I went into this game with tempered expectations. I played the original on Switch less than a year ago for the first time and really enjoyed it, but I'd heard the sequel was developed by a different studio in an astonishingly short timeframe. (After seeing some disappointing details about the Switch version, I opted to change platforms: I played on my Steam Deck with the Restored Content Mod.)

But KOTOR 2 captivated me from start to finish, breaking me out of a months-long gaming slump.

It's hard to describe exactly why. Sure, I loved the consequential choices, interesting lore, addictive combat and engaging exploration, but those are all present in the first game.

I think it may be that the game's narrative and mechanics felt more intertwined than before. The artifice of the typical RPG... explore, train, prepare, defeat boss, repeat... seemed to melt away: These weren't encounters, they were story beats. Sometimes I lost, and the game would continue with consequences. Sometimes I'd overcome an obstacle in a surprising way, only for the story to provide an explanation.

In the final chapters, the narrative began to comment on the fundamental conventions of RPG party management, and I couldn't help but smile at what Obsidian pulled off in a year's time.

This is a terrific CRPG. I suppose pre-mods I prefer the first game just a little bit more, but with the unofficial patches and the help of the modding community the two games are just about equal. Lots of fans prefer this game to the first.

The story, characters (one in particular) and writing are, for the most part, very well done

There really is no improvement in the graphics from the first game, which is a shame.

The game was obviously rushed (I believe it was the fault of Lucas Arts) because it just felt incomplete on it's initial release and that's sad, but I still loved what we got. A unofficial patch fixed most of the bugs and material that was cut from the initial release and I did play it again not too long ago and it was much much better, although, I did experience a few issues. A LOT of credit needs to be given to the modding community for the improvements they made

A bunch of new Force powers to play with!! There are also some mini-games

Just like the first game, your actions will reflect whether you are closer to the dark side or light side of the force and also, much like the first game, it can admittedly be more fun to be bad

The worlds feel more expansive and this game has weather effects while the first game did not (I think)

The moral choices you need to make feel more significant than the first game. Sometimes you could predict what the results would be of a decision you made in the first game. Here the results can surprise you

The voice acting is inconsistent

Just a terrific game and I would call it a must play if you're a Star Wars fan

I thought not, it's not a tale the Mouse would tell you. More on why it's a tragedy later.

This is probably one of my favorite games of all time. It's a deconstruction of Star Wars about the Last of the Jedi. Despite that, it bears no relation to that trainwreck of a movie that came out 13 years later. It has, in my experience, the best writing of any piece of Star Wars media. Thematically, it has a clear vision and it sticks to it, delivering a solid, yet not exactly air tight, narrative. What do I mean by that?

The dialogue is, simply put, fantastic. It is as black and white as any piece of Star Wars media at times, but it stops to ask "why?" That one small step puts it heads and shoulders above the first KotOR, in my opinion. For one, the Sith Triumvirate has more motivation than "asshole," like Malak did. The Player Character is more observant and introspective than the Player Character in 1, often times being asked to answer for his or her actions and how they might affect others, like a rock thrown into a pond sending ripples out, which just so happens to be one of the major themes of the game. All actions, no matter how small, have consequences, especially when the Force is involved.

The cast of characters are all part of this theme. They are either affected directly or indirectly before the story begins by the PC's actions in the Mandalorian Wars a decade ago. Through the PC's actions, the PC can gain influence with the companions which causes him or her to grow more closely bonded with them. Some of the companions can even become Jedi if the PC gains enough influence with them. This leads to much more involved and in-depth characters than the first game, where it was all just sort of a funny little coincidence that half the cast joined up or one of the companions is so unimportant the game forgets she exists half the time.

However, the plot itself is... Religious. Meaning it's holy: full of holes. Most of the holes are at the beginning and the end, but they're kind of jarring, considering how excellent the dialogue is otherwise. More on that later.

Gameplay wise, there's not much to tell that hasn't been said in my KotOR 1 review. There's many quality of life improvements, such as an increased level cap, far superior menus and inventory, not directly booting you to the main menu when you die, and on the Steam version, wide screen and controller support.

