down a second group who, at least superficially, also seem to be your enemies. A seemingly unimportant incident at the beginning of the game ripples throughout the galaxy and sparks events that could lead to the collapse of the existing political and social order.
Gamers who haven't played the original won't necessarily feel lost here but the new story does build on events and characters from the previous game. Though it's not a requirement by any means, Knights of the Old Republic II will surely mean more to those who have finished the first game, particularly so given the game's frequent mention of the relationship between Revan and Malak. Players of the original game might be disappointed that this game pretty much follows the same structure; the recycling of the "who am I?" angle was a bit of a let down. Given the similarity in the games' openings, I was glad to see there wasn't another surprising revelation waiting for you at the end this time.
Though the game starts out at an agonizingly slow pace, once you get past the first few hours, things start to pick up. I'm still ticked off that it takes so long to get your lightsaber. I had played the Xbox version already and it still took me a good 12 hours to get the lightsaber in the PC version. I respect that holding it back makes it more meaningful and dramatic once you do get it, but it's not like the developers bother to add anything dramatic around its acquisition. Once you manage to find the parts you need, a character on your ship just makes it for you. Talk about an anti-climax.
After you get your bearings, you'll have your very own starship in which you can tool about the galaxy trying to run from your pursuers and hunt down your own prey. As you land on each of the planets in the game you'll have the chance to get involved in local affairs while also making progress towards your overall goal. Some seemingly unimportant missions can lead you towards important clues or have consequences that resonate through the game. And while there are some big, important things to be done pretty much anywhere you go, they're usually composed of fetch-and-carry or assassination tasks.
While it sometimes gets tedious (never more so than when you have to run back and forth between locations again and again), the fact that you're accomplishing smaller goals that make up larger goals helps you feel like you're making progress. Being able to pick and choose how you carry out these duties also helps to keep your interest level high.
This freedom of choice works well for the game. There's a strong sense of progression in terms of the overall story events but the context of their arrival in terms or your moral choices makes the game seem very personal and spontaneous. The downside is that you can sometimes feel lost. Your journal points towards the next likely objective but if you're paying attention to the story you'll rarely wonder what you should do next
Still, there are some long-term objectives here that you can really screw up if you're not careful and painstakingly thorough. None of the really vulnerable quests are plot-stoppers but even that won't soothe your aggravation when you realize that you're suddenly unable to add a new member to your party (and open up more of the story) simply because you failed to loot an essential item off a planet that you blew up fifteen hours ago. I appreciate that the game gives you enough latitude to keep advancing in the face of your mistakes but there are some elements that you shouldn't leave to chance.
While the quests are great, the most intriguing aspect of the game's design is the moral ambiguity of the world around you. In the aftermath of the war, many of the people you meet don't seem to care about the distinction between the Jedi and the Sith. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to outline the difference yourself. Determining who was right and who was wrong in the previous conflict is a big part of defining your character's sense of moral responsibility throughout the game. This comes out through discussions with almost everyone in the game but particularly with your interactions with the morally ambiguous members of your party.
Your moral character also grows out of your decisions and actions throughout the game and there are opportunities at every turn to influence your overall moral direction here. You can even find dark/light side choices at two or three different points in a single conversation. I was particularly pleased to see that you could set people up now, pretending to do the right thing only to lower the hammer on them once they're sure you've helped them escape harm or embarrassment. "Oh, don't worry. I wouldn't dream of revealing your horrible secret. (Tee hee!)"
In the first either/or alliance you should be able to guess that helping the altruistic ecologists will lead you toward the light side and that helping the profit-minded corporate types will lead you down the path to the dark side. I disliked that the early portions of the game equated the dark side with simple bullying but things get a lot more sophisticated and subtle later on when who you're helping isn't as important as why or how you decide to help them. Suddenly you can be a bad person doing good things for bad reasons, or a good person doing bad things for good reasons, or even a simple AC/DC fan doing dirty deeds dirt-cheap. There are plenty of intriguing shades of gray between the light and dark sides.
There's a lot more variability in terms of your party members now as well. While the previous game allowed your party members to respond to your moral choices, the sequel allows you to sway their outlook towards your own. Watching characters be corrupted or redeemed based on your attitudes is a nice addition and makes your own choices so much more meaningful.
Some characters even clash with each other over these differences. Trying to get the goodie-two-shoes Handmaiden warrior to accept the dark Jedi assassin is a hoot. You gain or lose influence with characters based on how you treat them and what you do when they're around. You can even lose influence with a character based on what you say about them to other characters.
While it's a lot of fun to play around with these relationships, I'm kind of disappointed that it doesn't matter more in terms of the game's narrative. In one situation, I had to convince one of my female characters to do something completely degrading in order to advance the plot. Even though I had lost almost all my influence with her (she was pissed because I totally thought this other girl character was, like, wicked hot) she went ahead and performed the task anyway.
Combat is almost completely unchanged from the previous game. The real-time turn-based format still works well thanks to the ability to pause the action. Since the action is divided into discrete turns, it barely relies on player reflexes at all. The combat mechanics are all based on your characters' attributes and equipment with a random element thrown in to keep things interesting
When playing the previous game, I remember I spent a lot of time managing the actions of my team. This time around, I pretty much stuck with the main character and let the AI control the behavior of the other members of the party. Though you can always squeeze more efficiency out of the system by taking charge of it yourself, the AI makes smart decisions during combat so you won't need to babysit them too much. The variable behaviors for the AI make it even easier to let them run on autopilot.
