Whether it is because you are genuinely more powerful than in the first game, or if I am just used to the "KOTOR way" of doing battle, I have to say that the majority of combat does seem somewhat less challenging than in the first game. Very few encounters really made me struggle, slicing through enemies left right and centre. While admittedly this was fun, one or two of the bosses (i.e. Sith Lords) just weren’t as powerful as they rightfully should have been. I remember preparing myself for one encounter, that based on difficulties in the first game I expected to require some perseverance, and a few reloads, but the battle was over all too quickly in the first attempt. Because of this, I would recommend experienced RPG players, and those who have played KOTOR to attempt this on a harder difficulty level straight away.
In all Star Wars games (indeed, anything Star Wars) "the force" has a huge part to play. In games this can lead to an arbitrary choice of Light over Dark, or indeed no choice at all – you are just set on your way. The beauty of a Star Wars RPG is that it can be far more complex than this, with your every action, decision and conversation contributing towards your path. Your decisions have real consequences in terms of plot, and the paths that open up to you on your journey. KOTOR II achieves this superbly, and adds another degree of complexity into the equation. A great deal of attention has been paid to your party members, how they act and respond to you. In your dealings with them you earn or loose influence points according to how they perceive you and how you respond to them. This opens up new dialogue options that add to the story line. However, it gets better – while you may please one of your party members, those same responses can aggravate other party members. For example, I gave a lot of attention to Visas, in attempting to persuade her to the light side. This frustrated the Handmaiden to the point where she plain refused to acknowledge me whenever I attempted to speak with her. Obviously to fully explore all the options here, more than one play through is needed, adding to KOTOR II’s already extensive replay-ability. Of course you don’t have to pay so much attention to your followers, but this adds a new level of depth to the game, that would be a shame to miss.
It is advisable to specialize in Melee combat
As The Sith Lords is a sequel, naturally you would expect it to follow on from the original game. This it attempts to do by smoothing out some possible inconsistencies early on in the game such as subtly establishing whether you played through the first game as male or female in the context of a conversation. This on the whole works, except for the fact that the general plotline is by no means as well crafted as KOTOR’s. It can seem confused in places and the plot twists are far more obvious than the real surprises in the first game. I kept wondering if there was more to come, expecting a revelation on the scale of learning Revan’s true identity, but this never happened. The role that previous characters played in the first game can also seem confused in comparison to how you previously understood them. Again, the attention Obsidian has paid to your companions is a highlight, keeping their agendas ambiguous, so you don’t quite know who to trust, or how each one fits into the greater scheme of things until the right time approaches.
While this may seem like a key criticism, this isn’t to say the story line is particularly bad, all the major elements are there, with extensive (hours upon hours) high quality of dialogue and a high level of interaction adding to the experience. It’s just that the story telling never quite hits the heights of its predecessor.
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