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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (KotOR II) is a role playing video game released for PC and the Microsoft Xbox. The Xbox version was released on December 6, 2004, while the PC version was released on February 8, 2005. It was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by LucasArts.
OverviewThe game is the sequel to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (a.k.a KotOR), which was widely regarded as a major commercial and critical success. The original game, however, was developed by a different company, BioWare. According to the game's producers, the change of developers was primarily due to BioWare's occupation with other titles, such as Jade Empire and Dragon Age. BioWare is understood to have recommended Obsidian as an alternative developer, having worked with many of Obsidian's key members when they were part of the now-defunct Black Isle Studios. The Sith Lords was constructed using an updated version of the original KotOR game engine, Odyssey, which Obsidian obtained from BioWare.
Among the new characters that join the main character are Kreia, who acts as a mentor to the main character, and Atton Rand, who acts as the ship's pilot. Several characters featured in the first game are also brought into this sequel. Enemies include Darth Sion, a Sith Lord whose shattered body is held together only by "his hatred and the power of the Dark Side". The new planets which the character may visit include war-ravaged Telos, the planet of Onderon and adjacent jungle moon Dxun, Nar Shaddaa, and Peragus. Korriban and Dantooine, which appeared in the original game, are also revisited. The Ebon Hawk, the ship used by the main character in the first game, once again makes an appearance as the player's transportation. Image:Kotor2screen.jpg Example of a combat scene in Knights of the Old Republic II CharactersDuring the course of the game, the player (as The Exile) meets a great number of other characters, though some are encountered only through specific actions.
Other characters met along the way include: Image:Kotor2poster01.jpg Concept art inspired by the poster used for the first release of A New Hope. Later published on the March 2005 cover of Tips & Tricks magazine. Locations
Dantooine and Korriban are two crucial planets from the first game. Korriban is significantly shorter in gameplay time than in the first game, whereas Dantooine is of comparable or possibly longer time. Telos, mentioned heavily in the Carth Onasi subplot from the first game, is seen for the first time. Players also visit other locations:
The Ebon Hawk is the player's ship, used for transportation from one location to another. Several minor occurrences can occur there, primarily in the form of character-to-character dialogue that can upgrade an NPC's abilities. Game featuresKotOR II boasts several improvements over the original game's features, allowing for a wider variety of tactics and opportunities for players. InfluenceIn the first KotOR, if the player acted in a way contrary to his/her companion's alignment, the player would receive a verbal berating with little to no consequence. In KotOR II, an influence system was introduced, allowing a greater depth for gameplay. The player's influence over a character can determine whether or not sub-plots will develop, as well as increasing both the party member's statistics and the player's. Influence can be gained by performing actions that a party member approves of. For Light Side-oriented characters, such as Mira, this could involve sparing someone's life. For Dark Side-oriented characters, such as HK-47, influence can be gained by violent acts, such as inciting a mob to violence. Influence is lost in a similar manner. Opportunities for gaining or losing influence are not always clear, though some are. An excellent example of the potential rewards of the influence system can be found in HK-47. Once the player has enough influence, HK-47 will feel secure enough to confide in the player the various methods that he has used in the past to kill and/or break Jedi. The knowledge he shares increases the player's statistics greatly. Jedi trainingIn addition to the influence system, one of the improvements this game has over its predecessor is the ability to train party members to use the Force, and to choose the Exile's Jedi class at the beginning of the game. With the exception of the three droids (not including Bao-Dur's remote), Mandalore, and Hanharr, every party member can be promoted to a Jedi class. Even though these promoted Jedi don't have as many Force Powers as the Jedi Exile, Kreia, or Visas, they nevertheless become considerably better warriors. Training a character to become a Jedi requires a very large amount of influence, and consequently many players (and reviewers) have managed to get through the entire game without even knowing it was an option.