Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (part 2) Kotor 2:The Sith Lords

After the behemoth of a review that was Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic its sequel should be another behemoth. Like I said in part one I actually played this one all the way through before I played the first one all the way through. This game is a little bigger with more events that will happen if you are either aligned with the Light or Dark side Or if you are Male or Female.This mostly includes the characters that join you on your quest. In the game there are 12 characters you will meet that can become a member of your team depending on what gender or alignment you have. Now for some back story (enter cheers and applause here). In this game you play the Jedi Exile who served Revan in the Mandilorian Wars. During the final battle of the war on Malachor V you were ordered to activate the Mass Shadow Generator which for the most part destroyed the planet and everyone on it. This created a wound in the force so sever that you are actually cut off from it. The Jedi have been hunted almost to extinction by the Sith and you are believed to be the last of the Jedi.

Now like the first game you can create your character (even though the exile is a girl in The New Essential Guide to Droids[7] and Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revan is also said to be guy but it doesn't really matter) The creation mode is like the first game so I won't get into it. The Text crawl happens but no one pays attention to it (ok I don't pay attention to it). Then the prolog happens and you see a familiar droid putting the Ebon Hawk back together. Yes ladies and gentlemen it is our good friend T3-M4. Your character is out cold laying in the med bay (so apparently your a clutz always starting the game out cold). There is a hooded woman laying on the floor and she seems dead. T3 has to repair the ship and make its way to the Peragus mining facility where the Exile (because its better then saying you all the time) awakens in a Kolto tank, your in your underwear (gasp how perverted) and you make your way throughout the station gaining access to the morgue and find the hooded old woman from the ship.

You end up finding out she is not dead but she used the force to make it seem like she was. She tells you her name is Kreia and that she is a friend and offers to help you get off the station. She is a mentor of sorts later in the game this role will go on farther in the game. While on Peragus you will meet one of my favorite character Atton Rand (yes he is this games "that guy" like Carth Onasie from the last game and Kaidan Alenko from Mass Effect) I still like him he is a cool character a smart mouth and a smart guy. He is a con artist who has a hidden past that you will get into and if your a girl possible love interest.

Now I am going to be going from the female perspective since that is what is cannon. The first thing couple words you say to him include the phrase stop looking at my chest there is some funny dialog with him. So now you have to find your way off the station while fighting rouge mining droids that have killed all of the crew. Death of the crew was made possible by an assassin droid that looks like someone dipped a friend of ours in silver. We are introduced to HK50 (bum bum bum) who is an updated version of our best friend HK47 but do not worry my friends for he is in this game there is just some assembly required. Now you will have to meet back up with T3 and make your way to the hanger where the Hawk is being held. However a Republic ship is on the way and Kreia feels an evil presence on the ship.

You need to get on bored so your team can get to the Hawk and the team will run into one of the coolest villains ever named Darth Sion. Sion is called the Lord of Pain so he looks like he has been carved into pieces but has never died. So the obvious thing is to send the old lady whose eyes don't work (she can see through the force). So they have some words and it turns out that she taught him in the past. A bond has seemed to formed between Kreia and the Exile because Kreia gets her hand chopped off by Sion and the Exile can feel all of her pain. When you make it to the the Hanger and get into the Hawk having to fight off a bunch of sith using the turrets on the Hawk. Then you have to fight off any sith that may have gotten on the ship. You take off and the Sith give chase you must navigate your way through an astroid field and in the end the fuel filled asteroids will be hit by a laser either by you or the sith (who are using the Republic cruiser).

Now you will go to the Planet Telos which is the only planet that was on the galaxy map that you got from Peragus. Once there you will be placed under arrest for so they can investigate the destruction of Peragus which supplied the stations fuel. (Telos was attacked and ravaged by the Sith under Malak's control and is where Carth's wife died). Most of Telos is inhospitable and it is being repaired. Your team will be held on Telos under house arrest and you will be bothered by phone calls and visitors from two different groups that are trying to help restore Telos they have names but its basically the corporation and the environmentalists. Now you will be asked to do things for which ever one you chose that will basically get the other one kicked off the station. If you want to do whats best you go with the Lithorians (the environmentalists) who actually has Telos best interests in mind while Czerka (the corporation) is trying to make money off of this and doing it cheaply.

