Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

Of what I understand, Obsidian was rushed to finish Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and thus, it was left incomplete, content cut etc. This lead the community making the Restoration Mod; to bring back stuff that was s'posed to be in the game. So before starting the game, I installed the mod to have a fuller experience right on my first playthrough.

However, it almost made me abandon the game without finishing it - the Restoration Mod included a bug (in v1.6), which made me unable to leave Nar Shaddaa. Of course, I had no saves before landing on Nar Shaddaa, and the Nar Shaddaa bug fix works only if you had not landed there yet. So I had to start from the very beginning again - how very frustrating. The fact Nar Shaddaa was the first planet I had visited brought little comfort for hours of gameplay had still been lost.

The Sith Lords looks and feels quite similar to the previous game; obviously, slight improvements here and there. The game's structure is also almost a carbon copy of the first one, including how you fill the Ebon Hawk with a bunch of NPCs. Yet only two fit into the party with you when you exit the ship.

You have to go through all the trouble equipping them with the right gear and leveling their skills and feats. You can let the game do the latter automatically but I wouldn't trust it. I feel it doesn't focus the characters and spends their skill points and feats all over the place. And there's no skipping this; from time to time you are forced to take some character with you or even go solo with them (quite often actually). I don't want this, I want to play with my own character! Not with boring robots or characters I'm not interested in. Gah!

BioWare seems to be, for some reason, very fond of this mechanic, and I detest it so much. I didn't like it in KotOR, I didn't like it in NWN2, and I don't like it in this game. Obsidian following in BioWare's footsteps and all that. I prefer how this was handled in the Baldur's Gate games; you pick your party and stick to it, or change it when you want - no compulsion.

KotOR II is very easy, at least on normal difficulty; the hardest thing to accomplish is to win the swoop race on Telos. Boss fights didn't offer a challenge at all to me; Visas Marr's appearance was the only fight I had to reload in. I didn't have a lightsaber at that point yet, though. In the final fight, your opponent has 1024 hp and it sounds quite plenty... except when your character dishes out 200 damage per turn in melee like mine did (Jedi Guardian 20/Jedi Weapon Master 9 dual-wielding lightsabers). And the boss fight on the star destroyer... throughout the game you get the feeling he's incredibly powerful. Well, he wasn't. What a let-down.

The game's end certainly brings the unfinished feeling well on the surface; nothing is explained and stuff is left open - just Ebon Hawk zooming into space (how and who did even get it out of the crevice it fell?).

So, what's good in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords? Well, it delves delighfully deep into the aspects of the Force, thanks to the rather awesome character, Kreia. Also, seeing people falling before your lightsabers is always satisfying, even if it is hard as shoving hot knives through butter. Special mention goes to the emotionally powerful and sad Rebuilt Jedi Enclave theme, which plays on Dantooine when you have found all the hiding jedi masters.

If you want 30 hours of Star Wars action, I'd say go for it, but don't expect The Sith Lords to be the best game ever. And if you install the Restoration Mod, make sure you have the Nar Shaddaa fix.