[citation needed] Item upgrade and creationItems such as armor, melee weapons, blasters, and lightsabers were often marked as upgradeable in the first KotOR. However, this system was overhauled for the second game. The first game presented relatively few upgrade items; armor was restricted to an underlay and an overlay, and the effects of one or the other varied from armor to armor. In the sequel, there are now numerous upgrade items, each bestowing a different ability, regardless of the item it is applied to. The number of upgradeable items has also increased. For example, lightsabers in the first game only had three upgradeable components: two focusing crystals, and a color crystal. In KotOR II, there are an additional three slots: emitters, lenses, and energy cells. The combination of these six items allows for high level of possible item combinations, increasing the game's replay value. In addition, the player can create various items from raw materials. Weapons and upgrade items can be manufactured at workbenches out of Components (unwanted items can be broken down into their base Components for item creation). Other items, such as explosives, implants, and utility items are created at lab stations out of Chemicals (similar to Components, unwanted items can be broken down). The amount of Components or Chemicals received in a breakdown or used in creation depends on the player's level in the Repair and Treat Injury skills, respectively. T3-M4 can be used as a mobile workbench, but only for upgrades and computer spikes which he will give you for free. Also, when the Exile is female, the Disciple is equivalent to a lab station, but only while on board the ship. References to the TrilogiesDuring the game, one can find many references to the Original Trilogy. One of the most obvious is the similarities between Atton Rand and Han Solo. Both are scoundrels. They also served the dark side at one point in their life. Han Solo made shipments for the Empire, and Atton was a soldier for the Sith under Revan. Also, both of them pilot the ship and use the common phrase "I have a bad feeling about this." In the Beginning, if Female, before releasing Atton from his prison, he asks "Are you an Angel?" a reference from Episode I the phantom menace, where Anakin asks Padme the same question. There are other references to the trilogy in the dialogue. If the character is light and talks to Vaklu just before he is fought, a dialogue choice will come up. It says "You'll find I'm full of surprises," a phrase first used by Luke Skywalker in the Empire Strikes Back. At the end of the game, the player can ask Darth Traya about the future before she falls into the core. If asked about the Republic's fate, she says the Republic will fall in a few millennia, an obvious reference to the plotline for most of the films. Deleted contentThere has been some controversy regarding the game's third act, or "endgame". LucasArts pressured developer Obsidian to finish the game for a 2004 holiday release, leading many to speculate that the development had been rushed. According to information at Gamespot.com (see the "Developer Interview" video), development on KotOR II was started on or around the release of KotOR I in November 2003, for an XBox console release of December 2004. This would suggest an approximately 13 month development cycle for KotOR II on the XBox, in contrast to Bioware having 36 months of development in creating KOTOR. The game contains a sizable number of bugs, which can affect gameplay. Also, some of the content from the game proper appears to be missing, though much of it can be found inside the game files. Evidence of additional cut material can be located within the various sections of the game files, ranging from unused sound clips to early modules meant for use in a cut planet. Specific cut content included:
Cut content restoration modsImage:Gizka-logo.png Team Gizka logo A group of fans, known as "Team Gizka", are creating a modification called "The Sith Lords Restoration Project" (TSLRP), with the intent of restoring much of the cut content, including the restoration of side quests and portions of the cut ending. The project is currently in a post content-implementation phase where issues related to the restored content are being fixed and the implemented content is being tweaked. The rate of issues being solved (as observed from the issue tracker at http://www.team-gizka.org/wip.html) indicates a likely release during Q2 2007, although the team itself has been reluctant to speculate on a release date. The restored content will be available for the PC version of the game. Another group, nicknamed "Team Bantha", began a sister project dedicated to the restoration of the Droid Planet M4-78, a planet with its own quest involving Lonna Vash, which was cut from the game at an early stage. The mod was intended to be released alongside TSLRP, but looks to have been discontinued. PatchesThere were three official patches released for the game, two of them update the quality of the Movies and Music while the third fixes gameplay issues as well as addresses some additional content. SequelIn January 2006, the gaming website IGN speculated that a sequel to Kotor II was in development with an estimated release of 2007.[1] However, LucasArts and Obsidian have not announced anything regarding the possibility of a sequel's development. Hope for the series has been renewed with a statement made by Nancy MacIntyre, VP of global sales and marketing for LucasArts, who recently said that neither the KotOR series, nor the Star Wars: Battlefront series will be left behind, which has caused much speculation amongst fans of the series.[2] The April 2007 issue of Official Xbox magazine speculated that Bioware, which developed the first game in the series, would develop Knights of the Old Republic 3. The magazine also speculated a 2008 release.[citation needed] This rumor has been debunked by BioWare employees, who have stated on BioWare's official forums that "we are not currently working on KotOR 3" and "if [a sequel is] being done, it's certainly not being done by us."[3] Notes
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