You find out that you have been cleared of the charges but you are still stuck on Telos because the Ebon Hawk has been stolen. Now you need to get off of Telos and (whatever restoration group you chose to help) will be able to get you off of the the station but you will be shot down on Telos's surface by Czerka gunners in a turret tower. The ship will crash and you will be rescued by Bao-dur who served under the Exile in the Mandilorian Wars. He is an alien creature that is the same race as Darth Maul (in fact the dark side version of Bao-dur has Maul's face pattern.) He has a mechanical arm that has a repulser beam that holds the arm together which looks cool but Bao-dur is soooooo boring you hardly ever need him except for this part of the game. His stories are boring and is boring as well. His arm is able to open force fields but thats it. He will join you and help you get into a Czerka base where you will then need to steal a shuttle just to be shot out of the sky once more by a group of HK50's who you must fight and kill before you get to enter an underground school where a member of the jedi council has lived in secret teaching as the last remaining Jedi (even though she only thinks she is the last one any way). She used to look up to you as a jedi and I always found there was a little romantic tension between Atris and the Exile no matter what the gender. However she and the Exile talk and she shows the Exile that she still has your old lightsaber (which you described to Atton earlier) and you two discuss will discuss your exile. She will eventually let you leave informing you that one of her students stole the Ebon Hawk. During this time Atton and Kreia have a discussion and Kreia find out about Atton's dark past and that he is to do as he is told or she will tell the Exile. Now this is the first place the gender thing matters if you are playing as a male then you will one of Atris's handmaiden will join with you after a while of training her you will be able to grasp the force making her a jedi or a sith depending on you alignment. However as a female she will not join you but others will. Once you leave here after recovering the Ebon Hawk and T3 you will be able to go anywhere. You find out T3 downloaded some data from Atris's computer showing you your trial and the Jedi council members who were there. You want to find them so you can find out what happened to you. The council members have scattered across several planets Onderon, Nar Shaddaa, Dantooine, Korriban, and Telos (where Atris was remember thats where I said she was just a few minutes ago.)

Now I think the best place to start out is on Dantooine which has been trying to repair its self after the attack on the Jedi Enclave by Darth Malak five years earlier (the time between the the first game and this one). On this planet you will find farmers, Salvagers, Mercs, and the Militia. Most of the farmers do not like Jedi blaming them for the attack. That means if you want people to treat you well you should not carry your lightsaber around if you have one. You will be sent to search the Jedi enclave of any helpful items left around and will find something rather valuable that someone will want to steal later. How ever during your search of the destroyed enclave you will find a man sealed inside of a room. On the floor of the room there is someone who was killed by a lightsaber you will talk to the man (who is alive) and he will refer to himself as the disciple. If you are playing as a girl then he will join your crew as well as serve as another possible love interest for your female character. Now when you try to leave the enclave with the valuable item you found a small gang of crooks will stop you and try to steal it but you will make quick work of them.

You are looking for the Jedi Master Vrook who was one of the council members who tried you. You will end up finding him captured by a bunch of mercs you plan on selling him to the exchange. You however will step in freeing him even though he will be mad at you for this. This will set up for a battle for Kunda (the current capital of Dantooine where you have been the whole time.) will get ready to begin.

You will be approached by one of the mercs who will want you to help them in the fight or you can also help the Kunda militia. Now you can either fix or sabotage the defenses that Kunda has and depending on what side you chose you either fight and kill Vrook leaving the mercs in charge or you will fight along side him keeping the republic presence on Dantooine and learning a new force form from Vrook. So now you are done with Dantooine and can move on to the next planet that you choose.

For me I would usually go to Nar Shaddaa which is a shady moon controlled by the mob. Here you can have some fun with force persuade as you can tell two muggers that they should jump into the center pit (the surface is suspended very high and the fall would have easily killed them). This action will result in a lecture from Kreia but its still fun. You can also rig a swoop racing droid to explode so he doesn't win and use the force to tell the guy who watched you do it claim he has seen nothing. But on to the parts here that matter. Once you land you will be approached by the fly looking alien (I don't know what its called it was the one that was in the Phantom Menace I feel dirty for referencing that movie) he will tell you that you can't land there someone else had it reserved you can make him go away in a number of ways like bribery, the force, and threats. This will get him to leave and you will be free to wonder. Now you will run into someone who says that the Ebon Hawk was his and you will do what ever you have to so he will leave but he will sneak on board the ship. When you return to the Hawk you will find it is over run by slavers who were the ones that had the landing pad reserved and they will attack you. You will need to fight your way through the ship and you find out that the guy who claimed it as his is dead.

Now you can either kill all of the slavers or you can keep the leader alive and make him give you a cut of there profits. Either way the ship is yours again. You can then go on your merry little way and explore the large city. You can go down into the refugee sector (and be sure you have Atton with you because cool things will happen). While down there you will run into two Twi'lek who will tell you a secret about Atton.

