So it's understandable that I was excited to get Knights of the Old Republic II; I didn't expect a repeat of the first game's quality. I expected a fun Star Wars adventure. And overall, that's what I got.
Knights of the Old Republic II is different from the first game in that you start as a Jedi rather than as a Republic grunt. Despite this, you don't receive a lightsaber until nearly halfway through the game. This was quite annoying in the first game, because you couldn't really take any melee combat feats unless you were willing to fight with a vibroblade, which frankly looks pretty pathetic in a science fiction setting, even an unrealistic space opera one like Star Wars. With unarmed combat it looks... a little less hokey, I suppose.
KOTOR2, like the first game, has a series of planets you must beat - first, you have to beat a couple of introductory planets, and then there are others which can be explored in any order. Like the first game, you travel around and pick up distinct and interesting party members who accompany you on your adventures. Unlike the first game, you have to be careful what you say to these characters, because certain things gain influence, making it easier to make their characters more powerful and to find out about their pasts; other things lose interest. One interesting thing, whose distinctiveness makes up for it's mild... annoying-ness, is that one very important party member influences you towards the Dark Side, and gaining influence with this character usually moves you towards the Dark Side.
Like the first game, your character starts out morally neutral, and his or her choices award Dark or Light Side points. It's a lot easier to play Dark Side, and the game seems to have been designed for this - an annoying circumstance, as I prefer light side. There's at least one planet in the game where you are presented with two morally diverse factions, and unless you pick the obviously most good one, despite certain factors indicating that supporting the other side might be a good idea, you are railroaded onto the Dark Side ending of the game. This is a poor design decision.
The game has added new features related to items. In the first game, items you acquired could sometimes be upgraded, if they were very advanced. Now, almost all items can be upgraded, and they can also be broken down for parts to build other items. While this is a fun feature, I never found it incredibly useful once you get past the first part of the game where there are no stores, and it adds complexity to what once was a refreshingly simple interface. On the other thing, the small number of skills your character gains (in D20 system style) have all been made more useful, and now playing a skills-oriented class like the Jedi Sentinel, which got the proverbial short end in the first game, becomes much more attractive.
When your character reaches 15th level, he or she acquires a Prestige Class - a more advanced Jedi class. There are three, each one corresponding to a base class (although you don't have to belong to that base class to take it). Once you have a Prestige Class, you can begin to train other party members as Jedi, which is one of the more fun and interesting features of the game, although it temporarily weakens these characters, and giving them any Force Powers besides healing is almost pointless since they will have almost no Force Points. Still, it adds more characters with lightsabers, which is nice.
The game has increased its selection of feats (special-ability granting things which are awarded every few levels) but not enough to stop the fact that eventually you'll take all the ones you want and have to take useless ones, which gets annoying. This isn't a major problem, but I suppose I would prefer the alternative, when you have to carefully balance your character's abilities.
The game's graphics are dated, there's no question about that. This isn't a major problem for me, though, since I play games primarily for the storyline. There's also a lot of bugs - a more serious problem, and one which reduced my enjoyment of the game. There's an area on the second planet you visit where, at least in my version, controlling a party member other than the main character for very long crashes the game.
The storyline of KOTOR2 has its ups and downs - and plenty of twists and turns. The problem is that, although some of the plot developments in this game would have been as surprising as the game-making twist in the first game, they are strongly hinted at ahead of time, so that you just get an "Ah" moment, rather than a "Whoa" moment, or better yet, an "erthgwriutwre8othwretwe" moment. But I suppose this is asking too much - the twist in the first game was easily as good as any famous cinematic twist, like The Sixth Sense or the ending of the second Star Wars film. Still, more could have been done to live up to the legacy of the original game's storyline. What is done in KOTOR2, though, is enough to create a satisfying storyline, which is definately left open for a KOTOR3.
I've been somewhat hard on this game, and perhaps it's not fair to the developers - they had to create a somewhat rushed sequel to the original, which was a classic of computer/video gaming. Overall, I got a lot of fun out of this game. I won't replay it like I did with the previous one, because it's just not the kind of game that has that much pull to it. But if you like CRPGs or Star Wars, then KOTOR2 is definately a game that you should play.
