Gameplay
Despite a change of developers from Bioware to Obsidian, you feel instantly back at home in the Star Wars universe with Knights of the old Republic II: The Sith Lords (KOTOR II). This is not particularly surprising seeing as the scenario is one that many will be familiar with. As the last (barely) surviving Jedi in the Galaxy, it is up to you and your companions to get to the bottom of a mysterious Sith plot to destroy all Jedi Knights. Before you can begin your journey to greatness however, you will need the aid of utility droid T3 M4 to save you from near death. Once you have recovered from this episode, you again embark on a galactic journey onboard the Ebon Hawk albeit with an entirely new cast of companions, with the exception of a couple of droids. You can still choose which areas and planets to tackle first, and the way you wish to approach the game as a whole.
Its not just the plot line that is familiar. Obsidian has hardly touched the interface, bar a few minor touches such as larger icons. Combat remains identical to the original, with a mixture of turn taking/command queuing and real time action. As with KOTOR, the combat sequences are beautifully choreographed and well executed – a joy to sit back and watch. Melee combat is particularly rewarding, and I generally tended to favour this over the slightly under powered blaster combat. It would be wrong to criticize Obsidian too much for not developing the KOTOR formula to a greater extent; as the old English saying goes "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!"
There is no shortage of lightsaber combat
This isn’t to say there is nothing new here, and a lot of the new additions are found in the details. The already massive inventory has been extended further with the inclusion of more armor, weapons, and equipable items such as shields. In fact the sheer amount of items you will amass in your inventory is so huge that it is near impossible to explore all their benefits in a single play through and I doubt the casual player would use even half of them. The list of force powers has been extended both for light and dark side followers with some nice inclusions such as force meditation and force sight. Incidentally, unlike KOTOR, you begin the game as a force sensitive, i.e. you are aware of the force, and can use force powers right from the start. This is a great idea and lessens the frustrations of getting through the early levels (Taris anyone?) with an inadequately developed character. The trade off is the quest for a lightsaber. It is up to you to locate the parts necessary to build your Saber across the first few levels, and depending on how much attention you pay to the myriad of side quests available, this can take 15 hours or more. Once you have crafted a saber however, your Jedi is already some way toward developing considerable power, which makes slicing and dicing your opponents that much more rewarding.
Along with the adjusted Force progression, there is also an added higher, more specialised ‘Prestige’ level of Jedi to attain above your basic character type. This involves 6 Jedi classes. Access is triggered when your character develops to a certain level. There are 3 light side classes and 3 dark side, which each provide either leanings (i.e. faster development) toward the use of force powers, lightsaber combat, or feat progression. This enables your Jedi to become more powerful more quickly and reach higher levels of force ability than in the first game – a welcome addition!
Force Storm is fantastic fun
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