Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords

I wish the new star wars movies had a story and writing this good. They took the star wars ip and added more adult themes, they added choices which werent just either black or white ( Kotor 1), they expanded on the story by exploring the force and adding philosophy to it. They also found the perfect balance. the conversations dont bore me like the later games of obsidian, talking about pillars of eternity which was a total letdown story wise for me. So much meaningless text which became a chore to read each time i talked to someone. Kotor 2 doesnt have that, 90% of the time, expecially with kreia, i listen like i would listen to some intellectual celebrity (neil degrasse tyson or carl sagan come to mind). When she talks about the force i feel like i listen to carl sagan talking about the universe. A little more time and a higher budget would have made this game legendary.

This is an amazing game, full of side-quests and chances to choose your outcome in many ways, just like the last game. Unfortunately, the new developer, Obsidian, seems to have forgotten to ruthlessly weed out bugs in the game. For instance, in my experience I found that the game would freeze during the load repeatedly, an...unfavorable aspect of the game. Also, the game has an unkind tendency to do a random choose of what items are dropped by enemies, and what items are given to shops. This has a good side and a very very bad side. On the plus side, the game can randomly give you high-damage items, like weapons or armor, that are over-powerful until nearly the end. On the negative side, you are likely to go through the game and miss at least one thing. While these items are not related to any quest, they are still items that can be very useful. Another problem I had with it is that the new upgrade system is much more, and possibly too complex compared to the previous game, with up to 6 factors in upgrading certain objects. This does not mean that the game is bad. The game is a very fun RPG, and the characters are very funny, while at the same time very helpful. Some new twists actually encourage you to interact with your non-playable characters. There is also a nifty change in the level system which raises the bar of leveling from 20 to level 50, at least. I did find the plot rather confusing at times, but all-in-all it was worth the wait, and worth the money.

This game is a must-play primarily for the dialogue and voicework of Kreia, played by Sara Kestelman. This powerful, matronly role is extremely memorable and worth going through several times just to hear every bit of it. The game itself is very entertaining as well, allowing many routes to many paths, and all are not so obvious, which is a good thing. Majority of the voicework other than Kestelman's is excellent as well, in that it is very immersive. Very rarely will bad voice acting put you out of the game, save for the lackluster performance of Bao-Dur. It may have been a design decision to give him such a boring voice, but if this is the case, it was a poor decision indeed. On the whole though, this is definitely worth your while.

KotOR II, eh? I'm sure most fans of the series were a tad surprised when they heard a sequel would be coming out so soon after the first. We've all heard the horror stories about the "expensive expansion pack" kinds of sequels. KotOR II does NOT fit into that category.

KotOR II's storyline is set 5 years after the event of the original KotOR. While you do not play the same character as the first game, you play a new one that is just as (or maybe even more) interesting. The plot itself can be viewed many ways. While the dialogue is rich and very well written, the plot itself doesn't have much structure (though that's more or less intentional).

Your party characters interact much more, and this time they don't just stand there and do nothing. However, their stories can't be fleshed out as much as the first game, and you may find yourself loosing interest in some of them later on in the game.

Overall this is a fantastic game. Its smartly written, and carries a really groovy "fantasy-esque" feel the changes the star wars experience (for the better). The game starts out magnificent, but towards the end you will start really seeing the holes (the game's development schedule was far too ambitious). Really, the only way to form a fair opinion of this game is to play it yourself.

By far the best and most complex Star Wars story. You really should play it at least once, even though it has dated graphics and mechanics. Oh, and play it with the fan made restored content mode, since kotor 2 haven't been finished because Lucasarts' greed (that's why I gave it "only" 9 star). Compared to other Star Wars stories it is like books to comics. EA really should remake it with the original content, since sadly not everything could been restored.