You will then confront Atton about it and if you have enough influence with him he will tell you his past. It turns out that Atton used to be a Sith Assassin who was very good at killing Jedi. There was one female Jedi he was fighting when she talked to him and showed him his own mind and that he had the ability to use the force. Her going inside his head enraged Atton and he killed her but he knew she was right and ended up deserting the sith. If you have enough influence you can unlock Atton's force ability's making him a jedi or sith (depending on your alignment).

So now you have three Jedi (Kreia, Atton, and the Exile) and your team just got cooler. Now as you progress through this level you will find out that there are a bunch of bounty hunters that currently have a truce but when one of them lures you into a trap the truce is off and they attack. This leads to Atton fighting a pair of Twi'lek (sisters) alone in the local cantina. Then a bunch of Duros confront the rest of the crew outside the Ebon Hawk. Which leads to Bao-dur says something thats actually funny. One of the Duros starts talking basically announcing their attack and Bao-dur gets asked which one does he want and he says something like I will take the stupid one who should have shot us instead of talking (not exact but its like that). Now you will be approached by a female bounty hunter named Mira who is warning you about a trap that has been set by an exchange boss inside the Jek Jek Tar (an alien only cantina) She uses a toxic gas to knock the Exile out and Mira goes in her place (wearing an envirosuit like a space suit).

She meets up with the exchange boss and it is reviled that she is not the Exile and is captured. Before you the Exile wakes up the Jedi master talks to you about Mira and how she needs to be saved he then leaves going after her himself. Once you get up you know what you have to do. You go to the Jek Jek Tar but you don't have an envirosuit so you will gain a new force ability that will control your breathing that will allow you to breath the toxic air. Now you must fight your way through the bar to make it to the place where Mira was taken. Now depending on your alignment with either the dark or light side will determine the if you will get to fight as Mira or Hanharr (Hanharr is Mira's rival he is a Wookiee bounty hunter) If your on the light side Mira will fight Hanharr and win (you control her) if you are on the dark side Hanharr will beat Mira (you control him) and the winner will help the Exile get inside the base where they are and will eventually join the crew. Now you will fight your way through the base and end up meeting the Exchange boss who's guards will betray him killing him. The Exile will be electrocuted until you pass out and then will be taken to the ship of a powerful exchange boss named Go-to.

Two members of your team will have to sneak on his ship freeing you and in the end Go-to's floating droid will join your team (this droid turns out to be Go-to himself) The droid is there to ensure that you do whats best for the republic and will reward you if you do. By now you have caught the attention to a sith apprentice named Visas Mar will be on the Ebon Hawk and will attack you. once you defeat her you will find out she is the last of her species and she will end up joining you. If you have been searching for parts you might also have HK47. After escaping Go-to's ship you will meet up with the Jedi master that you talked to earlier. You can either kill him and steal the force from him and or you can just talk to him and he will teach you the force form.

Now you only have two planets left Korriban and Onderon. I am going to go to Korriban next because well I want to. So you fly to Korriban and you have every party member but one who you won't meet until you go to Onderon. After the events of the last game the planet has been abandoned and all that remains are dead bodies and an empty sith academy. Kreia will insist that she stays on bored and you will leave her on the ship. She will guide you with the force. There are a few places you need to visit but lets go to the academy and see if you can find a jedi master there. Well after some searching and fighting off some wolf like creatures you will make it to the torture chamber where you will see the Jedi Masters dead body on the floor of a cage. You take her data pad and use some filed on it to get into the computer where you can unlock the doors that lead out side. You will then leave the academy, but before you can leave you will come face to face with Darth Sion and two dark jedi. There will be some words shared and then they will attack you. You can not defeat Darth Sion but you can get him to let you go.

Now before you leave the planet you will go into a cave that houses a lot of bat like creatures. Once you get deep into the cave you will see a strange chamber that will lead you to a rather cool part of the game. You will be in a room with several other Jedi with two special ones Bastila and Malak. Malak is recruiting Jedi to join him and Revan to go to war with the Mandalorians. You point out Bastilia wasn't there when you were recruited but Malak says she joins later (referencing the first game). This will end with a battle against all of the Jedi and Malak. Once you beat them you will be shown many visions of the past including one of the battles you were in charge of where your people were out numbered and the path was covered with mines. Then you will see Kreia dressed like a Sith lord. Atton will approach and accuse her of being with the Sith and Kreia will raise her lightsaber in defense when the others start coming in and see that Kreia has threatened Atton with a lightsaber. They will all rush to defend Atton and you will have to choose between fighting for Kreia against everyone or fighting against Kreia. If you do nothing then you will have to fight everyone. In the last chamber you will have to face Darth Revan in a battle (just so you know these are all visions) Now there is an item in here for you to collect but after this you can leave the caves and Korriban all together.
Finally you will go to Onderon but you will be attacked by another ship and forced to land on its moon Dxun where you will face many wild beasts and you will also find a Mandilorian camp. You will be brought to Mandalor (he is the leader of the Mandalorians) If you have played the first game you will realize that he sounds familiar. Mandalor is Canderous Ordo after he found the last Mandalor's helmet he was able to become the leader.

