izigame.me

This review contains no specific plot spoilers, but I do discuss the general themes and atmosphere. If you'd prefer going in totally blind, in short: This is a fantastic RPG that does some unexpected things both as a sequel and as a Star Wars product, and holds up today despite bugs and some clunkiness.
Look past the unrefined technical construction and antiquated visuals, and you'll find one of gaming's best stories: A cynical skewering of the Star Wars mythos and its ideals, with complex characters and distinct ideologies subject to your benign or malign influence as you determine a new ethos for the galaxy: Who does the Force really belong to? What is power without subjugation? Can failure and villainy really be redeemed?
KOTOR 2 tears down the many assumptions of the Star Wars brand, the stories that inspired it, and the stories that emerged from it, with their reassuringly clear heroes and villains, clear intentions, clear plots, and clear moral stances. By jettisoning those foundational concepts out the airlock, it subjects you not to the bland fence-sitting of stereotypical "morally grey" chaotic neutrality, but to a genuine and surprising interrogation of the values we hold dear in contemporary - and sometimes ancient - storytelling.
This approach has greater weight in a galaxy that, several years after its predecessor, is a traumatised place shattered by terrible interplanetary conflict, with much of the proceedings adopting a drastically darker, even sinister tone, stretching everywhere from the grimmer writing to the literally darkened UI. The starry-eyed optimism of Star Wars proper is long gone; here lies a civilisation entombed under the ashes of a catastrophic war that has poisoned its survivor's minds with exhaustion and desperation, with an uneasy respite from the carnage only serving to raise tensions and set the stakes even higher into an ominous feeling that the slightest push in either direction could send the whole galaxy tumbling into collapse.
It also goes beyond the usual boundaries of Star Wars themes to seriously examine difficult subjects reflecting the real world's troubles. Should the poor and weak be blindly helped? Is manipulation admissible if it steers its victims into resilience or ignorant safety? What should we do when hierarchies become obsolete? Does empathy have practical value unto itself? What is the role of institutions when the system they serve has fallen into chaos? These and other questions all, ultimately, relate to the central theme of power - and how it is given, taken, and used. KOTOR 2 doesn't hate Star Wars: It's inseparably embedded in its tropes and stories, and gleefully delivers all the lightsaber action and interplanetary antics one could dream of, but what makes it such an unorthodox game is its self-aware metatextual introspection. It's something of a gamified postmodernist debate on the powerful cultural concepts that make classic Star Wars so enduring, with Luke's innocent, longing gaze at Tatooine's binary sunset or Darth Vader's tragic redemption giving us comforting assurances of the nobility of adventure and certainty of love, painting perhaps an overly simplified picture of humanity that echoes our need for existential self-justification. If KOTOR 1 uncritically (albeit remarkably skilfully) regurgitates this optimistic paradigm, KOTOR 2 challenges it - but never neglecting its value, and should you desire, even indulging it, but now with greater definition and understanding. Your new player character can be just as optimistic and constructive as in 1, but now you can delve so much deeper into the how and why, and determine the details in the fuzzy ideological plasticity that 2 offers, both to flesh out roleplaying possibilities, and to deliver a more believable and textured story.
What's fascinating is the way these themes intersect with your player character. The admittedly tired trope of an amnesiac protagonist is used to great effect, repurposing what could have been a dull and impersonal blank slate into an opportunity to mold a new morality for yourself. Many games make the mistake of telling their story at you, where your access to perfect information and total control over outcomes defines you as your own personal deus ex machina. Instead, there's now rarely a perfect solution to a problem; people will take advantage of you if you're not careful; you can't always save everyone; you'll have to make sacrifices; and often, there's simply no truly good outcome. You don't just show up, solve everyone's dilemmas, and leave as a hero; this is a galaxy that needs you, but now also suspects you, uses you, and pushes back. Crucially to the story, even the most helpess people are no longer quite so straightforwardly pliable, and much of KOTOR 2 is about debating your way into a position of power over those around you. The way you work within the confines of these limitations creates a vessel for subtle, philosophically expressive roleplaying in a way that binary moral choices or predictable writing never could. And these winding roads aren't a solo journey: Your companions react to your choices in complex ways, sometimes resisting them, sometimes supporting them, in some cases being so profoundly influenced by your actions that their world view may radically shift, changing their alignment and even their character class... Sometimes to shocking degrees. This flexibility in self-expression, and its accompanying reactivity from the uncertain world and its fluid characters - standing on the shoulders of fantastic writing - is extraordinary for its quality and rarity, and the main motivator for my replays every few years.
I've discussed the writing almost exclusively so far, but the gameplay is similarly strong, if a bit archaic by today's standards. You're of course going to be slicing aliens up with lightsabers and playing card games in space cantinas. There's all the combat, dialogue, puzzles, trade, and exploration you'd expect from any western RPG, wrapped up in the rusty and dusty pre-sequels Star Wars imagery. If you have zero interest in the complex moral dilemmas or what is effectively entertainment iconoclasm, then this remains a fantastic time, with the same enjoyable D&D-inspired mechanics and captivating worlds as KOTOR 1, and some particularly impactful music again. But really, this game's greatest strength is its dialogue, especially if you keep Kreia in your party, which is like enduring a 20-hour questioning from a caustic but caring mentor-philosopher, whose poking and prodding masks a powerful desire to deepen your understanding of the world and your place in it. The wider cast is brilliant, and each character is delicately written and deftly acted, but Kreia stands out as one of the most fascinating characters in any game, even after two decades, for her unrelenting pondering of Star Wars's philosophical conventions.
I passionately believe it's worth digging through some of the awkward presentation and unavoidable bugs to experience this sociological soul-searching, and all its delightfully Machiavellian twists and turns. If you take a deep breath and plunge into its murky waters, you might find yourself with a new perspective on the pop culture spearheaded by Star Wars, on the wider beliefs of our Western civilisation, and perhaps even on your own morality. What more could you want out of a cultural work than that?

★★★★☆