Graphically the game didn't improve. I used a LOT of mods, to make the game look at least early Xbox 360 game texture wise. In some places. The animations are perhaps more jarring than they were before because the story is so much more meaningful than in in KotOR 1. KotOR 1's writing felt like baseline Star Wars. It didn't explore anything meaningful in the Star Wars universe, but it told a fun adventure. 2 explores the nuance within that black and white spectrum and portrays the Force as a living, breathing... Thing, that is in all things. It really delves into what I like to call "Deep Lore". Deep Lore is when a franchise has established a baseline. And then it shows you what it is to go even further beyond. For example, The Elder Scrolls. It has a baseline. Fantasy world. Real cool. Magic. Races. And then it slaps you with the Shivering Isles and it completely skews your perception of the original product. That is what KotOR 2 does for KotOR 1 to me. And I don't know why I call it Deep Lore, it's 4:30 in the morning and it made sense to me.

Ok, so I've talked about the story a lot now. It's incredibly well written, if a bit holey in the plot point to plot point aspect in some areas. Overall it's written so well I don't care. Sounds great right?

It's not done. The game never got finished. Without the fan patch it's a buggy mess and it's easy to get soft locked. Quite a few bits of story got cut when Obsidian's release schedule got forced up to the 2004 holiday season by LucasArts and LucasArts wouldn't let Obsidian patch them back in. Even with The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod, there's still some holes in the story where it's obvious that things got cut and weren't fully restored. And even then there are some ABSURD difficulty spikes in the game, one of them actually added by the mod. The game is a cake walk 90% of the time, whenever you are playing as the main character, because you get an absurd amount of buffs and all of your levels are Jedi levels. Your companions are typically not so lucky and if you aren't careful in your builds, can find a world of pain waiting for them in certain spots throughout the Galaxy. And that is the tragedy of Darth Obsidian. They didn't finish their game because LucasArts wanted it out months before it was ready. The Restored Content Mod (which is mandatory imo, because it fixes so many bugs) can only restore so much. It polishes the edges off a rough diamond, but it's still a rough diamond. There's parts of the game that I absolutely hate. HK Factory makes me want to rip my arms off. Despite that, the highs of the game are so high I'll take them with the lows.

TL;DR The game has a great story with fantastic and memorable characters Except G0-T0.. It improves on the first one in almost every way. The game as is, is very buggy and incomplete, but there is an extensive restoration and bug fixing mod called The Sith Lords Restoration Mod. Gameplay is roughly the same as number one. Highly recommend, just maybe read a spoiler free walkthrough for the difficulty spikes.

It'll be a hot take, but I prefer this game to KOTOR and it isn't even close. Don't get me wrong, I love them both. But my fond memories of playing the first over and over again are due to mostly nostalgia and appreciation for introducing me to the universe of the High Republic and all of the fun, new lore within it.

But my fond memories of KOTOR II are purely based on how good of a game it is. This is top tier storytelling. Where the original (and Star Wars in general frankly) occupies the audience with good vs. evil, KOTOR II was bold enough to blur those lines and introduce refreshingly nuanced perspectives of The Force, the Light Side and the Dark Side.

I adore Kreia as a character, she is so well written and well realized. Even though I fundamentally disagree with her philosophy, she was excellent in how she argued her case. I will always love how much she hates the Force.

I loved how all characters had a fully realized character arc that could often be difficult to achieve without carefully attending to them. I loved the overarching story with the Dantooine Jedi Masters, the role of the Exile and her relationship to The Force, the Mandalorian War, the relationship between Nihlus, Kreia, and Sion.. it was all just executed so well.

While I think the first KOTOR was the prototype for how Bioware would approach gameplay for many of their games moving forward, it is my opinion that KOTOR II is the blueprint for how Bioware would go on to write their compelling stories in future games. KOTOR II walked so Mass Effect could run, and I'll always love it for that.

An incredible game that ends as the biggest cliffhanger of all time. Rest in peace to old Obsidian, cause MAN they really had something good going with these games.

It did suck that the game released with a ton of cut content, and the only way to access it is through the content restoration mod (Not at all hard to make happen, but I think the sections in the game that were cut were honestly sometimes better. I feel like making me do a million solo missions as random companions is a good idea in concept, but having me get skill gapped because I just wanted to play my Jedi and have absolutely no idea how to manage these characters in 1v10 scenarios was not very fun sometimes.)

The true magic is in the story and the characters, and the world. The ideology presented in the antagonists and in essence your own characters is exactly what I've always wanted from Star Wars, and if only we had gotten a conclusion to the saga, I could have died happy. Revan + Exile + new third protag delving into the unknowns past the outer rim to fight the true Sith threat would have been excellent.

It should also be noted that I only played the game once on the light side, so I honestly am still missing half of the game. Either way, it was a very enjoyable experience, and it saddens me to think that we really will never get anything more like this.