Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords Preview

Chris Avellone, has one of the best jobs in the world today. He is a game designer, but not just any old game designer, but the Lead Designer of Obsidian Entertainment, the makers of the upcoming Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. "With Star Wars, boning up on past material is always a good idea." Chris told us. "Before sitting down with your story, do some research." Chris is a very dedicated game designer, in order to up the realism, Star Wars style, he went to great lengths. He tells us, "With The Sith Lords, I sat down and watched each of the Star Wars movies again, read every single Star Wars novel and comic book, and even shackled myself to a chair and endured the 'Star Wars Christmas Special.'" As someone who can attest to the horror of that special, I can say that Chris was very devoted making this game as good as possible. The brilliant designer had the right idea though; the realism regarding the Star Wars Universe is what made the original KOTOR one of the finest games ever made.

Red or blue, Neo? Ehrm... I mean RED OR BLUE, YOU UGLY PIECE OF WORTHLESS JUNK!

Hand over your saber... slowly...

So far, critics have had only words of praise for the successor of the 2003 hit, Star Wars: KOTOR. Expectations have been running very high, but there was still some silent trepidation about it, mostly from the fact that BioWare was no longer in charge of the game. As I am sure everyone reading this is well aware, the original KOTOR was easily one of the best games of 2003, if not THE best, and still to this day remains one of the finest games I've ever played. But what happened to BioWare? Well, here's the skinny, the new developer, Obsidian Entertainment, took over the project when BioWare became too busy to do it, being snowed under with lots of other projects like Jade Empires and Dragon Age. For the moment, the work is still in progress so we're not going to do any wild speculation as to what the final product will be like, but it seems as though the hype machine has already begun building for what looks to be a monster hit.

So let's begin. The story, which as you may know happens a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, is set some five years after the events in the original KOTOR. It's kinda pointless to go to great lengths explaining the original story, so suffice it to say that you're the last Jedi left due to the Sith Lords' Anti-Jedi campaign™. You have managed through a mixture of cunning, tenacity and sheer luck to avoid certain painful death because you've spent those couple of years at the end of the galaxy. (Ed.- Sipping tea and reading Douglas Adams, I suppose.) This might be the reason why you've been kicked to the curb in the Jedi sense. Here's a hint for all you noble heroic warriors, running home to momma with your tail between your legs is a severe no-no. Put simply, you don't know much about the history or the background of your character at the beginning of the game, so let us imagine him as dark, handsome and with a big saber. (Ed.- Yeah, eww.) So, it's no wonder then that everyone's after you, especially those bloodthirsty Sith. After all, though fallen you may be, you still can use the Force, and that means that you have got to go. It's easy to guess what comes next: you basically try to survive as long as possible while looking for some allies against the Sith, well, that is if you decide not to be evil yourself. You start at Peragus Station, located on a tiny asteroid in the middle of nowhere. As you play you will meet a plethora of characters, some from the original game, some brand new. Don't worry though, all you newcomers to the world of Star Wars: KOTOR, the entire back story will be explained so that you do not need to play the original in order to make sense of the sequel.

One of the first noticeable changes from the original is the addition of brand spanking new Force Powers, such as Force Sight and Force Crush. Force Sight was one of the new powers that were demonstrated at the presentation at E3. LucasArts producer Mike Gallo described what this ability does for us "Well, it lets you see through doors and read the force aura of characters in the world." God show Mike, but we also noticed one other distinct advantage to the ability, it tells you the alignment of other characters. (Ed. - This bounty hunter guy who is chasing and shooting at me is definitely evil. The Force tells me so.) As for Force Crush, it allows the user to lift their opponent in the air and hold them there, eventually crushing them in a very impressive, Darth Vadar-like way. Among other Jedi powers are also Scream which is a nice supersonic shockwave, and Fury, which basically is just that, you get to go all postal in order to cause more damage.

It's still too early to say what The Sith Lords will be like in terms of the graphics, but the developers have shared with us a few enhancements of the character models. One thing to note, the game still runs on the engine of its predecessor so there will be no drastic changes in the gameplay or the visuals, but the game is going to be more refined, more polished and with some new features introduced. What are these nice little polishes you ask? Well, to start there will be more detailed textures, better animation and lightning effects, more various terrain types, weather effects and improved art. Oh and KOTOR 2 should also be equipped with more NPC heads. Uh, not that the NPCs will have several heads (though that would be cool), but that the choice of heads will be greatly increased and contain much more variety. While these changes aren't revolutionary or breathtaking they should add to the functionality and overall impressiveness of the game.

While we're still on the subject of the visuals, we should mention the "unique" (as Mike Gallo termed it) look of the new villain, Sith Lord Dark Sion. Now this guy, who is basically just a huge pain in the ass, looks really cool. You first meet him on the Harbinger, but you will not get to battle him straight away. His grayish sick-looking skin is all broken and crackled as if he took a tumble down the stairs and fell into a pool filled with 'liquid hot magma', and then woke up only to find himself in deep freeze. Then someone took his sorry ass to a six-year old on crack and glued him back together. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but suffice it to say that this guy is freaky-looking.

Other than the minor modifications we mentioned, the game features will remain pretty much the same as before. Apart from introducing twenty new Force Powers, the battle system is virtually the same as the original, and again, only minor changes have been made in terms of the gameplay and the interface. This is not surprising since, as was mentioned before, KOTOR 2 runs on the same engine as its predecessor (still we are promised a better frame rate. Hooray!). KOTOR 2 looks like it's going to be all about the choices, just like the original game. You will be able to pick your side, and it's all up to you if you're going to be good, evil or if you're going to have the best of both worlds and play for both sides. But remember this, your alignment and behavior are going to have an influence on other members of your group, and some won't even join you in the first place if they don't like your alignment. (Ed. - Sorry, but evil isn't my bag, try with that bloke over there with the horns. Oh and if at all possible can you not slice me up into golf ball sized bits.) We've also read that if you happen to have a strong personality, are able to influence your teammates. So, with enough effort you can corrupt the crap out of them and score a nice chunk of points for the dark side. But of course the point remains the battle between good and evil, or more accurately, between the dark side and the light side, only this time the story will be even more detailed and complex.