Fitting sequel, though not without flaws.

KOTOR II, The Sith Lords, is very much a mixed bag. On one hand, it features a complex and thought-provoking story, a variety of very different NPCs, new feats and Force powers, Prestige Classes for both Light and Dark Side players and a host of new enemies. On the other, like its predecessor, it's crash prone, plagued by a number of irritating glitches, mind-numbingly dull in places and cursed with a spectacularly anti-climactic ending. In fact, the last hour or so of gameplay is pretty much held together by duct tape and chewing gum -- and it's painfully obvious. An enthusiastic thumbs up to Lucasarts for essentially castrating Obsidian with a ludicrously unrealistic deadline -- all for the sake of corporate greed and a Christmas release.

Unlike the first game, KOTOR II's story is not a simplistic tale of good versus evil. This time round we're exploring the countless shades of grey that lie in-between, and this makes for a vastly more interesting game from a story-telling perspective. Moral conundrums abound, and one of the overall themes of the game is the growing realisation that even the most trivial act, whether virtuous or vile, has the capacity to resonate throughout the galaxy, affecting all those who dwell within. Your actions have consequences; consequences you're frequently unable to predict, and it is this ambiguity that gives the game its depth, and makes its characters so compelling.

The most fascinating of KOTOR II's characters is Kreia, a seemingly harmless old woman, skilled in the Force and possessed of both a keen understanding of human behaviour and a distinctly morbid sense of humour. In her self-appointed role as your mentor and confidant during your travels, Kreia will offer suggestions, advice and scathing commentary at various intervals. Kreia is one example of where KOTOR II really shines. The writing is by turns insightful, passionate and hilarious, and the voice work by Sara Kestelman (of the Royal Shakespeare Company no less) is nothing short of brilliant. Kreia remains an enigma, the player never truly certain if she's merely a harmless crank, or someone whose formidable abilities make her a potential threat.

Your interaction with NPCs who join your crew aboard the infamous Ebon Hawk is largely dependent upon 'influence', an original system integrated into the game by Obsidian, presumably in the attempt to add a little more realism to character development. As you travel together, party members will comment on your actions and you will either gain or lose influence with them. Gaining influence with a character will result in that character conversing with you more freely, talking to you about their past, your current situation and occasionally confiding in you their hopes, fears and dreams for the future. By way of contrast, losing influence with a character causes them to clam up, refusing further discussion beyond what has already been revealed about them and any agenda they may or may not have. The influence system appears to be inextricably linked to alignment. If a character is essentially good, you're going to lose influence with them should they witness you butchering innocents, and vice versa.

This system, whilst intriguing, is not without its disadvantages. Foremost amongst these is how the system handles deception. As a Dark Side player, you're occasionally going to want to appear sympathetic to a character in order to gain influence with them. The more influence you gain, the more receptive a character becomes to your manipulations, and eventually you may sway them completely, causing them to fall to the Dark Side. (Or, if you're a Light Sider, you can opt to redeem the fallen.) Given that those sufficiently influenced, provided they're 'Force sensitive', can eventually be trained as Jedi, this is a desirable goal. Who wouldn't want their very own hit squad of Dark Jedi assassins? However, in giving these sympathetic responses, your player character, at least according to the game engine, is playing against type. In doing so you earn yourself Light Side points, eroding your alignment and further distancing yourself from Dark Side Mastery. If this happens often enough, you start influencing your NPCs positively, rather than negatively, which is wholly counter-productive. The crux of the issue is that the game doesn't take into account, or at least not sufficiently, insincerity. Duplicity. Lying. I can be perfectly civil to someone, yet hate them with a passion bordering on the psychotic. Obsidian's influence system does not make allowances for this, and can prove to be the proverbial thorn in one's side.

The game's villains, Darth's Sion and Nihilus respectively, are somewhat lacklustre. They look the part, Sion a walking corpse held together by his own rage and hatred, Nihilus a cloaked spectre capable of destroying entire worlds with the Force, but both sadly fail to deliver when the inevitable confrontation eventuates. My Sith Marauder (one of the new Prestige Classes) dispatched the two of them without breaking a sweat. This was a considerable disappointment, as the universe which spawned the inimitable Darth Vader should know the value of an interesting and capable adversary. To be fair, Sion makes an effort. The same cannot be said of Nihilus, who doesn't even have any lines. He 'communicates' in an unintelligible burbling, which sounds quite comical and does little to inspire dread.

