Setting the Stage

By Alex McLain

[Editor's Note: If you haven't yet played the first KOTOR title, and you don't want its story spoiled, then you will want to skip this article.]

The Star Wars films may boast one of the most shocking lines in cinematic history with Darth Vader's "No, I am your father," but Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic's revelation regarding your own identity is nearly as classic. It's bad enough to find out that the most evil man in the galaxy is your father, but to find that you've been playing the hated and feared Sith Lord Revan without knowing it is pretty damn shocking, too. It's the story twist to end all twists where video games are concerned, so the epic tale of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords has a lot to live up to.

Light Side or Dark Side?
Besides their need to come up with an engaging tale that will stand on its own, KOTOR II must also account for the dual nature of the original's story. Remember, there are two very different endings for the first game. You either rose to the nobility of the light side of the Force, forsaking your hatred and lust for power and coming to the aid of the Republic, or you subjugated Bastila, murdered half your crew, slew Malak, took your rightful place as the galactic purveyor of hate and fear, and marched your Sith fleet towards the Republic's final destruction.

Dual-wielding blaster pistols.

It's a valid fear to wonder how the developers at Obsidian can account for these two disparate finales. Their solution, though, is masterful in its simplicity. Without giving too much away, let me just say that they simply ask you how it ended.

During your initial stint on a space station near the fractured planet of Peragus, the events that closed the last game are reexamined in a conversation with a new party member. You're told by your new acquaintance that Revan was a man, and that he was an evil Sith Lord that turned back towards the light to help the Republic. It sounds like he's telling how things ended, but you have an opportunity to correct him. If you played a woman in the original, you can tell him so. If you played to the dark side, you can tell him that the Republic fleet was in fact destroyed, and that Revan took back his mantle of Sith Lord. It's up to you. It seems innocuous (especially to those that didn't play the original), but the ramifications of this little conversation may be enormous. It allows you to tell the game what changes it will need to make to account for the different endings.

A neat effect.

It's also a brilliant move in the replay department. Even if you didn't finish the first game with the Dark Side ending, you can still play through KOTOR II by telling it you did (after playing through it once by telling it the light side came out on top), and see which plot points and character interactions are different.

The Foundation
Apart from its ability to react appropriately to the two different endings of the first game, KOTOR II has its own story to tell. You play as a fallen Jedi; a disgraced hero that left the Republic to join Revan and Malak in the Mandalorian wars. After the wars, and once Revan and Malak showed their true colors, you returned to face the Jedi Council, and were promptly excommunicated for ignoring their strict orders to stay out of the Mandalorian conflict. Apart from the knowledge that you're no longer a Jedi (they even took your lightsaber), your main character is a little fuzzy on the details of his recent past. He's been wounded and out of commission for a few months when he comes to. His only companion is the trusty droid T3-M4 (and how he got there is another mystery) and a mysterious old woman named Kreia.

The red really brings out the pale evil in her.

Kreia seems to have the full skinny on your background and what's been happening in the galaxy as of late, though she's less than willing to divulge all that you would wish to know. She's also willing to tutor you back into the ways of the Force, and she urges you to become more powerful with each passing moment. She's convinced that you are the last of the Jedi, and that the Sith are hunting you down. Your death will eradicate the Jedi Order from the galaxy and allow the Sith to rule unfettered.

Of course, all is not as it appears to be. The developers of KOTOR II have a way of presenting the truth as the Jedi do: from a certain point of view. The joy of The Sith Lords (note the plural there), though, is unraveling the mystery. Slowly picking apart elements of the presented truth and finding and placing the missing puzzle pieces of the plot. Are you a pawn in someone's scheme? Who is Kreia, really? Where have all the Jedi gone? What happened to the heroes and villains of the original game? These are the questions you'll find yourself asking and eventually answering as the game progresses.