Star Wars KoTOR 2 Retro Special: The Last Jedi Are the Last

Think what you may of George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels, but the video games that came into being in their wake are, for the most part, true classics. In addition to the more action-oriented Jedi Knight series and the Battlefront shooter series, the world remembers the Bioware RPG Knights of the Old Republic in particular. This takes place thousands of years before the events of the films and lets us influence the struggle between the light and dark side of the Force.

KoTOR has an undeniable place in video game history and deserves its own article for its twisty story alone. The successor The Sith Lords by Obsidian Entertainment, on the other hand, is more of a missed opportunity.
The main reason for this is probably the much too short production time. LucasArts wanted a sequel as soon as possible, but the Obsidian team had big ideas for the franchise that needed more tweaking to execute. In the end, many planned sections of the game were cut, story elements were simplified or passages were simply not completed.

In the meantime, some of these cut passages could be restored or improved through modding, but The Sith Lords remains an unpolished diamond in every form. The game world seems empty, the NPCs are all similar, the combat system is a bit notchy with both the controller and the mouse and keyboard, and some game systems, such as the swoop races carried over from the predecessor, feel artificial.

However, if you can muster enough patience for the role-playing game, you will be rewarded with one of the most ambitious and best Star Wars stories of all time.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 Retro Special: The Last Jedi Are the Last (2)

Source: PC games

All beginnings are hard (to endure)

However, this impression does not arise immediately. At the beginning, The Sith Lords tries to really strain our patience. The beginning of the game on the mining colony of Peragus, which acts as an extended tutorial, is probably one of the most lengthy and unspectacular intros in gaming history.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 Retro Special: The Last Jedi Are the Last (8)

Source: PC Games

After a short prologue, we wake up with no vision or equipment there to find that all of the station’s workers have perished under nebulous circumstances.

It may take less than ten minutes for us to understand the basic mechanics and meet our first companions, but after that The Sith Lords lets us sour on the barren planet until we have clarified what happened and have also found a way to leave the wretched rock at last.