After having hired BioWare to craft a rather splendid role-playing game for the Star Wars franchise, LucasArts handed the contract work over to Obsidian, which at the time was quite familiar with BioWare's techniques at making RPGs and thus would seem like a good developer to build on what is already an excellent game. The result is indeed a game that is more sophisticated than its predecessor in terms of content and perhaps even story-writing, but its shortfalls are unfortunately almost immediately apparent right from the start.
The most obvious of these shortfalls is its graphics; there simply has not been any attempt by Obsidian to substantially upgrade the Odyssey Engine that was used for the previous game. Textures in the game comparably have the same level of detail as those in the previous game, there are no improvements to the lighting and shadowing systems and models in sequel appear to have no higher polygon counts than those in the previous game.
Furthermore, players who have played the first game extensively, and then play this next, would notice that some animations have been recycled from the first game. This becomes apparent during the in-game cutscenes, in which characters use gestures that have been seen before in the previous game. Combat animations are not recycled so much though, as will be described later.
Fans of the first game who had been hoping for more dazzling graphics would be disappointed. On the other hand, more forgiving fans can argue that the sequel only came about one year after the previous game, though this does not necessarily mean that the game gets a free pass for having graphics that can be considered as just competent when it debuted, and dated by the time of this game.
More importantly, although Obsidian has not done many technical improvements for the graphics, it does have invested effort into creating many new models, some of which are for player characters that would join the player's party.
If the player can brush aside the lack of any graphical improvement, he/she will find that Obsidian has done quite a good job at expanding the mechanisms of the first game, such that the previous game pales in comparison in terms of content, though not as much in sophistication, as will be elaborated when the opportunity arises.
The protagonist in the sequel is not the one in the first game, though the latter still has some off-screen presence in the sequel. The protagonist of the previous game appears to have gone on a path that may be different from what a player might have decided for him/her; this may upset some players who may not be pleased that Obsidian is cementing the canon unilaterally.
There are some dialogue options throughout the game that allows the player to decide on a few traits of the protagonist of the previous game, though this has little impact other than to unlock which piece of content in the game that is associated with the protagonist of the previous game.
For example, early on in the game, the player can have the main player character responding to another character's implied statement about the gender of the previous game's antagonist. The player can choose to make an exclamation about said person's remark and correct him, or not; the outcome determines which other character from the previous game will appear in one scene of the game later. However, there is no noticeable gameplay-related reward from having differences in this scene, and the narrative difference is only superficial at best.
Therefore, players who have been hoping to play as the protagonist of the first game would not only be disappointed, but may even be angered that the story may have ignored a lot of the decisions that the player has made in the previous game (and it certainly does, as the game does not have any option to import game-saves from the previous game).
On the other hand, the next protagonist is no less interesting than the previous one. He or she (who can ever only be a human or humanoid due to animation constraints) was a Jedi Knight who once followed the protagonist of the first game into war against the war-mongering Mandalorians. After a pivotal battle that turned the tide of the war in favour of the Old Republic but at the cost of many lives on both sides, as well as a massive scarring of the Force, the Jedi Knight imposed on himself/herself a life of exile – and would henceforth be known throughout the game as the "Exile" or just "he" or "she".
It is unfortunate the protagonist will never be referred to in ways other than pronouns or the less-than-flattering moniker of "Exile" among the many lines of voice-overs in the game; even the main player character makes a remark at some points during the game when some characters insist on calling him/her the "Exile", suggesting that Obsidian is aware of this very old design trope of allowing players to make all kinds of names for their heroes/heroines but not having the game acknowledge these names in manners other than just pieces of text.
However, this is the only noticeable snag in the game's otherwise fantastic writing, which dares to go to lengths not explored before in Star Wars fiction outside of the darker novels of Star Wars: Expanded Universe. To describe any examples would be to mention a spoiler, so it should suffice to say that even Star Wars fans would be surprised at the ways that signature things of the franchise, such as the Force, are presented in this game.
Unfortunately, this review cannot skirt around one particular spoiler, as it concerns gameplay early on in the story. The protagonist had not only exiled himself/herself, but also cut his/her connection to the Force, resulting in perhaps a scenario of déjà vu, in which the protagonist is once again a person that starts the game without any force powers whatsoever. (However, the dearth of Force powers is far shorter this time around.)
