Disclaimer: Skip this post if you want, its way way longer than I anticipated and probably adds nothing new. I just finished the game and when I started typing I couldnt stop. Sorry! :D
Ok I just finished the game for the first time. I played as a lightside male, 15 consular, 13 weapon master. I played through basically doing endless kind deeds for people I had never met, with the occasional hint of the dark side when confronted with the Jedi council and Kreia trying to play me for a fool. I have been waiting for this game since it was announced, desperately trying to avoid spoilers. Amazingly I did. One thing that was unavoidable to miss however was the complaints about the ending. Without actually reading the complaints, I still became very wary of horrible ending. So much so that it was in the back of my mind when playing ever since I reached level 20ish. Up until that point I had been enjoying the game 100%, was caught up in the plot, finding npcs, earning their trust to get there stories etc, that it just flew by.
This is the point I would have to call the peak of the game for me. I had completed the main plots for Onderon and Nar Shaddaa, the two most fleshed out planets imo. I had just started creating my own little Jedi order, G0-T0 and HK-47 joined me completing my NPC roster. However it was at this point that the NPC back stories seemed to be exhausted. I dont think it was me missing stuff, I put Mandalore, HK47, G0T0 and Kreia down to a severe conflict on how we view the galaxy, however I often agreed with HK despite my allignment. So anyway lack of influence seemed to end dialogue with these NPCs (reading the thread I get the impression that HK47/G0T0 never really develop anyway?) while at the same time I reached the point of my party members all becoming Jedi and their dialogues seemed to just end.
I was really expecting them to come to ask endless questions about how they should use the force, more guiding them towards/away from the dark side, perhaps even teaching/learning techiques with them. Instead pretty much across the board NPC relationships were no longer progressing. The main attraction of both BG1/PS:T/KotOR for me was the relationships with your party. For this to dry up on the shorter planets of dantooine/korriban had me thinking of a bad ending.
Anyway fast forward through loose ends for small quests, that I spent hours trying to tie up, to the Jedi gathering. All goes well, the Jedi codemn me as I suspected, and Kreia finally betrays me. Then things go haywire, jetting from location to location with no say in the matter, getting the Impression you are dancing to Kreia's strings just because the plot says you must. My NPCs seem to take a back seat, only appearing to enforce their way into a party now and then.
Anyway after the Ravager I had to put the turn of events down to this: HK-47 deciding to drug my food, disabled my crew and set my ship on a collision course for Malachor V. While escaping to live out his days lovingly shooting out the knees of HK-50 droids with a sniper rifle. All probably suggested by Kreia 'just because'.
Anyway more really really rushed stuff with the NPC's outside on Malachor. I was expecting a T3-M4 mission to repair my ship/save my crew on Malachor. Instead it falls into the green put of doom looking like its ready to fall apart. Only to show up later somehow in the middle of the Sith Temple in shiny new condition
So I soldier on really enjoy the fight/conversation with Darth Sion. Breaking his will to fight as I break his body. A much better done boss confrontation than most games in recent times that I can remember. I liked the final confrontation with Kriea too right up until the cutscene rolled.
The planet blows up, seemingly because the doomsday device was set off, which was only meant to happen if my character consented to it? Sure that little droid was described as having unstable motivator whatsymacallit due to excessively long times without a memory wipe. So did Mira stumble upon them kill G0T0 and rewire the droid to blow up the planet without the generals consent or something? Its probably been said a 1000 times but you shouldnt have to come up with crazy what ifs to justify the ending to a great story
Anyway as the others have said, no final interatction with comrades sucks, and surely it should be the players choice on whether they go off on a lone crusade or not. Personally I would have liked the player to have the choice of hanging around for a bit to establish a new Jedi Order with slightly more proactive views. As through 80% of the game thats really the way I felt my character was playing. Yes the Exile followed Revan in the past, but having turned his back on things when it mattered before, I dont see why he should abandon a Republic he just saved to follow Revan, a Jedi the Exile left behind years and years ago.
So in conclusion, I went in expecting a horrendous ending and instead found an ending I liked that simply wasnt complete :/ I didnt crash once during the game, running on Catalyst 4.11s. Never had any framerate issues either, occasional slow frame rate but never enough to truly effect gameplay. All the major bugs I saw were dialogue looops / glitchy looking ingame cut scenes which dont bother me much. If anything the worst part was annoyances still there since KotOR1 like my dual saber Jedi loading into every zone with one saber always on the other off, or party members having a 'hidden' default attack queued.
And to finish off this first post which dragged on forever, I agree 100% with everything Credulous said. Despite a long rant on what I didnt like, I am certainly ready to play through the game on a different path to see what I more I can learn/change. I played through PS:T five times with a few attempts I abandoned part way through. I will certainly give KotOR atleast another 2 more tries.
