A great follow up to one of the best Star Wars games around, but sometimes great isn't always what it is.
Off the bat, you start the game, and once again, a lot of mystery surrounds you, the main character and you position in the game. But eventually you gain more and more foothold and begin to recruit different characters to your cause. But also from the bat, the game feels like you never left the original, the presentation is almost as such that you could easily just be playing an expansion pack to the original. The sounds, the graphics, the music, automatically make you remember the original game with such fondness. (More so for me as I finished the first game then ran straight into the second one).
A lot of complaints could be said that though this game is about 12 months newer than the original that the graphics could have been updated, I in some ways understand the reasoning for not updating them. They looked fine in the original, for the time (and even now, they don't hold up too bad (4:3 only resolutions aside)). My problem with the graphics is in some areas, and only on Citadel Station has this occurred, that the frame Rate will be so slow than it really becomes unplayable, following the forums on how to fix this doesn't and not to mention I am running this game on a machine that would have kicked arse considering the age of the game.
There is also some other time little bugs here and there, that look like a lack of full quality assurance in order to get the game out. The main bug bear I have is the unable to move after a fight, not every fight, nor can I predict when it will happen. So Quick Save and Quick Load come in handy when this happens. But other than this and some minor glitches around the camera and AI when characters are talking the game does a great job.
A high Quality Movie and Music patch was released which does bring this game forward in time a bit more but I would have been happy with a patch that fixed some of the minor issues in game play and AI. If you enjoyed the graphics of the first, then this game delivers the same experience, the same with the game play. It offers much of the same great experiences as the first improves on them a little and brings something new.
An addition to the game, which I found a little, added on was the Create and Breakdown item element. Throughout the came you can collect components and these enable you to build new components (and what components and the quality of that component is based on the players skill in a certain area.) I found I made use of that only a couple of times, and I felt that it could have been better implemented, or enable you to get some really great items (but I found if you waited, the game would often deliver better ones as loot or in caches).
The story, is a great element of the game, and I think explain a lot of unanswered pieces from the first game, it introduces some characters from the original, which bring a smile to ones face. But other characters I felt should have made more of an impact than they did. And like the original I found you sticking to a stock standard set of characters and often leave the others back at the Ebon Hawk.
Sound and Music, great, Star Wars feel to it. The main problem with it was voices were too soft in comparison to the music and other sound effects. Users of 5.1 audio might have been disappointed a little with the implementation of it not great, the original game has a decent sound field reproduction and the environment sounds were good. But with the voices coming out of all speakers and not really too directional other than left and right I would have preferred a good solid 2.0 sound field than any poor implementation of 5.1.
Overall the game is top notch, a first effort by Obsidian, a very commendable effort. They have tried to put their own mark on the game but not change too much of what made the original what it is. There was talk for so long of KOTOR 3 coming, but with the announcement of The Old Republic that news has gone. It will remain to be see if TOR will meeting the expectations of the crowd loving KOTOR for what it is, and would they still wish a KOTOR 3 would come out.
This game is a great addition to any collection even now, some 5 years on. Not on Steam or Direct2Drive but I found a PC version in the second hand games at my local retailer or eBay will who a few versions, and the budget price it is, it is worth every penny.