Speaking of the start of the game, the tutorial segment is story-related and does not actually involve the protagonist. To elaborate any further is to mention spoilers, but it should be said that the tutorial does quite a good job of explaining how the player character that is currently being controlled can move around and interact with its environment; most of these would seem familiar to players that had played the previous game, like looting containers and corpses and of course moving about.
That is only a small part of the prologue of the game. The rest of the prologue introduces the other game mechanisms, many of which would already be familiar to veterans of the first game but nonetheless are solid from a narrative standpoint. The player will be introduced to party management via the introduction of a temporary party member (not unlike the "Redshirt" in the previous game), as well as the basics of inventory management through the looting and equipping of some very basic weaponry and armor.
These still work a lot like those in the previous game. A tap of a button has the player switching control over a character to another one in the party, thus allowing the player to use them to overcome non-story-centric scenarios. Bringing up the party management screens has the game paused, thus allowing the player to swap items between the equipment slots of characters and the party's limitless inventory (which returns too, conveniently enough).
A short encounter with some haywire but weak robotic opponents introduces the player to the combat mechanisms of the game. As in the first game, the player clicks on on-screen enemies to target them (or use keyboard buttons to cycle between them), and then proceeds to watch the battle ensue until he/she decides that interventions are needed so that the party can have a tactical edge over enemies. The player can move the character in control around to an advantageous location so as to make use of direction-dependent abilities, such as Sneak Attacks, for instance.
Enemies and party members do not just have hitpoints, but perhaps also other forms of durability such as shields that have to be reduced first before their actual lifeblood (or circuitry) can be harmed. Shields are particularly susceptible to ion-based attacks and regular armor and shields can be bypassed with disruptor weaponry, among other nuances that the player can utilize to his/her advantage.
As in previous games that have been designed by BioWare (or worked on by BioWare's once-close partner, Obsidian), the physical and mental capabilities of characters are determined by a set of attributes, which should be very familiar to anyone that have had experience with games that have rules based on Dungeons & Dragons. There are Strength (which determines close-combat damage and to-hit bonuses), Intelligence (which determines the amount of skill points that the player gets for every level achieved) and such other statistics. They function as they should, but otherwise there had not been much in the way of remarkable changes.
Skills have been largely recycled from those of the previous game. The "Take 20" rule that applies during situations that are out of combat also return, which still helps a lot when everything is calm and there are some obstacles to be overcome with the subtler of skills. Some classes excel in certain skills (which accelerates the development of these skills), while having access to some others but with less innate talent in them.
It should be noted that during story-centric moments where the player may use skills to gain solutions to problems, the base ranks of these skills are the ones that are important; bonuses from gear do not contribute, with the exception of bonuses that are brought about by improving their associated attributes.
There will not be much of anything new that the veteran of the previous game would see in the mechanisms of character statistics, combat and exploration in the sequel. If there are any changes, they are minor; examples include the featuring of skills other than the usual (e.g. Persuade) in dialogues, such as the Awareness skill, which was not used much in the previous game, and that all Jedi-associated classes have Persuade as a class skill (which is appropriate). On the other hand, they would seem satisfactorily functional to newcomers and veterans alike.
Shortly afterwards, the player will be presented to story-centric scenarios, such as having to bypass an obstacle that is in the way of the player's progress in the game. As in the previous game, the game takes over the camera to give a more cinematic presentation of the scenarios. They have to be resolved through the use of the dialogue system, which still uses the usual list of numbered options, from which the player picks just one.
However, there appears to be more participation from party members in the sequel, compared to the previous game where there were scenarios that could logically have been better handled by somebody else in the party and yet the player can only use whatever skills and talents that the protagonist has. This suggests that Obsidian is more conscious than BioWare about the situations that the player's party would get in and the solutions that should be available to the player.
For example, there may be locked doors that the protagonist does not have the necessary technical skills to deal with, but if the player has another member in the party that has them, he/she can get a dialogue option that allows him/her to use the other party member to deal with the problem instead.
However, this also means that for players that do not want to have a main player character with technical skills, having such a party member is a requirement if the player wants to have a technical solution to technical problems, or other similar scenarios where the player has to have someone in the party with the skills or abilities to solve problems that the protagonist cannot deal with himself/herself.
That is not to say that there are no other options though. Scenarios that must be overcome to progress in the story often have fall-back solutions that are usually story-centric, and offer rewards that are different from those that are obtained if the player had used solutions that are sourced from the skills of the player's party members.