He will ask you to do some things for him before he will help you get down to Onderon. So you are sent out to find and help some of his men and impress Mandalor. You will also learn a new force power which will help you control the minds of beasts but its not the best power so its unimportant. So after you impress Mandalor he will help you get down to Onderon and will be sent to see one of Mandalor's friends who can get a message into the palace where where Jedi Master Kavar is advising the queen.

You will first have to rescue Mandalor's friend from prison by finding evidence that it wasn't him. He will repay you by getting you message to Kavar and a meeting will be set up. At the time there is a possible civil war brewing with followers of the Queen and the followers of a General Vaklu are ready to fight. The queen warns Kavar that this is likely a trap but he sets up the meeting between the two of you in the local cantina. You meet and talk for a little bit before some of General Vaklu's men attack trying to capture Kavar, but he will escape. You will then have to fight of General Vaklu's men. You will be thrust into the civil war that is about to start you will have to choose to side with the Queen or General Vaklu. This will either lead to a fight with Kavar or him teaching you another force form.

Once you have found all the masters if you do not kill them all then you will be asked to see them in the jedi enclave on Dantooine (if you did kill them all then you and Kreia will talk there). When you meet with all of the jedi masters you will talk awhile and they decide that the only way to heal the wound in the force that you caused would be to strip you of your ability to use the force, however Kreia will intervene killing all of the masters by sucking the life right out of them (maybe sucking all of the force out of them but I don't know just makes more sense to say life). Now if you kill all of the masters yourself then Kreia will attack you knocking you out and telling you that she is upset with what you have become. Depending on your alignment when you awaken you will either get one of two new powers Force Enlightenment (light side) which is a boost power and Force Crush (dark side) which is a devastating offensive ability which can kill almost any enemy in 2 uses.

You will be sent to Telos following Kreia. You will get stuck in the middle of a sith invasion of Telos's citadel station (where you were at the first time you were here) you will need to fight off the invaders. After you have repelled the invaders you will have to go the the ship of Darth Nihilus who is attacking Telos and is going to consume all the life on the planet. He is Visas's former master and you will need to face him maybe even have Visas sacrifice herself to beat him. Also while you are on his ship you and some Mandalorians will be planting bombs so they can destroy the ship. At the same time three of you crew will be on Dxun exploring some sith temple that houses the remains of a Sith Lord (Exar Kun I believe but I can't remember) You will interrupt some some sort of ritual they were holding and clear the sith out of the temple.

Now it is time for you to go back to confront Atris who has become a Sith herself taking up the Mantle of Darth Traya the lord of Betrayal. After you battle her you can either save or kill her but she will tell you were Kreia has went and you will find yourself heading to Malachor V once again. You are going to enter Traya's academy which will lead to you facing off with Sion and eventually defeating him by breaking his will to fight and just letting himself die. Then you will be forced to face Darth Traya. Before that though you will be put in control of remote (Bao-dur's little droid). The droid has been instructed to activate the Mass Shadow generator which will destroy the planet however right before remote can finish activating it Go-to stuns him and says that he can not let this planet be destroyed for its existence will keep the republic strong.

You will now be face to face with Darth Traya (Kreia) who is being aided by two lightsabers she is controlling though the force. This is obviously going to be a hard fight but it does lead to a cool ending where she tells you the futures of your companions.

So that is the basic story of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. Now there are a couple things that you should know. In the game you can make members of you party learn how to use the force and become Jedi/Sith. Atton can become one as we already discussed but so can Mira, The Disciple (his name is Mical), The Handmaiden, and even Bao-dur. Now most training most of them to become Jedi/Sith is pretty straight forward but Bao-dur is challenging. You can't really gain any influence with him by talking to him but if you do a couple good things in front of him you will get a message saying that he is now a Jedi/Sith something or other. Also the game was never actually completed due to it being rushed to meet the release date. One of the missing parts of the game is a part where you and HK47 will go and hunt down the factory that is producing the HK50 models however this never made it into the game.

So that is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 I love this game very much and it easily made it in this spot with the first game there is no way these two games would not make the list and with two giant reviews I would not be surprised if the two games in my number one slot will take a lot longer I am sure. So stay tuned for my reviews of my two favorite game The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask.