Obsidian had a lot to live up to when developing this game. The first Knights Of The Old Republic was the game of the year in 2003. It was one of those games you couldn't put down. I played it for hours and hours on end. Stopping to eat, bath, have a cigarette, and to even use the bathroom.....was a chore. Does the sequal live up to the hype? Well mostly yes, but in some ways, no.
If you played the first game in the series, you will instantly be able to pick this game up and play. Pretty much everything in the gameplay is the same with a few new additions, which I will touch upon in a bit. Sure the game is longer, the story is different, every playable character (except two) is new, but most of this game is the same. With most games, I would be heavily criticizing this. But when the original was as good as it was, I don't feel this is much of a problem.
There are a few nice additions to the gameplay though. You have quite a bit more influence on the characters in your party. Depending on what character it is, whether you choose a light or dark path, certain influence will affect how your party reacts to you. If you get a high influence with some of the characters, you can convince them to let you train them to become jedi.
Like I said, much of the game is the same though. I was a bit torn the first time playing through the game. You will notice this game was obviously rushed. There are bugs and glitches everywhere. One time my character got stuck on something graphically and couldn't move. So I had to reload the game and lost where I currently was. Another time, while using a droid in Vogga's warehouse, my character somehow went 'under the level' graphically and basically broke the game. There are other times that came close to having something like that happen. I just learned to save my game often. But the fact that they let a game out the doors in that condition is disappointing.
Another way you can tell the game was rushed was by looking at the role the sith lord Darth Nihilus plays. One of the coolest looking characters I have ever seen (since Darth Maul), you will be irritated by the fact he is barely in the game!! Not only that, but you get VERY LITTLE back story on his character. I won't ruin plot points for you, but I left the game shaking my head at how they wasted one of the coolest characters ever in a videogame. I know when you are against a deadline, not everything can fit into a game. But I could have used a few less long-winded speeches from Kreia to add some Darth Nihilus content.
Then you get to the graphics. Ugh. I won't lie to ya. This game isn't pretty. Basically it uses the same engine as the first game did.....back in 2003!! There are literally no graphic uprgrades here. Once again, maybe time came into play here. And I can live with a dated looking game if the gameplay is great. But the slowdown here is unexcusable. When there are many characters on screen, and many of them have blasters.....oh man. It sometimes feels like the game is going to crash it gets so bad. I read some other reviews where the load times really bothered some people. Yes they are bad, but it didn't really bother me that much.
Is this game as good as the original? No. I liked the story from the first one better. The game has many technical problems that should have been fixed before release. Wasting Darth Nihilus is one of the worst choices I have ever seen in videogames. The slowdown is absolutely terrible. The load times will be a pain for some. And the graphics are way below current day standards. But if you are looking for a great RPG for your Xbox, you must get this game. Obviously Star Wars fan will already be drooling over this game before even playing it, but RPG fans in general should pick it up. It's not the near-perfect game the original was, but it is a must own for all Xbox owners.
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