Of course, one can argue that from a practical stand-point, having a party member with skills and talents that compensate for the shortfalls of the other two is a wise decision. However, this means that the player would be using only a couple or so characters out of the roster of a dozen possible companions, all of whom are very interesting. Although Obsidian has written many lines for the game's story, not every character has a remark or response to any scenario and would seem to just hang back and be silent some of the time, which can make them a bore to have around when they are not interjecting.
On the other hand, as in the previous game, the player can easily return to the rendezvous point for the party via the use of a handy button in the map screen, pick different party members and then return back to the map that the party was in to see if different party members would make for different outcomes in the narrative of scenarios. It can take a bit of backtracking for the more complicated of maps, but the amusement to be had from having party members make their two-cents can be worth the hassle and more.
Returning to the tutorial in the prologue of the game, the player will soon come across the workbench, which returns from the previous game, but only aesthetically. (Obsidian has not seen fit to update the model of the workbench). Gameplay-wise, the workbench and its options in the sequel are far, far more sophisticated than those in the previous game.
For one, the player can now craft new items from parts and materials that the player would find throughout the journey of his/her protagonist; the player no longer just swaps mods in and out of weapons and armor. However, before the player can create these items, the player needs to locate the schematics for them; schematics are new items in the sequel. However, schematics are some of the rarest items in the game, and are rarely obtainable from any source other than merchants. Furthermore, many schematics compete for the same parts and materials.
Speaking of mods for weapons and armor, there are more of these now; new ones include mods that add damage of different kinds to weapons and those that even alter the damage types of weapons altogether. These can offer a lot of versatility to the party's combat capability, assuming that the player can gather together the materials to craft them, loot them off defeated enemies and containers or buy them off merchants.
To facilitate this new game mechanism, the user interface of the workbench has been overhauled to facilitate crafting; there are tabs for recipes of different categories of items and such. In addition, the user interface also has a tab that allows the player to break down items for parts and materials. However, the player will not get the same amount of materials from breaking down an item as the amount of materials that is needed to make the same item, regardless of the skill of the player character that is using the workbench. Therefore, the player has to make crafting decisions wisely, or at least save the game before using the workbench.
Speaking of the player character's skill, how well the player can use the workbench depends on one or a few skills of the character that the player has chosen to use the workbench. These skills include Repair, which is the most important of these skills, Demolitions, which is needed for crafting detonators (Star Wars' grenades), and Treat Injury (which is used when creating medical supplies); sometimes even a combination of skills are needed for certain schematics.
Higher skill ranks allow the crafting of more complex (and usually more powerful) items; they also reduce the material costs of less sophisticated ones, making them less costly to craft. Therefore, it is in the player's interest to develop party members so that some of them can make use of schematics.
The prologue also introduces the Galaxy Map, which the player will use to traverse across worlds, to use the game's own terms for what are essentially sets of associated levels. Unlike the previous game, there are far fewer turret sequences where the player has to fend off enemy ships while in transit from one planet to the next, which may be a pleasing change to players who prefer the gameplay of the game to be mostly if not wholly RPG-related.
The prologue introduces all of the above game mechanisms, as well as more than a few teasers for what is to come later in the game.
After the prologue, the player returns to controlling the protagonist. As mentioned earlier, the protagonist does not start with Force powers, much like the one of the first game. However, the protagonist will soon be re-introduced to his/her Force powers, through a convenient level-up and a short dialogue with a certain character who advises the protagonist to call on the Force again.
Also, much like the previous game, the first chapter throws the protagonist into a rather terrible situation, which can be a source of amusement. Through this terrible situation, the protagonist also meets up with some characters that will play very important roles later, including the aforementioned character who encouraged the protagonist to re-embrace the Force.
However, before this, the player is introduced to some other game mechanisms that were not shown in the prologue. One of these is melee combat, which returns in this game. As is typical of a game with designs based on Dungeons & Dragons, participants in close combat suffer penalties if they do not have melee weapons themselves or the skills to use ranged weapons in point-blank ranges. Attempting to break out of melee combat by physically running away will have a character suffering a penalty to any attacks that are made while it is trying to do so, so as in previous BioWare games, there is no opportunity at "kiting" enemies.