The only real downside to combat is that the interface obscures too much of the action. Having the main attack buttons located right in the middle of the screen certainly makes it easy to run through your options but it just distracts from the action too much. Many times you can't even see the guy you're attacking because he's covered up with your attack options.
One new feature in Knights of the Old Republic II is the concept of lightsaber forms. These are like different martial arts styles, each suited to a specific type of conflict. Some styles are better for fighting lots of people (beating up groups for local charities, say), while others are more suited for fighting users of the Force, or for deflecting blaster fire. While it's a neat idea, I never found it as effective as some of the other people around the office did. I did like the forms that conferred bonuses to your Force powers but the difference a +1 or +2 makes to a combat roll isn't that noticeable, especially once you've become powerful enough to already learn the more advanced forms.
While we're on the subject of being powerful, there are some new feats and powers here and a six new prestige classes, three each on both the Jedi and Sith side of the equation. The prestige classes follow the general pattern of the starting character classes: you can focus on combat, Force powers or a less potent but more balanced mix of the two. Each starting class and each prestige class come with unique feats and powers at certain levels, so there's even more incentive to go back and play through the game again just to see how the other half lives.
With all that said, there are two problems with the level advancement in Knights of the Old Republic. First, I think it's great that you eventually reach a point where you can slice through the rank and file with no problem at all. But some of the bigger confrontations in the game don't seem scaled to offer an adequate challenge. Taking out large monsters or top-tier villains is a bit too easy at the later stages in the game. A little scalability here would definitely help me care about the small advantages gained in choosing one lightsaber form over another.
The second problem isn't as aggravating. It's great that the game doesn't penalize you for not using a certain character but I came to dread the level up sound cue because I knew it meant I would have to level up six or seven different characters at once. It's also ridiculous to level brand new party members several levels in succession once they join. Late in the game, I had a soldier join me and I had to level him ten times in a row before moving on. If the developers are going to stick with this formula, they ought to at least let you select all the feats and powers and assign all skill points at once rather than haltingly stepping your way through ten levels one at a time. Does anybody enjoy this?
The graphics are definitely starting to show the weaknesses of the engine. The running animations are very stiff and the static talking heads of the cutscenes are beginning to wear thin. I do like the combat animations; the characters really look like they're fighting their opponents, even if they do sometimes swing through the bodies of their allies.
Though the atmosphere of the worlds is nice, the environments are more than just a little monotonous, much more so than the Star Wars tradition of an entire planet defined by a single ecology usually is. The levels also seem to lack the clutter that might make them feel like real spaces. The new rain and snow effects are a nice touch but this engine can't get by with the addition of small touches like that.
The performance leaves a bit to be desired as well. We ran the game on Alienware's Area 51 machines and still got some stuttering from time to time, nowhere worse than in the toxin-choked bar of Nar Shaddaa. The upside is that load times are an absolute breeze if you've got plenty of RAM.
As always, the sound is first rate. LucasArts always manages to make these games sound just like the films in terms of effects and music and Knights of the Old Republic II is no exception. The blaster fire, the hum of lightsabers, and the snatches of the John Williams score are all pitch perfect and completely sell the experience. The voice acting is also very high quality. With as many parts and as many lines as there are in this game, I'm amazed that it's as consistently good as it is. You'll find the odd readings here and there but the overall effect is undeniably impressive.
The first game was great in spite of some technical problems and the sequel still suffers from a few. A few people have reported bad pathfinding bugs but we haven't seen any beyond some small inconveniences in trying to get around characters in a narrow space. There are some odd camera problems in the cutscenes. Sometimes the camera gets stuck in a character or cuts them out of the shot altogether. Playing through the entire story, we've had the game crash about four or five times. Frequent use of the quick save key can minimize the frustration here.
That same play-through also revealed a few quest problems with some quests not updating or being out of synch in the journal. While there are one or two instances where this is almost definitely a glitch, it is sometimes also the consequence of poorly designed quest triggers. We'd be more inclined to be forgiving of these shortcomings if they hadn't all been seen in the previous game a year and a half ago.
Closing Comments
If you like roleplaying games or if you like Star Wars, you'll be hard pressed to find a game as enjoyable as Knights of the Old Republic II. Sure, it's got some technical problems and, sure, it starts fairly slowly but if you can see past those flaws, you're in for one hell of a treat. The moral choices are much more varied and integrated into the overall experience this time around. I wish the new influence system had more of an effect on the actual narrative but the idea is intriguing in any case.
More importantly, all these mechanics -- the moral slider, the influence system, combat, etc. -- are surrounded by a first rate story that's almost as mythic and fantastic as the films themselves. Like I said, if you like RPGs or if you like Star Wars, you'll definitely like Knights of the Old Republic II. And if you like both? Man, oh, man. Get this game.
8.5 Presentation
A great story and an authentic Star Wars experience. Problems from the original should have been fixed by now.
7.5 Graphics
The overall effect is good but the individual parts are weak. The world needs more detail.
9.0 Sound
No less impressive for living up to the standards we've come to expect from LucasArts treatment of this franchise.
9.0 Gameplay
The influence mechanic is the only really new thing here and it works fine. The rest of the elements are as good as they were in the first game.
9.5 Lasting Appeal
You could (and assuredly will) play it again. The variety of experiences will definitely tempt you back