My first impressions of KoToR II

[2DarkWolf2]

I had my reservations about KoToR II from the start when I began hearing about it. But I played KoToR I alot and it was such a great game, it was enevitable I would buy it. But I like some other people, finished it, then wondered what the hell is was all about! I'm sure replaying it will make things clearer. But KoToR I's story, I found, was really great. It was an adventure that reminded me alot of the original trilogy. As the story developed with it's twists and turns I found myself playing more and more, you just had to know what happens next. KoToR II never grabbed me like it's predecessor did.

 

There are alot of graphical tweaks and new gameplay options and features which are nice, I like that. But the dialogue and conversations seem to be flawed in SO many places. Often my character seems to know what a person has said, or information about a situation when I have'nt spoken to anyone else about it.

 

Like you meet NPC X, who tells you they have a problem with NPC Y and would like you to talk to them. But in talking with NPC X you suddenly have a response as if you've spoken to NPC Y already.

 

I'm not talking about any specific case with this, but this is like what happens. Instead of having to go and talk to other NPCs about something, you often get a dialogue option as if you had.

 

Another gripe I had was the pretty limited interaction with your party members, but I see now that alot of that has to do with influence, which I was being pretty ignorant of. So I'll need to put more work into that in subsequent plays, but even then I don't like how alot of the dialogue questions don't disapear after they've run their course. In th case of Kriea it can be annoying because you have to search through like 10 questions looking for something new and try to remember if you've asker her something already. I've noticed too that alot of the conversations have a tendancy to loop back on themselves. Like you ask one question, have a conversation about it, ask a second, have a conversation about it. Then there is a new question in the list, but when you click on it you just get the same response you got from the first question. Sometimes it's obvious that it's a rephrased version of the original question, but sometimes it is'nt. That can get a little annoying.

 

For example Mira was the only party member I turned into a jedi in my first game. But even after that, I still had the diaogue options with her about showing her how to listen to Nar Shadaa? Furthermore, my PC shows her how to be a jedi, but after that, not one word was said about it? Kreia never said one word to me about the fact that I trained one of my companions to be a jedi. None of the other party members mentions it. Even Mira herself, apart from packing a lightsaber and force powers, says nothing about it. Seems wierd.

 

I also find it kinda funny that Atris and Darth whats-his-face with the white mask, the two poster children for this game, seem to play a pretty minimal role.

 

 

Hmm, this message ended up kind long, but this is kinda the initial impression I have of this game after finishing it once. I'll need to replay a bunch of times but so far I don't think it lives up to the original.

 

 

2DW2

[dufflover]

I just finished my first game too - LS Male (Revan LS Male)

and I was gonna post something like this, but considering how long it might've turned out like this, and how posts were everywhere talking of the ending and plot, I decided to stick to a sort of possible bugs:

http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=30947

 

I'll be honest, I didn't fully read your post - I just skim read it.

 

Here are some points I found in my first game and things from your post:

- The only person I didn't convert was Mira cos the dialog didn't go anywhere and I sucked at the influence part fo the game, so I ended up not getting a lot linkage to K1

- I found converting the two others to Jedi very....unbelievable. You're an Insta-Jedi machine. As Revan, you took weeks to get basic Jedi training (and that was with prior force knowledge/exposure). but not here.

- This twists the whole KotOR series in a Matrix style way (as mentioned many)

- Didn't really learn anything of Revan at all except that Bastila (or Carth) is still waiting for him/her.

- More bugs than BioWare

- eh, heaps more

 

I think Obsidian tried too hard to leave their own KotOR trademark, thus the whole Matrix turn-around, or LucasArts have gone weird.

[hawk]

I would blame Lucasarts for making the release date much too early. I think it might have been a better game if they fill a lot of plot holes. Fix broken quests, I always got two broken one's:

 

Dantooine: Redemption

Telos: Escaped criminals

 

What I like about this game though:

1) Upgrading armor, weapons etc.

2) Battle!

3) Story sequences (Nar Shaddaa, Onderon etc.) You do have the feeling that things are really happening.

4) Conversations on the Ebon Hawk, the favorite being T3 shocks HK-47.

5) Planet design

 

That things considered, it isn't a really good roleplayer game Bioware supposed to make. Kotor I has really in depth characters.

 

I have said it before and i'll say it again. I hope Kotor III isn't going to be a game with a lot of improvements but simply a game the character depth level of Kotor I and the gaming experience of Kotor II. That should do it.