Then, there are lightsabers, but to describe how these work in The Sith Lords now would be getting too far ahead in this review.
The chapter after the prologue also offers more dangerous challenges; the game gives reminders on these, though the way it does this is not satisfactorily subtle. After an important character warns the protagonist of dangers ahead in this chapter, the dialogue text is replaced by text in parentheses, telling the player how to use game-saving and game-loading functions while the camera remains fixed on the characters. Such designs have been around since the first game of course, but they still remain jarring reminders that the player is playing a video game, i.e. it breaks the immersion.
Anyway, some of the aforementioned more dangerous challenges include fights that may have a careless player losing one or two party members in the rigors of battle. If the party is only composed of one person, who falls in battle, then of course this ends in a straight game-over. If there are multiple party members, then all is not lost as long as all of them are not down. Party members that have the appropriate abilities can revive downed companions, though these abilities are very high-end and are only available to high-level characters.
Throughout the game, the player will be looting stuff off defeated enemies and containers, as in the previous game. The former yields loot simply enough, but some of the latter may have locks and other kinds of protection against greedy adventurers with no sense of property. These locked containers can be either hacked open by expending computer spikes, or bashed open by attacking them or planting explosives on them.
The former method preserves items inside the containers, but the latter may damage an item or two (which are replaced with miscellaneous items that clearly mention that the player had been rather brutish). Bashing containers may cause booby-traps on them to be triggered outright too, though rigging them with explosives and running away is a lot safer. (The consequences of using the brutish way to deal with locked containers are something that have been introduced in the sequel, which is a pleasant nuance.)
Sometime into the chapter after the prologue, the player is introduced to the mechanisms for stealth in The Sith Lords – which are still as difficult to utilize as in the previous game. To enter stealth, a character must have at least one point in the Stealth skill and an equipped Stealth Field Generator (which is still a belt item), or at least the Force power for stealth. Sneaking past an enemy while in stealth involves having to depend on the results of random number generators, which are further modified by the character's Stealth skill and some other but rarer factors. The sneaking character can only ever be alone too, as the game will automatically have other party members staying where they were when said character enters stealth.
If the player succeeds in the digital dice roll, said enemy completely loses the chance to make any further detection rolls. On the other hand, failing that roll gets the character detected, and any enemy that have been bypassed but happens to be nearby will be alerted as well. Most importantly, the player does not get much in the way of rewards, especially when compared to the rewards from resorting to combat.
As mentioned earlier, additional items have been added to expand the content and offer more choices to the player, but these generally do not change the basics of their associated mechanisms.
For example, lightsabers can now be constructed from a myriad of components that contribute to different properties for the final products, ranging from colours to bonuses towards specific Force powers. However, they are still lightsabers, and will not be used in manners that deviate from the canon of lightsabers in the Star Wars franchise. Of course, it is worth noting here that the previous game does not feature double-bladed and short-bladed variants of lightsabers, but these are not anything new to the franchise.
The more forgiving of Star Wars fans may appreciate the inclusion of these in the game, though the harsher ones may be disappointed that Obsidian had not tried to exploit the Old Republic setting to introduce something entirely new to Star Wars canon.
Some existing feats have been modified, generally for the better, i.e. making them more powerful. For example, Power Attack, which was not as competitive as Flurry, Critical Strike and Sniper Shot in the previous game, has been upgraded with more benefits: critical hits made with Power Attacks are much more powerful now, and it has knockback capabilities that force the enemy to make a Fortitude save or be staggered, cancelling his/her/its current action.
Some new feats have also been added to fill some tactical gaps in the range of feats, such as Power Blast, which is the ranged equivalent of Power Attack. There are also new feats that provide straight bonuses to skills, such as Gear Head and Empathy. These may be of use to the Soldier, Guardian or combat-oriented classes, which generally gain feats faster than the rest.
Force powers are still categorized under Light and Dark, with a character's alignment determining how efficiently that he/she can use powers of different alignments. There are new Force powers, and like the new Feats, are meant to fill in the tactical gaps that were not addressed by the first game, such as new powers that make it easier to fight other Force users.
Also, there is a notable new Force power that is of particular use to Force-users that are oriented towards combat; the new Force Body power allows the user to use his/her hitpoints to fuel part of the cost of his/her other Force powers. Another notable addition is an additional rank for Force Heal, which makes it more useful for the much tougher fights that occur later into the story.
