An elegant, soon to be modified game for a more civilized age.
Knights of the Old Republic 2 is an acclaimed Star Wars RPG that’s incredibly deep and entertaining, but also barely held together by the equivalent of development toothpicks and duct tape. Legend has it that original developer Obsidian Entertainment had just over a year to create a massive sequel to the Bioware-developed Knights of the Old Republic. The fact that this game, subtitled The Sith Lords, is good despite accelerated development says a lot about the strength of the concept and the skill of those who made it. With just enough streamlining to make the adventure a bit more accessible, Knights of the Old Republic 2 is a great sequel to one of my personal favorite Star Wars games.
That’s without taking into account the potential silver bullet of this 2022 Switch version. The rushed development meant a lot was left on the cutting room floor, and over the years fans modified the game on PC to add this content back. For the first time in an official release, The Sith Lords Restored Content will be added to the Switch version as free DLC after launch. While we don’t know exactly what will be included, publisher Aspyr has said that there will be “new crew dialogue and interactions, a bonus mission with HK-47, and a new reworked ending.” Because the game had such a rushed development, there is a noticeable amount of cut content. For example, regarding the reworked ending mentioned, in the original version most of your party simply disappears when you reach the endgame. This content, if it’s something like the fan mod, will help.
That makes this Switch release a strange prospect on day one. Technically speaking, The Sith Lords is a strong game. While the graphics are showing their age a bit, the D&D-inspired gameplay, well-crafted narrative, and distinctive take on Star Wars are delightful. It may be hard to understand if you’re unfamiliar with the Baldur’s Gates of the world, but good tutorialization and flexible difficulty levels make it easy to learn the ropes of the tabletop-heavy system. A large portion of the game revolves around exploring ships and planets, searching for loot, quests, and solving puzzles while battling enemies in technically turn-based combat. I say technically because the combat is real-time, but your hits and misses are determined by behind-the-scenes dice rolls rather than precise aim. In some ways, this could be seen as a predecessor to modern titles like Xenoblade, although it is much simpler and with fewer real-time elements.
Your ever-expanding group features a diverse cast, including villains, droids, and bounty hunters that you would expect in the world of Star Wars. Your custom protagonist is an exiled Jedi who loses his memory and goes on a quest to avoid capture by the titular Sith Lords, while also seeking out the last few Jedi Masters to help maintain his or her connection to restore power. The story, which indirectly follows on from the first game despite taking place thousands of years before the films, is strong enough to carry the adventure, with a wealth of well-written characters, events and machinations to keep you going. If I had to compare the second game to the first, I think the first game is even more impactful and memorable, but The Sith Lords is more balanced and consistent.
The appeal of the light side and the dark side of your character’s alignment is grayer than in the first Knights of the Old Republic. It’s best to choose a side and stick with it for optimal skills, but it’s less about the broad, far-reaching good and evil choices and more about how you behave in conversations. Are you cruel and sardonic? Start suffocating fools with your dark side powers. Are you kind and accepting? Then warm hugs on the bright side. Using these powers in combat can be really fun, especially as your arsenal expands.
While the primary mix of exploration and combat is a good mix, the various mini-games that popped up fell flat for me. They change the pace, but firing a rigid turret to fend off enemies has always been a chore, dive racing is cute but unrefined, and the card game is amusing but fleeting. It also didn’t help that the most common game-breaking error I encountered was during the tower sequences. I would end up in an endless loop during these segments, but luckily loading the last autosave would get me out of it. I didn’t encounter too many terrible bugs along the way, but due to rushed development, the original version of the game is full of bugs both big and small. We won’t know until the Restored Content DLC comes out to know how much has been fixed.
Even before the release of the free Restored Content DLC, Knights of the Old Republic 2 is still a great game, albeit one with some missing content and technical issues. I look forward to revisiting the game to see what has been added, optimized and fixed as the DLC is added. If this add-on delivers, there’s a good chance the Switch version will be the definitive version of this 2004 Xbox classic. Until then, this is a good way to play a good game with some limitations. Hopefully these reservations are a thing of the past, but only time will tell.
Summary
Advantages
- Excellent D&D style RPG mechanics
- Great Star Wars story
- The promise of free post-launch DLC
Disadvantages
- Some technical problems
- The wait for the free post-launch DLC
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Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II forces its way to the eShop on June 8th
