The Frinklin and Fred Show

I played KotOR 2

Yep, the E3 playable demo is featured at the gargantuan Lucasarts exhibit at SDCC. I was lucky, I got to it early, and the wait was only 20 minutes. The KOTOR demo was only on 1 system, compared to 6 running Star Wars: Battlefronts and 4 running Republic Commando. The E3 demo, a walkthrough is available here at the official site, doesn't actually represent the storyline, it's just to show off gameplay. It's long though, about 30 playable minutes. You can imagine how long the lines got as the afternoon progressed.

To put it bluntly, the demo rocks. You play as a ridiculously overpowered character, either a level 14 Jedi Weapons Master or Sith Marauder, which allows access to a lot of the new Force Powers and upgraded feats. Also means you don’t have to worry about getting killed. The demo is on Telos, starting underground at a mining complex, going aboveground, then into a Sith temple. Underground the only enemies are droids, but they are more effective then the ones in KotOR 1. You have to find and rescue Mira, though if playing darkside, you can kill her instead. You then get to a shuttle, are shot down, have to fight your way through more droids, mercenaries, and beasts on the way to a Sith Temple. Once there, the enemies are the old reliable Sith troopers, both basic silver and Elite red ones, plus some reworked Dark Jedi. The Dark Jedi look much better in this game. So what’s it like?

-Anyone who’s played the previous game can play the sequel. Gameplay is unchanged, the button layout for the XBOX is the same, and the menus, while tweaked, look pretty much the same. Even the icons for returning feats and powers are the same.

-Graphics are improved. The player faces look better; the long flowing robes look a lot more like those from the movies, and look very natural. Also, the weather effects are excellent, the rain and lighting on Telos work very well.

-The voice acting, what little is heard on the demo, is up to the excellent level of the first game. Mira seems to be a pretty cool character, too.

-Another graphics improvement comes in the fighting. The moves are much less repetitive than KotOR 1. I saw at least 2 different moves for all three combat feats. New powers are cool too, especially force sight and force rage.

The demo made me go from “looking forward” to “totally obsessed”. Hell, the guy behind me hadn’t played the first game, but others in line convinced him to buy it.

Posted by Frinklin at July 24, 2004 05:29 PM