However, some Force powers may have been changed for the worse. For example, there was a certain anti-droid power in the previous game that was overwhelmingly powerful against droids, which are rare but troublesome opponents. In the sequel, this Force power has been improved so much that having a character with this power very much spells victory in any battle against droids, especially its third rank, which guarantees that enemy droids will be stunned, regardless of how tough they are. Obviously, this Force power is overpowered.
Perhaps a minor feature that can be considered quite new to the franchise is the improvements made to unarmed combat. As they increase in levels, all Force-users automatically gain feats that allow them to use their hands to block lightsabers, deflect shots and do other kinds of outrageous things that would have otherwise burned their hands clean off. However, these feats are little more than a novelty; the wielding of lightsabers achieve the same results and more importantly, provides better damage output and also the use of lightsaber-specific powers (namely saber-throw).
The game mechanisms that Obsidian does have made different are those that are associated with the narrative of the game. However, the differences are not all for the better, because some of them betray Obsidian's lack of ability to implement and execute its conceptual plans for the game.
In the previous game, characters that can join the party ultimately have most of their value and worth in their narrative designs, i.e. they are better appreciated for their contribution to the overarching plot and secondary story arcs. Gameplay-wise, most of them, with the exception of Force-using characters, do not make for good party members.
In the sequel, the characters that join the player's party are not only diverse in personality, but also in gameplay. For example, there is a technologically-inclined party member that happens to be armed with a cybernetic hand that he will upgrade to have greater power and secondary effects as he gains levels, thus making him surprisingly powerful in hand-to-hand combat (which is usually the domain of Force users).
Of course, some of them appear to be little more than one of the cookie-cutter classes, such as a party member that the player will encounter early on. However, unlike the previous game, advancing the story arcs that are associated with them can result in opportunities for very drastic changes in their capabilities. To describe these any further would be to include spoilers, but it should suffice to say that these changes make them more versatile and powerful.
To advance in each character's story arcs, the protagonist has to curry favour with him/her/it by making decisions that appeal to his/her/its philosophy and personality. There is not much to be gained from angering them, which is unfortunate, as this would have made for more rewarding experiences (though there may be "rewards" of the narrative sort to be had from angering them to the point that they betray the protagonist).
Although currying favour makes for an enjoyable story-telling experience, it may cause some disbelief if the player is trying to curry favour with characters that are polar opposites in terms of morality. Of course, if the player has characters of such opposing personalities in the party at the time when he/she has to make a decision for the protagonist, he/she would end up pleasing one and upsetting the other, or vice versa, which makes these decisions more consequential.
However, the player can choose to reload earlier game saves, or return to the rendezvous point, and find a combination of party members that would not result in these dilemmas. This is convenient, but it also reveals a gap in the narrative designs of the game: characters that are not involved in these scenarios do not appear to be aware of most of the decisions that the player has taken.
Currying favour with party members also allows the player to alter their alignments away from their default ones. This may seem very interesting (though not ground-breaking, as earlier games by BioWare have such occurrences before), but these only have ramifications to gameplay, e.g. what kinds of alignment-restricted weapons that these characters can wield, and the aesthetics of these characters (e.g. having them go towards the Light gives them skin of fair complexion, whereas having them go towards the darkness makes them look more hideous).
From a narrative standpoint, the alignment changes do nothing to change their personality. For example, one of the characters, who is a brute of a Wookiee that is prone to violence, would not become any less murderous despite having his alignment changed from his default Evil to Good.
The game's acknowledgement of changes in the alignments of these characters only comes much later in the game, yet this acknowledgement is not congruous with what has happened, or what has not happened. For example, a very important character will make statements about another character, that he will continue to keep killing and torturing people; yet, said character would not have done much of the sort during the player's time with the story.
All these gaps in the narrative of the game give the impression that Obsidian has not invested more into developing the narrative consequences of the changes to the alignments of party members.
That is not saying that Obsidian has done nothing much for the story designs; most of its efforts appear to have been spent on creating plenty of scenarios that are associated with each other to create sub-plots within plots, with consequences down the line. Also, the range of characters in this game are more diverse than those in the first game, and although some very interesting characters from the previous game do not return in ways that would satisfy their fans, the new ones can hold up to the calibre of design that the previous ones have.
