In Replaying the Classics, StarWars.com revisits Star Wars games of yesteryear, examining why we loved them then and why they stand the test of time.
Today, Obsidian Entertainment is known to many gamers as the developer behind world-class RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, but the company got its start in a galaxy far, far away. Founded in 2003 by former employees of Black Isle Studios, Obsidian’s first-ever project was a tall order: a follow-up to BioWare’s highly acclaimed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The good news was that the team would have access to the Odyssey Engine, d20 System, and other technology BioWare had used to make the first KotOR such a monumental hit. The bad news? Obsidian would have a little more than one year to complete the game in time for the 2004 holiday season.
Like the original Knights of the Old Republic, The Sith Lords takes place millennia before the rise of the Galactic Empire, in an age when the Sith have hunted down and destroyed many of the Jedi. While KotOR closely follows the structure and tone of the classic Star Wars trilogy, its sequel opts for a more leisurely, novelistic style of storytelling. Its unique characters are beloved for the ways they discuss and examine the complicated nature of the Force, and the Force itself plays a fairly active and crucial role in the story.
The Mandalorian Wars that served as the backstory for the first KotOR are further explored in Knights of the Old Republic II, culminating with a showdown on the war-torn planet Malachor V, which was later depicted in the Season Two finale of Star Wars Rebels. Gradually, it’s revealed that the player character, known as “the Exile,” and the woman accompanying them on their journey, Kreia, both knew the fallen Jedi Revan, who led Republic forces during the war. (For players who took the light-side path in the first Knights of the Old Republic, Revan was eventually redeemed.) Revan’s not part of KotOR II’s story, exactly, but the character’s mark can be found throughout the game — along with a few familiar faces who knew the Prodigal Knight best.
Most of the features players loved most in the first KotOR return in the sequel (sometimes in new-and-improved form, but always intact). It’s still got a robust character-creation system; it still has plenty of amazing Star Wars loot to discover and carry into battle against the Sith, including lightsabers; and it’s still got Pazaak, the ingenious card game invented by Drew Karpyshyn, author of the fan-favorite Legends novel Darth Bane: Path of Destruction.
“We decided to build upon the proven success of the first game’s design, and were careful to not fix aspects of the game that had already proved their worth,” designer Kevin Saunders recalled in an article for Game Developer magazine. “Instead, we identified areas of KotOR that we could expand upon to create a better experience in a flavor similar to that of the first game. Almost without exception, every game-design enhancement to KotOR II was a natural extension from the original.”
After launching NVIDIA Inspector, I clicked on the settings icon (next to the driver information), and selected 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2' from the drop-down menu. From there, I went to the 'Sync and Refresh' section. Under there, I set the Vertical Sync Tear Control to 'Adaptive' (not strictly necessary to fix the problem). Thank you for downloading and installing TSLRCM 1.8. This mod's intention is to restore much of the cut content to The Sith Lords, that was lost to the main game due to a rush to release the game.
As the subtitle implies, a lot of the game’s lasting appeal comes from its memorable, sometimes terrifying Sith Lords, who are veiled in mystery for much of the story. KotOR II had to jettison a large amount of narrative content near the end of its tight production schedule — which was amazingly restored in 2015 and is available on Steam — but that didn’t stop it from delivering one of the best-written, most original tales of the entire Legends era. Its dialogue, in particular, would impress audiences in any medium. And the story’s biggest surprises will haunt players long after the game is over.
“It’s addictive. It kills your social life dead. And it’s still the greatest Western-style RPG on the consoles,” a reviewer for Eurogamer wrote in 2005. “In terms of creating an Xbox RPG in which you define yourselves by your decisions, minor and major, it’s peerless.” That journalist’s name was Kieron Gillen, who’s better known these days as the co-creator of Doctor Aphra and the writer behind Marvel’s ongoing Star Wars comic. Small galaxy.
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Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is available on Xbox One (and recently added to Xbox One Backwards Compatibility), Steam,GOG.com, the Humble Store, and the App Store.
Alex Kane is a journalist based in west-central Illinois. He has written for Polygon, the website of Rolling Stone, Syfy Wire, Variety, and other publications. Follow him on Twitter at @alexjkane.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords is the sequel to the acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic. It’s set in the Star Wars universe five years after the ending of the first game.
You follow the story of a Jedi who was exiled from the Jedi Order. The Order was almost wiped out by the Sith and you wake from unconsciousness with a mission to seek out the last few remaining Jedi.
Gameplay mechanics are virtually the same as Knights of the Old Republic although there are some notable additions such as the option to choose a fighting style while wielding a lightsabre. The mini-games of the first game are back, including swoop bike racing and Pazaak.
The full Knights of the Old Republic 2 walkthrough includes the original content plus the Restored Content mod which adds much more content that was left out in the original release.
Kotor 2 Serroco Thugs
Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords How to backup borderlands 2.exe. was released in 2004, one year after the release of the original game, Knights of the Old Republic. It received positive reviews after it’s release although the game was left unfinished as LucasArts forced the developers, Obsidian, to finish the game within 16 months. This unfortunately meant that not only where there many bugs but that large sections of the content had to be cut from the game.
Star Wars fans got together and released a mod for KOTOR 2 called the Restored Content Mod. It cleared up around 500 bugs and added much more content. The walkthrough above assumes you have the Restored Content mod for KOTOR 2 installed.