[Leia Emperius]

There are millions of these threads in the forum now, but I suppose this one is as good as any to post my own impressions, however brief.

 

I was in love with this game until I started to get the needling little impression that the ending was going to fall short of my expectations. My first big shock was landing on Malachor V and not seeing a single one of my party members beside me. The second big shock was turning around and seeing a completely dilapidated Ebon Hawk, further worrying me that my allies were all crushed inside. My third big shock was realizing that the game was going to end without a chance to speak to any of my party members again. So basically, the ending just fell much in the same way the Hawk did during that cutscene where it looks like Malachor is swallowing it.

 

Again, I loved it until the ending began to unravel. I only wish there'd been more time for them to establish the endings they had planned.

[Sir Fink]

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.

[Ice-Cold]

How come it seems like I'm the only one who understood the game? Yeah there where bugs, and something wrong with conversations.. like:

 

Atton: "I'm sure the others have noticed it too" (talking about the glow - Lightside)

 

though, he says this on Telos when it's just you and Kreia.. he says others.. ah well who cares?

 

Also, theres the Mira thing at the end, she heads for the Academy, then what happenes? does she get back on the ship? I was expecting to see everyone come to my aid, and maybe since the Ebon Hawk got destroyed, Kreia said I could escape on an orbiting ship?

 

In K1, it was sorta like the Original Trilogy, the Jedi concil give you a new memory meaning your the "New Hope", you find out your actually the Dark Lord, which is the same as in ESB, you find out that Vader is Lukes father. Theres some sort of World Devistator, and the Republic attempts to destroy it (you have to turn off the shield on the planet below...) Then, the ending, you confront Darth Malak, try turn him to the lightside.. I think you succeed, but he dies anyway (like Vader) and you have an Endor type celebration at the end.

 

Though K2 reminds me more of Empire Strikes Back, theres dark times for the Republic, theres not really an ending.. on ESB Luke and Leia watching the Falcon fly away into the distance.. same as the Ebon Hawk flying away.. and someone gets there hand cut off.

 

We need more of a Battle.. like the Battle of Hoth, with AT-AT's and junk, maybe we will see The Great Sith War in K3, they'll come and attack the Republic, the Mandalorians will use Basilisk War Droids and aid the Republic.

 

What I dont understand though, is why did Revan ask both Carth and Canderous to keep the Republic/Mandalorians strong, and be "ready" for him/her to return? Did Revan think she/he'd remember everything, and expected to return as the Dark Lord once more? Or just to keep them strong for the Sith War thats about to happen?.. who knows?

[2DarkWolf2]

Yes I had'nt realized how many of these threads there were when I started it. After reading more of these posts I bet if a person tried to touch on every plot hole or problem you'd have a post 5 pages long.

 

I'm going through the game for the second time now. So I'll to see what I think after finishing it again. It's just a bummer that, as someone on the this forum has already put it, the game brings up so many questions, and answers so few of them.

 

I mean, like that cut scene with the GoTo driod and Bao-Dur's remote in the engine room on the ebon hawk. Remote wanders into the engine room, GoTo comes in behind him and blasts him with some kind of ray. The remote appears to explode and fall to the ground/peices of him fall to the ground.

 

It was clear GoTo did'nt seem to like remote, but I was like "Damn! He nuked Bao-Dur's remote! He's gonna be po'd!" So I go to talk to Bao-Dur, and there's his remote hovering around the workshop, seemingly fine. Bao-Dur says nothing.

 

Just one of far too many situations that leave you going "Ok, so what was the point of that?"

 

2DW2

[MasterAlex]

...

      I mean, like that cut scene with the GoTo driod and Bao-Dur's remote in the engine room on the ebon hawk. Remote wanders into the engine room, GoTo comes in behind him and blasts him with some kind of ray. The remote appears to explode and fall to the ground/peices of him fall to the ground.

 

      It was clear GoTo did'nt seem to like remote, but I was like "Damn! He nuked Bao-Dur's remote! He's gonna be po'd!" So I go to talk to Bao-Dur, and there's his remote hovering around the workshop, seemingly fine. Bao-Dur says nothing.

...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

So true! I immediately went over to Bao-Dur expecting to hear about the remote's demise - like you I was puzzled. I thought maybe I missed a cutscene showing the remote's replair or something. By itself, not enough to wreck the storyline, but when added to all the other plot anomolies is disappointing.