I love Star Wars. I’ve seen the original Trilogy more times than I can count, and I saw Episode VII: The Force Awakens somewhere around 7 times in theaters. I’ve played a lot of the Star Wars games as well, from Dark Forces to The Force Unleashed. Most of them are pretty good, but few compare to the Knights of the Old Republic series. Both games are held up as examples of how to do a role playing game right, and both are still popular today. As with any sequels, there were a few changes made from the first game to the second that are worth discussing.

Who doesn't love Star Wars? Idiots that's who.

So, what’s different between the games? Was it an improvement, or a detriment?

Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR hereafter) had an interesting tone; it was very mysterious and it had a great sense of discovery. You spend most of the game trying to find the mythical Star Forge, a place where the Dark Jedi Masters Malak and Revan supposedly fell to the Dark Side. You travel from planet to planet piecing together bits of a map to lead you to the Forge, all while completing quests, picking up companions, and dodging Darth Malak.

The Star Forge maps are hidden all over the galaxy and you get to see some really atmospheric parts of the Star Wars universe trying to find the maps.

The tight focus on this mystery made the game feel smaller than it should, but in a good way. You had a concrete goal to achieve and each time you found a new piece of the map, you felt yourself getting closer to the mysterious Star Forge and its secrets. You start as just a regular member of the Republic Army, caught up in a bad situation. Your humble beginnings give the game a real sense of a hero’s journey besides the usual leveling up in most RPGs. By focusing on a smaller start, you feel like a part of the universe, not some super special anomaly.

Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords (KOTOR 2 hereafter) was also rushed out to release a little early, so there’s a general unpolished feeling to the game, but it’s not a huge issue. The game has a much more standard Star Wars sort of plot, which hurt the game a little. In KOTOR 2, you are trying to assemble the last remaining Jedi Masters to combat a newly arisen Sith threat.

The Sith in KOTOR 2 are mysterious, and their backstory is dolled out throughout the game at a good pace, which keeps you interested. — The Sith in *KOTOR 2* are mysterious, and their backstory is dolled out throughout the game at a good pace, which keeps you interested.

The goal feels a little less concrete, which does rob the game of some of the focus in the first. You also don’t feel as if you’re progressing nearly as much because little changes as you find the remaining Jedi Masters, other than the fact that you’ve found them. You start as a renowned Jedi Knight, though you’ve lost your connection to The Force. You are keenly aware that your character exists outside of the natural order of the universe, the Jedi, and even your companions. You’re already defined as a character, so there’s not really anyplace to go besides the usual Light or Dark side choices. Interestingly enough, some of the main character progression has been transferred to your companions. In KOTOR 1, your companions were fairly defined when you met them, and though you discovered new things about their backstories and personalities, they didn’t change much. In KOTOR 2, a fair amount of them can become Jedi if you can gain the required influence.

You can turn all but one of your non-droid, non-already-Jedi, companions into Jedi throughout the game.

This is a really interesting idea, and there’s a lot of directions that the game could have gone with it, but all it amounts to is that some of your companions can also use force powers and lightsabers. The influence system itself was a new addition in KOTOR 2 where you would gain or lose influence depending on which choices you make and how your companions felt about them. It’s a neat idea, but it just means that you switch out your companions constantly for certain situations to get them to like you more, as there’s no benefit to them disliking you.

There are also a number of mechanical differences made from KOTOR 1 to 2. One of the biggest is the crafting system in KOTOR 2, which allows you to build various items, weapons, and upgrades if you have the required skills. In KOTOR¸ certain rare pieces of equipment (and lightsabers) could be modified with upgrades that you found around the world, but they were few and far between. The upgrades would do different things for different items and it was tough to find enough to upgrade all your items, so you had to make some choices around your equipment. In KOTOR 2, almost every weapon and armor piece can be upgraded with a huge variety of upgrades.

This allows for a lot more customizability, which a lot of people might appreciate, though it fell a little flat for me. When the customizable items were limited, it felt as if you found a more unique weapon/armor that had its own story. When you can modify everything, the items feel a little less special.

You can build a number of versions of all the upgrades, which gives you more options, but makes upgrading more of a chore and less unique.

There was also a huge jump in combat complexity from KOTOR 1 to 2. In KOTOR 2, you could use a variety of lightsaber forms that gave you different kinds of bonuses, hand to hand combat was a viable option if you had the right skills, and there was a number of new combat feats, force powers, and items. Combat was a lot more customizable in KOTOR 2, and it was interesting to have your companions be able to fill more roles than they did in KOTOR. In the first game, you would often just line your party up and have them wail on the enemy, whereas in KOTOR 2 you could specialize them more. There’s also more situations where you control one of your companions on a side mission, rather than always controlling your main character, which does give you an incentive to make sure that they’re upgraded in a sensible way. These missions start really early on, so you have a good idea that you’ll be doing it again. Overall, the combat was improved in KOTOR 2, despite some of the crafting shortfalls.

Both KOTOR 1 and 2 are great games, and more than worth your time, though the first one is 12 years old this year. KOTOR definitely has a tight focus, a great sense of discovery, and grounded, believable characters. KOTOR 2 improved the combat, offered a lot more customizability to your characters, and made your companions more useful in general. I think there were a lot of stumbles from the first to the second, but KOTOR 2 tried some new things and made some improvements, which is always better than going with more of the same.