Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
by Lucas Arts Entertainment
|
Our Price: $149.94 Availability: Usually ships in 4-5 business days Buy Used: from $23.19 (click here) Category: Video Games See more product details |
|---|
Video Game Reviews of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
Customer Review: Any other predecessor, this would have been a good game
Summary: 3 Stars
KotOR II suffers from the same dilemma the Star Wars movie prequels did: so many people knew and loved the original and had such high hopes for the new material. The new material got there, and it looked like it should and stuck to the formula it should, but somehow ends up not being what it should be.
This game picks up five years after the original KotOR. After the Jedi Civil War, the Sith have been resurgent and incredibly successful at killing the Jedi, so much so that you are the last known living Jedi. What could be worse than having the entire Sith force hell-bent on killing you? You're an exiled Jedi and have been stripped of all your powers.
It's an intriguing premise, and for most of the game plays out well, as the characters you gather all have their own little sub-plots, and are now influenced by your actions as well (i.e. if you become incredibly evil, as a whole your party will get more evil). The addition of many new items, customization options and Force powers take the formula that worked well in KotOR and add some good stuff to it.
However, KotOR has some serious flaws. First of, the load time required is abhorrent. Every five minutes the game has to load a new area, and this load can take 2-10 minutes (made even worse if you're running the game on an Xbox 360 because of the emulator required to play it). The framerate is also a serious issue, because this game tends to forgo the boss battles of KotOR and instead throw a metric ton of normal and mini-boss-level enemies at you. Having so much going on at once is too much for the game's engine, the framerate becomes choppy, then the game goes to 1 fps or less, and your gameplay is toast. All the conversation bugs that were in KotOR are here too, and are worse in most cases - in my one play-through the character Mira, once in my party, never said a word in plot-driven scenes because the game would display her dialog for a fraction of a second and then skip to the next character, often leaving me lost.
And, no spoilers here, the ending I got wasn't really an ending at all. After defeating the final boss, the ending felt like it was setting me up for the next level, which would come up after a short cut scene - but that cut scene turned out to be the credits, and I said - out loud - "I did not just suffer through 40 hours of load screens for THAT, did I?" And there's no epic plot twist, either; you have your suspicions within the first few hours, and about halfway in you - the player, that is - know what's going on, even if your characters don't, which takes away a lot of drama.
If you liked KotOR, you'll like this game because it sticks to the formula. Everything about KotOR II, however, reeks of a "cash-in" sequel, so expect as much when you play it, especially when it comes to plot quality.
Customer Review: Lives UP to the Hype
Summary: 5 Stars
This game is as good as it sounds. The deal I got from the shipper was great and the game arrived in excellent shape.Customer Review: Awesome Game
Summary: 5 Stars
Not quite as good as the first but still a very fun game worth playing!Customer Review: The Best Star Wars game ever!
Summary: 5 Stars
Addictive is the name for this game! Kudos to the folks who designed this wonderful game. Please get the next one out and make it as good as this one!Customer Review: Simply Put...
Summary: 5 Stars
It's an RPG/Strategy game. It's Star Wars. It's challenging. If you find it hard, you're not smart enough to play it. This is NOT a little kids game. They shouldn't play it, that's why it has a Teen rating. Great story. Great characters. Great locations. Great battles. Great weapons. Great everything. Get it only if you know how to play RPGs.