Star Wars – Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords review for Nintendo Switch

Before writing anything else about Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, it?s important to note this: it?s broken. And not just broken in a ?there are some glitches here and there” kind of way. Rather, it?s broken in a ?you can?t beat the game” kind of way, since it crashes after a cutscene halfway through and there?s no known fix at the moment.

That?s pretty bad. And even if the developer is aware and working on a patch ? and even if a certain amount of bugginess is synonymous with KOTOR II ? it still means that if you buy the game, you?re buying one that literally can?t be finished. That makes it hard to recommend the game, no matter how good it may be up to that point.

The annoying thing is, it?s very good up to that point. Much like the first KOTOR, it?s a rare port of a game from a few decades ago that doesn?t show its age as often as you might expect.

I mean, yes, its looks are pretty dated. Much like Aspyr?s other Star Wars Switch ports, no one could ever confuse KOTOR II for a modern-day game. It?s kind of blocky-looking, and it looks like it comes from a few generations ago. That said, in terms of graphics this has much more in common with Aspyr?s Force Unleashed port, which just looked a little cartoony, than it does with their Republic Commando port.

Beyond that, KOTOR II?s gameplay really feels like an extension of the first game, with its karma system and its D&D-influenced turn-based combat. It doesn?t really expand on what was there in the first game (largely because there wasn?t much time to expand on anything, given the compressed release schedule between the two games), but at the same time, given how well it worked the first time out, there wasn?t a lot of reason for them to switch it up here.

All of this adds up to a pretty good sequel ? or, at least, it would if the game was in a finished state. Eventually, presumably, the developer will get around to fixing its game-breaking bug, and once that happens, then the game will deserve a much higher grade. For now, however, in its broken state, tht makes it impossible to recommend Star Wars – Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.

Aspyr provided us with a Star Wars – Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords Switch code for review purposes.