Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
If this game was released last year instead of the first one, I would have been so much more happy with this game. You see, everything anyone loved about the first game is still here, so I won't waste any time on why I liked the game. It had everything the first one had, minus a really good twist. A lot of little features were added that improved the overall control scheme, switching weapons and the like. Stances were added, which were interesting though not as useful as you'd think. And a whole slew of random abilities that made each character a lot more unique then in the first one. Before I go much further, I'll point out that I went through the game as a Light side Guardian/Weapon Master.
The Plot in some ways was better, in some not so better. Through the meat of the game, this story was just lovely. It had hefty dialogue that was actually worth reading. Questioning the concept of not helping people has never sounded so reasonable. Kreia is easily one of the most interesting Star Wars characters around, though she gets annoying to have in your party if you're trying to be an extreme good/bad guy.
Each character has a ton of backstory, much like the first one. However, unlike the first one, these stories are told based on your influence, instead of steadily revealed as you progress through the game. At first, this is a really great system. However, it has a flaw. If you eventually get really good at getting influence, you can literally get a characters entire backstory in one 40 minute conversation. Once you've done this, the person has nothing else to tell you for the rest of the game. Personally, at about the halfway point through the game, I'd already maxed out every character I could and drained them of conversation. For the second half the game, my experience was dampened by the fact that none of my allies would say anything new, just the same old conversation trees. While Influence has been an interesting and positive addition to the franchise, I feel they need to keep more of the level based triggers from the first game. That way the storyline can flow a little better from start to finish, instead of the dialogue heavy first half of the game to the complete absence of conversation in the second.
The second flaw of the story was the ending. Like many games released over the last year, this game had a very weak and rushed ending. Seeing that this game was made in 1 year, this doesn't come as too much of a shocker. There's literally one scene that happens between two of your droids that make it impossible for the light side ending to happen, but it happens anyway, without an explanation. It's one of the most blatant "We didn't have time to finish that, so we didn't" that I've ever seen.
The last issue of the game was just a matter of difficulty. There's two parts of the game where difficulty are concerned. Before lightsaber, and after lightsaber. Before lightsaber, things are challenging. You have to use your items right, use shields, use healthpacks, etc etc. After lightsaber, things are different. Unless you go out of your way to gimp your character, you'll spend the rest of the game never using any items. Equipping items just because they look cool, because you sure don't need the bonuses. Seeing if you can kill over 100 enemies without healing or using styles(I could.) It's just sad. I lost count of how many bosses I killed in 2 rounds of combat, and that's if I didn't get any crits. It's just insane. You don't use styles, and you avoid most of your powers, just to get a challenge. They really need to up the difficulty of the enemies for future games, or else all the great things they added will continue to go unused.
So to sum up, if you liked the first one, duh, you'll like this one. However, prepare for a lot of dejavu. The annoying things from the first one have been improved, but new annoying things have been added. Influence is a quirky beast, but the dialogue is absolutely fantastic. Definitely the best RPG released last year, which really says something about the first one, since I think it's just as definitely not as good.
The Plot in some ways was better, in some not so better. Through the meat of the game, this story was just lovely. It had hefty dialogue that was actually worth reading. Questioning the concept of not helping people has never sounded so reasonable. Kreia is easily one of the most interesting Star Wars characters around, though she gets annoying to have in your party if you're trying to be an extreme good/bad guy.
Each character has a ton of backstory, much like the first one. However, unlike the first one, these stories are told based on your influence, instead of steadily revealed as you progress through the game. At first, this is a really great system. However, it has a flaw. If you eventually get really good at getting influence, you can literally get a characters entire backstory in one 40 minute conversation. Once you've done this, the person has nothing else to tell you for the rest of the game. Personally, at about the halfway point through the game, I'd already maxed out every character I could and drained them of conversation. For the second half the game, my experience was dampened by the fact that none of my allies would say anything new, just the same old conversation trees. While Influence has been an interesting and positive addition to the franchise, I feel they need to keep more of the level based triggers from the first game. That way the storyline can flow a little better from start to finish, instead of the dialogue heavy first half of the game to the complete absence of conversation in the second.
The second flaw of the story was the ending. Like many games released over the last year, this game had a very weak and rushed ending. Seeing that this game was made in 1 year, this doesn't come as too much of a shocker. There's literally one scene that happens between two of your droids that make it impossible for the light side ending to happen, but it happens anyway, without an explanation. It's one of the most blatant "We didn't have time to finish that, so we didn't" that I've ever seen.
The last issue of the game was just a matter of difficulty. There's two parts of the game where difficulty are concerned. Before lightsaber, and after lightsaber. Before lightsaber, things are challenging. You have to use your items right, use shields, use healthpacks, etc etc. After lightsaber, things are different. Unless you go out of your way to gimp your character, you'll spend the rest of the game never using any items. Equipping items just because they look cool, because you sure don't need the bonuses. Seeing if you can kill over 100 enemies without healing or using styles(I could.) It's just sad. I lost count of how many bosses I killed in 2 rounds of combat, and that's if I didn't get any crits. It's just insane. You don't use styles, and you avoid most of your powers, just to get a challenge. They really need to up the difficulty of the enemies for future games, or else all the great things they added will continue to go unused.
So to sum up, if you liked the first one, duh, you'll like this one. However, prepare for a lot of dejavu. The annoying things from the first one have been improved, but new annoying things have been added. Influence is a quirky beast, but the dialogue is absolutely fantastic. Definitely the best RPG released last year, which really says something about the first one, since I think it's just as definitely not as good.