Sir Fink

Better use of skills was nice. Awareness was actually good for something other than just detecting traps (will BioWare ever make a game where enemies use stealth?) and Security actually has a use (I think there are maybe 2 locks in all of KOTOR1 that require security and can't just be bashed open). And of course skills used in conversations (other than just Persuade). I also liked the deeper, more subtle use of Dark side and Light side, something that was only hinted at a bit in KOTOR1 when talking to Uthar and that Sith Twilek woman. Otherwise it was just "I shall save you for no reward!" or "hand over your credits or else, punk!"

After Handmaiden confronts Atris and gets killed (at least it looked like she dropped dead) I came to the rescue, killed Atris (who took on Handmaiden's voice during the fight). Then there was a fade to black, me and Atris were standing on one of the bridges in the Telos Polar academy, then Atris vanishes and I'm standing alone on the bridge. I turn around and there's Atris standing in that room with Sith holocrons about 100 feet away. I walk there, talk to her and fight her (again!) and kill her (again!). Huh? In the tomb on Korriban I walk into that room with Revan and standing next to Revan is a dark-side version of me! Dark Side Jesus! Holy crap, I think, I gotta fight both Revan and an evil version of myself? But a second later my dark side version vanishes into thin air, a dialog with Revan comes up but before I can read it he's attacking me. Again, huh?

The problem with this and many other games is that it gives you two ways to kill stuff: the clever way and the brute force way. Sure, you could sneak up on a group of enemies, set some mines, cast force confusion on one of them, then paralyze on the rest and sit back and watch as a Sith kills his own. Or you could just walk into the room, fire off 1 or 2 Force Storms and kill them all faster than you can blink. My consular/Jedi Master had darn near every Force power by the end, but 99% of the time he just blasted Force Storm. Why bother with anything else? It got really boring but by then I just wanted to finish the dang game.

One of the flaws in Kreia is that she often disapproves of the Exile's actions no matter what. I would often save right before a moral choice event and reload if Kreia disapproved of my choice. Turns out, in many instances, Kreia chastises the Exile no matter what he does. You give money to the bum, she says you weakened him and should have made him earn that money on his own. Reload, and tell the bum to get lost and Kreia chastises you for being mean to the guy. Damned if you do.... And many of the things she says were just fortune-cookie pseudo philosophy: "Do not see with your eyes but with your perceptions! You listen but do not hear!" blah blah blah. The writers just made her obtuse for the sake of being obtuse and half the crap she says sounds deep but is really quite meaningless.

Even if you're playing male you get a little cut scene of Disciple phoning some Republic general saying "General, I've found the exile on Dantooine." or somesuch. So he's wanting to keep an eye on you. All this talk about why people join you is explained fairly well by Kreia when she talks about your character's ability to attract followers like a magnet. Revan had that quality as well, she explains, and thus was able to turn Republic soldiers into loyal Sith. Just as you can turn your followers to the light or dark sides simply by your very presence.

That "gland" convo with the spelunker is the funniest. Loaded with innuendo: "I want to hold your gland." "Don't squeeze it too hard or it wil pop!" Another funny moment was while being told about those two hot Twilek assassin babes, my male character says something like "Two hot twileks dancers are after me? Great!" and the camera cuts to Handmaiden who just leers at me.

The Force Bond thing was a slightly cheap device on the part of the game's plotters, IMO. If you're playing light side, or heck even dark side, Kreia can get pretty annoying before long and you see plenty of cut scenes where she's doing stuff behind your back. Most folks with half a brain would have dropped her off on the nearest asteroid for the stuff she does to you and your crew. The developers knew they had to come up with some way for you to be forced to cart her butt all over the galaxy, so they cooked up the Force Bond thing and her voice-locking the navicomputer. "You want off Peragus you're taking me with you!"

I'm wondering if it has something to do with the voice-lock on the nav computer. Remember at the beginning you're stuck with Kreia cuz she voice-locked the Hawk's nav computer. Later in the game you get a cut scene of HK47 talking to T3M4 about the this voice-lock, implying T3 knows about it or is responsible for it. You then see HK walking over to a computer panel but before he can reach it T3 zaps him with some kind of stun ray. Later, I got a dialog option with HK asking him about the voice lock, and he plays dumb. So maybe this Kreia stuff is supposed to be tied into that?

I'm puzzled about that "Jedi!" and "betrayer" business from Kreia. Disciple (who has a name by the way -- why the "Disciple" thing?) is a researcher of Jedi archives... so maybe he knows who Kreia really is? And that's why she does that jedi mind trick business on him onboard the Hawk, i.e. to make him forget her face or her true identity if, by chance, he'd seen her in Jedi holochrons. But I never used him enough to see if this plays all the way out. A consular with 10 wisdom.... uh, no thanks. He is a gentleman though with that polite bow. :D

He's also very greedy, so situations in which you can gain or save credits gains influence.. When you rig the merchant droid on Onderon to get better prices he approves (actually, he can help you rig the droid) and when you return the atmospheric sensors to the guy on Dantooine he haggles to get more credits out of the guy which I'm pretty sure got me more influence with him. It's strange though because while GoTO is evil he approves of you helping out the Republic, so doing pro-Republic things (and the resulting LS points) gets influence with him, and doing anti-Republic things (which gets you DS points) loses influence with GOTO.

He does have some very deep and disturbing things to say. It might be interesting to try to redeem him if you're playing a LS PC, but that might make it tricky to get him in your party.

I just kept Force Immunity up and she kept hitting me with Death Field, which did zilch to me cuz of the Force Immunity. Too bad her AI couldn't figure out to hit me with a Force Breach (something Malak did contantly).

My first (and only) play through of the game I got to select my prestige class at level 20. I just assumed it was scripted that way but based on some posts on these boards I'm seeing that folks begin taking prestige class levels sooner -- like level 15. How? What exactly triggers this?

Only 2 Handmaiden influence on this thread? I'm trying to turn her into a jedi. Any tips? I got some influence with her when I helped the indebted guy on Nar Shada who was going to get roughed up by Exchange thugs (also influenced Bao-Dur during the same situation, enough to turn him into a jedi). Still can't ask her about Atris -- keeping get Influnce: failed. I also never got an "Influence: lost" from Handmaiden when I told her "I won't harm her, if that's what you're asking" after fighting Visas. Just gained influence with Visas after making that comment.

The ending wouldn't have been so bad if you could have at least gotten a cut-scene of everyone dead onboard the Ebon Hawk or had one last conversation with one of your crew as they lay dying. Some nice "go save the galaxy and never forget us" speech. But it's just you standing alone wondering "where the heck is everybody" ? You get that brief little Mira vs. the wookiee scene but even that leaves you hanging and wondering "what the heck just happened?" And after talking to Kreia and seeing the Ebon Hawk rise from the ashes I guess most of the crew didn't die and the Hawk is still in one piece. So why the heck couldn't you take anyone else along? This may seem like a minor gripe, but what I found really unforgivable was that the "Sith Lords" you encounter in the acadmy on Malachor V used the "Taris commoner" model. Anyone else notice that? So you're fighting some wimpy dark jedi in their black robes, etc. and out pops a dude from the Taris cantina holding a lightsaber! Clearly they just ran out of time and couldn't make a decent new skin/model for those dudes, so they just grabbed whatever they had available.

Darth Nihilis is not really a person anymore. As his hunger consumed him, he became less and less of a human, his tripped out speech one of the results of his change. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Actually, I think he's just speaking Sith. The Sith have their own language, and he's speaking it, I presume. The same language comes out of Atris' Sith holocrons.