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

Welcome to another Throwback Thursday and in this article I will be writing about a game that introduced me to modding and the modding community. So it’s time for me to write up Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords, commonly known as Kotor 2 TSL (Far to many letters for a short version).

So this game was made by Bioware, who made little known games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. It famously had a rushed release which meant there was a lot of cut content. Thankfully this did not have an impact on the quality of the game, just a few minor issues with the story.

Modding was a whole new world for me which I discovered by accident when I googled abut cut content from this game. This led me down the rabbit hole so to speak, and added countless hours to my play time on this game and it’s predecessor (Shout out to the Brotherhood of Shadows mod for KOTOR).

Now reviewing the actual game, the graphics made a small jump up but nothing light years ahead of anything. Though I will admit the character animations and textures do show a fair amount of improvement and the world textures are more varied. So far, improvement on the previous game.

The biggest leap this game made shows in two areas, combat and abilities. Firstly combat, the new improvement would be the extra character ‘roles’ available, now boasting Aggressive, Passive, Ranged, Jedi Support, and Grenadier. All have their roles to play, but now Jedi’s get the best upgrade in the shape of forms. Forms give you the ability to switch your stance to match a given situation, from dealing with multiple hostiles, focusing on blaster deflection or one on one duels. Forms also extend to the force, allowing you to recover force points quicker or increase the potency of your powers. This adds a new layer of strategy to KOTOR 2 and gives any Jedi you have in your party (or you) a way to cope with difficult situation.

The other huge leap was the massive increase in abilities and powers available to you and your party. The amount of feats and powers you can acquire is easily double of what you could have in the previous game. Combined with the raised level cap, you can really find your niche in the game and spec out your character appropriately.

Moving on to a traditional strength, the characters. In this game, rather than missing out on a character, which while plausible is extremely difficult to do so, your choices actually affect what character you acquire mid game. Weirdly they only really do this once, the only other affected party slot is based on gender. Admittedly, playing through as a women was more interesting in terms of your crew’s story development but I won’t spoil anything. Your crew is extremely chatty and it’s nice to see some old faces mixing with the new. With their own motivations and schemes, the cutscenes that show the interplay between characters when your not around is particularly entertaining. Kreia is your mentor type character that comes with such depth that she rightly did deserve the ‘Best Character’ award in 2005 and all these years later I can still remember a lot of the her intriguing views about the Force which hold water even today.

For the story, which was riveting in my opinion, I would say does lack the initial twist from it’s predecessor and I’m glad it didn’t try. I have no doubt any type of replication would have diluted the impact of the story. This story is rather one of recovery, a rehab using the ‘save the galaxy’ as your preferential therapy. With multiple NPC’s plotting, some of which are in your own crew, and you being central for all their plans, you quickly get embroiled in the story. The Sith Lords in the title are all unique and with their unique relationship with the force and their differing goals for the galaxy I believe controversially that this game manages to weave a better story than KOTOR but KOTOR will always stick with people because of THAT twist.

Considering how well this game stands up today (and if it’s not to your liking you can mod it to get some high-res texture) I would definitely say this game is worth picking up. You can get it for a song on Steam. Perhaps even a jig if you look for it.

Hints and tips to deal with your pesky Sith Lords issue:

• Play through at least once before you mod up the game.
• Talk to your peoples as often as possible, you’ll never know what you can learn.
• This game pretty much demands multiple playthroughs, so feel free to replay.
• Add the TSL restored content mod to get even more satisfaction out of your crew’s personal stories.
• Don’t be afraid to sell weapons you aren’t using. Credits can come in handy later.
• Do all the events on a planet, you’ll get mini games and an opportunities to earn exp.
• If your a woman, go to Datooine first.
• If your struggling for team balance, always get Kreia. With her being on the grey sided of the force permanently and being a Jedi Councillor she can act in support role for buffs or Force attacks.
• If your not sure which form to use, go with the default multiple opponent default. No real weakness in it and your outnumbered most of the time.
• Use that craft bench and spec up, make sure you’ve got the best gear on.
• Following spec up, remember to remove the spec ups once your done with the equipment and have something better.
• Medpacks and stimpacks will save your life more often than the force. Keep a supply handy.
• If your sticking to a certain force alignment, your companions may not always like what you say. Your going to have to choose whether to be a people person and get some negative alignment points or stick to your convictions and buddy up on the next playthrough.