TSL Reflection: The Day After

[Darth_Addicted]

I finished The Sith Lords yesterday night. I was going to post this yesterday but I wanted to take a moment and think about the game. I had read the post and spoilers on how people were so dissapointed in the story and how it left them on a low note but left an opening for KOTOR II.

 

I don't follow EU to be honest and when it comes to the love for the genre I'm a over eager Jedi Knight. But when it comes to knowlege I'm just a padawan learner. For this reason alone I think the experience was better for me than most of you. I can't get caught up on the derivations from the EU (sense I don't know them). But what I can do is compare this to KOTOR I and also judge this on it's own merits. So here goes.

 

First off and this is what I wanted to remember the most is that this is not KOTOR I. Obsidian has to make sure that this is playable for everyone that didn't play the first one even though it is being catered to that audience.

 

Second and probably most importantly is that this game is a continuation of KOTOR I. So the story has to advance the points of the original even though they want this to stand on it's own. Evidence of this is the constant Revan comparisons and fill in information from the original game.

 

Those two things being said it's my belief that the point of this game was to educate an already educated base of people on the nature of the force. It's point was to make you rethink the difference of religion (Jedi vs Sith [and yes Sith is a religion now as the race has all but died out of the known universe]) and it's application and effects in society. What exactly is evil and what exactly is and who has the right to determine the greater good.

 

The rest of this is going to be wrapped in spoiler tags as to not ruin the experience for anyone that has not purchased it (PC Users) or completed the experience.

 

 

 

 

 

First some initial controls.

 

I was a female dark side character (I always play dark side as a female because females are evil)

Level 15 Jedi Consular.

Level 11 Sith Lord.

No Apprentices.

 

From the moment I hit Telos this game had me hooked. I didn't care too much for the Peragus II to me it was Taris all over again. Although I wished I could have killed everyone in Taris. Peragus was dark and to me just served to set the dark mood and story of this game. I'm not sure that it did to much more than that.

 

The moment I got invovled in the restoration quest I knew what this game was about. Kreia was in my ear the whole way through every really good or really bad thing I did she was all over me for. Trying to explain the value of seeing the whole picture not aligning yourself with a side. Munipulating events to serve your purpose good or bad and not being shackled to a cause without first seeing if it benefited you or how you were going to use the situation to benefit yourself is a better way of putting it.

 

Dantoine same thing think before you act. Is helping the government going to get you anything. Is helping the Mercs going to get you an advantage. You could guess what I choose and if you're not right the first time I'll give you one other chance only cause I'm sure you'll get it. But what made me understand this game was the fact that she didn't care what I chose as long as I thought it out.

 

 

 

 

Now I have to admit I was waiting for a "I am your Father" or a you are Darth Revan moment and to be honest I got it just not in the way that I expected.

 

 

 

 

I knew that Kreia was a Sith Lord she told me she used to be on Telos. But the experience on Dantoine in the Enclave is this games climax it revealed her motives. She had been aluding to them all game but it wasn't until then that I saw it she wanted a student that understood the force, the conflict, the death by conquest and by doing nothing. She wanted someone to see past the titles Jedi master and Sith Lord. And most of all she wanted someone who could either control or destory the greatest lesson off all: The Force.

 

Now destorying the force was a secondary motive. Only after you fail her completely does this come into play. But think about this why does she hold Revan in such high regard: Because he got it. Be a Jedi when it suits you , be a Sith when it doesn't. Revan didn't fall to the dark side he used it as a means to accomplish his goal (which after playing this game I'm not so sure it was the destruction of the republic).

 

 

 

 

Let me say this out side the spoiler tag so that this post has meaning to people who don't read the spoilers. This game isn't about Revan no matter who many references they make to him. It's about the force, how and why it was used the way it was used. The loss of connection, KOTOR I characters, all just space to make it interesting to the original KOTOR folks.

 

After playing the game the only thing I questioned was the force. I didn't say WTF once. Also for reference here's how my game ended.

 

 

 

I threw Kriea into the heart of Malachor V. I said something like let's see if Malachor V wants you (or your body). I didn't fly off, it just panned out with a orbital view of Malachor V then it panned left to some nebula.

 

 

 

I know that most of you are going to seriously criticize this post. Please go right ahead. But this game was everything I dreamed of except for all the bugs. I suspect they will be fixed once this game makes the Platinum Series, they might even throw in some additional content.

 

I have email notifications turned on. I have to go to work today so I won't be able to check this tomorrow. I'm a software engineer and we're right in the middle of our final user acceptance testing. So I reply to the general oppinion tomorrow evening.

 

Happy playing! I'm playing it again this time light side but before I depart something to consider: There is no ls/ds penalty for force powers if you're neutral, why do you think that is. Also try playing this game like Fable it will add to the experience.

[Leora Jace]

Well.. I'll say this much for KotOR II.. it really isn't a game you can cater to yourself, *you* might make the choices, but you have to also put effort forth to understand the choices other characters make.

 

That's what makes an RPG, imho, using your brain *and* your weapons.. and realizing which is most potent for which situation.