Can we truly judge Obsidian based solely on KOTOR2

[dantivirus]

Right, now since completing the game, and reading peoples comments, I have found a some of them saying:

'I wish Bioware made this'

or

'You've lost a customer Obsidian'.

 

I find this rather melodramactic. I mean, they are juding Obsidian's ability on one game.

Admittedly, some things are truly not to my liking. The lack of quality NPC interaction, and a rather boring ending, but I'm not judging Obsidian entirely on KOTOR2 alone, yet others are, and I find this to be an injustice.

 

If you think about it, they have a high quality simply from people who work with them, such as Chris Avellone. The thing is, they are, and will develop more games in the future, so I'm reserving judgement on Obsidian until I see more of their products.

 

Also, can we truly judge Obisidan, or any game development house, based solely on the first game they make?

 

Okay rant over. Now let comment posting begin.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Actually one game has made or broke plenty of companies. GTA made Rockstar. Doom made Id. Baldur's Gate made Bioware. Just as easily as a great game can make a company, it can also break a company, or at least steer enough of it's fanbase away to effective break it.

 

Obsidian took on a big project, Kotor is big shoes to fill, but Obsidian was given the job. They knew the development time, admittedly short for such a game but they still agreed to it, and then set lose. What went on behind the scenes, I dunno, but from many peoples response of the finish product we can see the end result. A lackluster ending, bugs, scipt errors, corners cut, plot lines that go nowhere, quirky AI, and such. Mind you, there is a good story there, the voice acting is top-notch and with a little more time/work, we would have something great. Who's to blame, Lucasarts? Obsidian? Well actually both are. Lucasarts could have been more generous with the production timeframe but for whatever reason, they weren't and well we have what we have. Though Lucasarts is getting the reputation nowadays of playing the rush game with their titles. Obsidian knew the time frame when they signed on and said they could do it, sure we have a product one can play from beginning to end but many would argue it is woefully unfinished and the QA from Obsidian and Lucasarts dropped the ball here (or some would say they didn't even pick up the ball). I know a lot of devs at Obsidian are from Black Isle so I know the kind of quality they are capable of.

 

All game/movies have deleted parts, that's just a simple fact of production. You design/film what you would like to be included but then the cruel cutting hand of post-production takes hold and gives you what is needed and nothing more.

 

Now is all hope lost, no. The bugs are fixable, the story could be completed and plotlines concluded. All that is needed is some patches, mind you these patches would most likely be big (50-100 megs). Now Obsidian can't simply toss out patches because Lucasarts has the rights to the game and the final sayso, plus they have to FUND the production of patches and that's not cheap but such funds should have been included in the original contract. So if you want the whole story and nothing but the complete story so help me George Lucas, well Lucasarts is the one you need to express that to. Mind you, please express it in a polite manner and most likely impolite message would be ignored.

[Master Dahvernas]

Zvonius Ang

 

I want to thank you for answering my questions.

 

I want to apologize because I feel I too acted irrationally and jumped to conclusions.

 

I am sorry for your loss during the war. I think it is terrible that people have to live and experience the things most people like myself only see in movies and video games... And I am not a kid. I am in my 30s if that makes you feel any better.

 

You are right that everyone is entitled to their opinions.

 

I just feel that I think some people -- not you -- Are making excuses for OE based soley on their PAST games... That were good... When TSL isn't really that good of a game and that is what we all are discussing now: Can we judge OE on TSL?

 

I think that not only we can, but that we SHOULD judge them... right or wrong... Because it is the ONLY game this new company has made. If the question was can we judge BI on this game... No. Because BI didn't actually "make" this game. You see the difference?

 

----

 

Brickyard

 

I completely agree.

 

On various threads that discuss the spoilerish ending and just the overall storyline in general... I always, ALWAYS say basically the same thing:

 

The game brings up some interesting concepts and ideologies... But doesn't address any one of them in a significant way. Therefore, like you said, there is no base or emotional core that the player can anchor themselves in (regardless if you play LS or DS) because there just is not one in my opinon and that is what ultimately is hurting the game because a story without a core is just a series of random events (even if they are technically related by characters, events and locales).

 

 

I think the biggest complaint I have is once the Jedi Masters turn on you and Kriea wipes them all out. This comes completely out of nowhere and makes the player feel emotionally cheated -- Because everything they've done has been for nothing, essentially.

 

It only gets worse from there because once you do track down Kriea and "defeat" her... You are stil left with the sense of "What the Hell did I do all of these things for?" regardless if you are playing LS or DS.

 

In many ways, I think TSL is trying to justify both the DS and LS to some degree and I don't think you can really do that in such a "morally solid" world that SW has estalbished itself as in my humble opinion.

 

We all know that real life is not black and white and I love stories that present us with shades of gray, but like you said, even those stories are anchored in some concrete reason d'trie (reason for being) and TSL just lacks this very VITAL element that brings it all together no matter what side you choose to follow.