Star Wars Sequel Lacks Force
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is a pretty good game. It could have been great if publisher LucasArts had let the title cook for another six months instead of rushing it out for Christmas.
The game's predecessor, Knights of the Old Republic, was my favorite game of 2003 and topped a number of other critics' lists. The two big surprises surrounding the newly released sequel (available now in Xbox and in early 2005 for the PC) were that the game would come out 18 months after the first KOTOR, and that developer Obsidian would take the place of BioWare. In playing KOTOR II, a role-playing epic set 4,000 years before the movie trilogies, it's not hard to figure out where days were removed from the schedule to bring it in on time. I'm guessing they were axed at the editing stage, where it's ensured that the whole sprawling thing held together and that the finished project was polished and well paced.
My wife, who played the game with me, also complained about the lack of any really challenging puzzles and mysteries that allowed her to prove herself smarter than me when we played the first KOTOR.