For example, there is a peculiar droid character that is completely amoral and would do anything to preserve order in the galaxy; its predicament arose from a seemingly minor mishap in its designs but one that points to a severe issue about sentient robots' need for a purpose. Another even more enduring example is a certain old lady who has both deep knowledge and despise of the Force, whose personal conflicts and bitterness are so rarely seen in video game characters.
If there is any lasting appeal that The Sith Lords has, it is the experience offered by these scenarios and characters.
Another way that Obsidian tries to have the narrative aspect of the game having more influence on the gameplay is the addition of prestige classes; these are available to the player when the protagonist reaches level 15, and the player will be notified of this via a message from one of the main characters. Unfortunately, these prestige classes are only available to the protagonist, and not anyone else.
There are up to six of these advanced classes, three for each alignment of the Force. These prestige classes can be taken either to reinforce the player's playstyle, or to complement it (i.e. shore up any weaknesses). However, any skills that may be unlocked by advancing into a prestige class still start at zero, so the benefit of these prestige classes are at best mainly for purposes of combat.
(On the other hand, being able to obtain Mind Trick by taking on the more diplomatic – or insidious – of prestige classes can provide more options for situations involving weak-willed people.)
Other narrative-related game mechanisms that have been introduced in the sequel are Lightsaber and Force forms, which are stances and states of mind that a Force-user can use during combat. The player can activate these and gain their benefits and drawbacks for a character that has them, much like the feats that have to be activated during battle. However, unlike feats, they are either automatically gained as the character gains levels in his/her class, or gained through encounters with characters that have roles in the story (though these are only for the protagonist). To describe these encounters would be to include spoilers, however.
The previous game had very amusing side attractions, such as the card game of Pazaak. Wisely enough, Obsidian has chosen to retain it. Unfortunately, Obsidian has not seen fit to have Pazaak cards coming from sources other than merchants, which can make collecting cards a somewhat expensive hobby. However, Obsidian has looked at the fundamentals of the card mini-game, and has introduced a change, which is that the player now goes first, instead of the opponent, which is convenient.
The AI is generally conservative at playing Pazaak, so it can have some predictable traits, like not taking the risk to go higher than 18 or 19. However, there are variations among different non-player characters that play Pazaak, so the player should not expect any consistency. Talking to other NPCs may reveal the quirks of these characters.
Swoop racing also returns, almost unchanged from what it was in the previous game. Players still have to try to avoid obstacles, pass over booster pads and shift gears when convenient. Although swoop racing may require the player to play in manners that are not expected from a player when he/she is playing an RPG, e.g. twitch-reflexes, he/she only needs determination to win at swoop racing, because he/she can attempt races over and over (without even having to reload saved games).
As mentioned earlier, The Sith Lords can be quite disappointing graphics-wise. Sound-wise, only the voice-acting is splendidly remarkable; everything else about the game's audio has been generally recycled from the first game. Many characters are also voiced with oft-repeated lines done in alien languages, though to Obsidian's credit, the library for these clips has been expanded so that they are not as repetitive as those in the previous game.
Where there is legible voice-acting that is made in Galactic Basic (the Star Wars-equivalent of English), the excellence of the writing shows, or at least its potential in entertainment does. Of particular noteworthiness is the bitterness and mixture of wise patience and weary resentment exuded by one of the most important characters in the game.
Another noteworthy example is the return of HK-47, one of the most refreshing characters in the previous game. HK-47 remains as entertainingly snide and demeaning of organic life-forms as ever. However, its freshness may have diminished, especially considering that there are a lot more characters like HK-47 in The Sith Lords, which reduces its uniqueness (a fact that HK-47 typically dismisses while swearing to wreck any copies of it that it comes across).
All that good voice-acting from other characters unfortunately serves to highlight the fact that the protagonist does not have voice-overs for his/her lines during conversations. This is a trope that has been around in BioWare's and Obsidian's RPGs for a long, long time, and may have become tiresome by the time of this game.
To summarize, The Sith Lords expands on what the previous game has done, as well as address a few issues. However, there are not many substantially new game mechanisms to be had and most of the game's aesthetic designs, especially its graphics, have been recycled from the first game. The Sith Lords may be a sequel in a narrative sense, but as a product, it can be considered as not having any more value than a stand-alone expansion. On the other hand, if the player is looking for a game with excellent story-telling and insights into the mysterious Force, then The Sith Lords certainly does not disappoint.