Darkstryder

If you haven't played through with all classes, and I can't imaging you have yet, unless you're fortunate enough to not have to sleep, you should probably stay with the corresponding prestige class. In your case, Guardian/Weapons Master. In electronic RPGs balance should come in the form of a balanced party. If you attempt to balance a character you're making the character a little weak across the board. You should concentrate on one type of combat, melee or ranged, and you should concentrate on one character type, Guardian/Weapon Master, Scout/Sith Assassin, Consular/Jedi Master, et cetera. This creates the most powerful characters by placing all of your automatic statistical upgrades and any automatic feats into areas that are useful to your character. Although you did not mention this, it is also wise to emphasize certain abilities in your character. A Guardian should probably have high strength as they'll likely be a melee fighter, and high strength adds damage bonuses. You could take Saber Finesse, but with a PC that is a waste. It could make sense with an NPC that starts with very high Dexterity, but for your PC, it doesn't make sense. A Guardian would likely want two points in Intelligence just so they could put points into persuade, since they're the only character that can do that, and particularly early in the game, treat injury as you spend a lot of time without companions. A Guardian PC should probably place the blance of their points in Charisma, to provide a charisma bonus to persuade, and constitution to provide more hit points for your little tank in training. I could go on, but I've already gone beyond your question. Forgive me if I went overboard, but it felt as though that information were pertinent in light of your question.

I'm on my second go-around now. Peragus does get a little boring, but I look ahead towards the rest of the game where there are plenty of opportunities to make important decisions and to work on my relationships in the party. I'm excited about being able to persue different paths (LS/DS), and different classes, which the original had. The prestige classes make for even more opportunities. Certainly there are prestige classes which match up most closely with your initial class, but eventually, in subsequent games, I'd like to start mismatching classes and prestige class. Guardian/Sith Lord seems as though it could be an interesting, and challenging path. There are romances to persue, there are opportunities to turn character alignments that aren't all possible on the first time through. The game doesn't feel revolutionary, so I'm not likely to be putting all of these hours in this month, but I'm certain I'll be putting quite a few in whilst I wait for FFXII, and more throughout the year. If there is anything that truly impresses me with this game is the incentive to play through multiple times. KOTOR I had to force myself through the third and fourth times as I had accomplished everything, I believe, on my second play through. My memory is foggy so it is possible that I accomplished everything the third time through and had trouble getting through four and five. KOTOR I played through the first two times to get the two different endings playing Soldier/Guardian. After that the compulsion was merely to challenge the different classes, since Soldier/Guardian was certainly best suited to my hack'n'slash style. True to form I started this game as a Guardian. Even the compulsion of challenging the classes is stronger this time around, because I am intrigued by the abilities of the Sith Lord and Jedi Master if I play through as Consular/SL or JM. It is no longer simply a challenge, it is an experience which I eagerly anticipate. I feel that KOTOR was superior in other aspects, but I feel that I will be getting the best dollar value out of KOTOR:II because I intend to log many hours with this game.

The game is entertaining, which I find to be the sinle most important criterion in judging a game. Ultimately I have been pleased with my purchase and my gaming experience, but I have had a few issues with the game. <br><br> Stationary should mean stationary unless the player orders them to do otherwise. I've had too many situations where a character that I am trying to heal away from the battle will run on when I switch to a healer. Another aspect I have disliked about control is that my characters will often run from one battle, immediately to a second when there are enemies that they can spot, yet still out of range. This quickly and negatively impacts the health of my party, and I generally find myself loading the exile with stims to take out an entire party of bad-guys single-handedly, or if I feel that I am too cheap, I'll reload from the last save point.<br><br> I like the influence system and I wish to see it return, however, I wish to see it upgraded and made more true to alignment. It's odd when people with red backgrounds have problems with you killing innocents. As your influence makes your party darker, they should become more accepting of your evil ways. Handmaiden may be impressed by your goody-goody ways early on, but if you start to become dark, and she has gained respect for you, and you are convincing her that dark is the way to go, she should respond more darkly. The opposite is true for characters that you are bringing into the light, they should eventually get beyond their urge to kill everyone and everything. The system is a great start and I see some great potential there.<br><br> In addition to the problem I just mentioned with the influence system, I would like to see it become a little easier to lose influence with your party members. I found my first time through on the Dark Side that my character being short and cutting off conversation simply created dead-ends in the influence system. My perception of the Dark Side, particularly the Marauder type that I was playing is that it is not terribly philosophical, so I essentially told people to shut up. Even if I might need to engage in philosophical debate with my party to significantly alter their alignment, I would think that constantly telling my companions to shut their mouths would cause for some significant loss in influence, rather than remaining neutral. <br><br> Fun game. I gave KOTOR a 9.8 on my personal scale and I give KOTOR:II a 9.5 on my personal scale. The difference in score is really only represented by an intangible feeling I received from the game. I suppose some of the problems I've had with KOTOR:II have me feeling somewhat less excited about the game. Again, great game, I feel I have spent my money and my time wisely. I hope for a KOTOR:III with these improvements, and hopefully some more new twists, although I pray they're implemented a little better than the influence system. =D