In terms of gameplay and graphics, the game remains largely unchanged from the original. Dantooine and Korriban are revisited, generating a sense of deja vu, though both Nar Shadda and Onderon, and its orbiting moon, Dxun, are a pleasant change of pace. Background scenery can tend toward the bland and repetitive, most notably the interior environments which all have that 'generic space station corridor' look to them. Having said that, the jungles of Dxun, and the Middle-Eastern influenced architecture of Onderon serve to relieve the tedium a little. What is perhaps most impressive are the reworked combat animations. Obsidian obviously went to town in this department, and their considerable efforts have resulted in some of the best melee combat animation I've seen in ages. Your Jedi (or Sith) parries, ripostes, lunges and thrusts most convincingly, interspersing his or her swordplay with the occasional punch, kick or acrobatic leap. Lightsabers drone and screech, sparking as they clash, and combat feats like flurry and critical strike, especially when dual-wielding twin sabers, are truly spectacular to behold.

Items are both interesting and plentiful, the more powerful items perhaps a little too plentiful during the later stages of the game. The inclusion of proper Jedi robes is also worthy of mention, though the dearth of suitable robes for Dark Side players proved a trivial annoyance. Any Sith Marauder worth his salt would not be seen dead wearing what amounts to a bogey green dressing gown. During the entire game I found a paltry two sets of robes suitable for Dark Jedi, and one of those was a non-upgradeable 'Padawan' robe. I mean, Obsidian, really. I will not have my saber-wielding villain looking as though he dresses himself courtesy of the Salvation Army. Did Palpatine wear brown corduroy? No. No he didn't.

Speaking of villainy, Dark Side players will be overjoyed to discover that increased attention has been paid to the integration of situations and opportunities more amenable to those of us who enjoy pushing toddlers in front of speeding cars and stealing handbags from pensioners. The game as a whole is a lot darker than its predecessor, rampant villainy being almost on equal terms with saccharine acts of gratuitous kindness. In fact, some of the ways in which your character can choose to resolve certain situations are truly appalling -- which is great, because there's nothing worse than a cold-blooded sociopath who lacks conviction.

In-game cutscenes are a little flaky, likewise the AI governing NPCs and opponents. Occasionally a character will move during a cutscene, partially obscuring the action with their body, or worse, actually inserting some part of their anatomy into the camera, obscuring pretty much everything. Likewise NPCs following you about will tend to get lost, become stuck in the scenery, or during combat engage in what I came to dub the 'Al-Qaeda Combat Tactic', which sees them run blindly toward the enemy, despite explicit instructions to the contrary, and spend the best part of the battle lying unconscious in a growing pool of their own bodily fluids. Suffice to say, this proved either incredibly frustrating, or highly amusing -- it tended to depend upon situation specifics.

Pre-rendered movies are of a noticeably lower quality than those featured in the previous game, though Obsidian has just recently released a high-quality media patch which includes replacement movie and music files. It's a hefty download, clocking in at about 1.5 gigabytes, but it does serve to markedly improve the KOTOR II experience. The game is still crash-prone, though the crashes no longer occur as frequently, nor do they corrupt one's save game, which was something that had me hurling invective at my monitor with astonishing regularity during KOTOR. On the whole I'd judge KOTOR II's stability 'acceptable', as opposed to its prequel which was about as stable as a bucketful of gelignite on a trampoline.

Despite the various glitches and quirks, KOTOR II remains an outstanding game, let down only by a couple of bugged quests, some confusing cutscene dialogue and its desperately cobbled together finale. There are no long goodbyes, no fond farewells, no grandiose movie sequences in which you're portrayed either saving or damning the galaxy -- there's a half-hearted attempt at villainous exposition, a swift bout of fisticuffs with your primary antagonist and then the credits. This is a tremendous shame as, to my mind, KOTOR II surpasses its predecessor in a number of ways, not least of which is its relentlessly bleak, yet riveting story. Paired with some truly fantastic voice acting, and you've a gaming experience not to be missed. One can only wonder at what a phenomenal game KOTOR II could have been had Lucasarts not behaved like some odious, money-grubbing parasite.