after kotor 2

[savak]

I know a lot of people have various opinions on kotor 2, and after my first time finishing the game i feel the need to share what i found, just to get it off my chest...

 

Overall, i got drawn in, just like the first kotor, and i fully expected a different experience to the first one, i wasn't looking for a clone. At first, i wasn't too interested in keira and i thought the initial mining level was too long, but after finding out she's was sith it quickly became interesting.

 

+the Good+

- influence system

- making team characters into jedi

- a more in depth look at the whole light side/dark side morale thing, some people like a more simple star wars experience, but i liked the fact that this time the question kept getting raised about the validity of the jedi council and light side teachings (stuff i thought about in kotor 1).

- creating/upgrading items - you can customize all your equipment like never before.

- personalised items - i really like the personal lightsaber crystal and other stuff you got in your own name.

- HK47 - need i say more, meatbag?! - Man i would love to set an army of HK-47's loose on the gungans in naboo, of whatever the hell they're called.

- i really loved the jungle moon level, the gameplay element of kotor series in general, of moving from place to place on missions then getting sidetracked on other stuff was well implemented here.

- the wrecked star destroyer level with darth nihlus got cool points too.

- the whole atris story was sufficiently dark, but i wish the handmaiden romance plot had been concluded in the ending.

- the new clothes/items etc.

- character interactions were as good as the first one, but i didnt like the repeated dialogue...it would have been better to just get rid of old dialogue threads. Also it would have been cool to have had interaction between team characters like kotor1 while running around.

- fighting inside the ship

- removal of constant fighter battles, but still had interesting turret opportunities

 

-the Bad-

- the ending - the main issue i had, and this is made up of two parts. firstly there are no character conclusions, some final sendoffs would have been great, and i see from another post, it had been planned. And the other one is the way the final level played out, though overall i liked the design i assumed all the various characters were going to have all their own single adventures culminatining in a cool finale somehow helping each other out (after playing the little ball thing, and mira)

- being forced to take certain characters (i really hated mira, i was hoping the wookie would kill her before realising i had to grrr play her as the main)

- there were two real gameplay bugs i encoutered, one was on nar shaada after killing the exchange and the other refugee group in the refugee compound, i took a repaired hovercar to another section of the city but this meant i missed out on a key game trigger which was vital to the plot. Another bug was in onderron and going past the forcefields to the palace, there was one that would only open to bao-dur's fist and nothing else. These weren't technical issues, simply gameplay ones...one thing which i never encountered in the first kotor.

 

Overall

- I really liked playing kotor2. I wasnt expecting it to be as amazing as the first one since sequels tend to have a hard time living up to expections (especially since i consider kotor 1 to be the best game i have ever played)...but i still loved the whole star wars background, light/dark choices, combat (often i'd pause the game just to marvel at how good it looked), etc. I wish the ending had been a bit more fleshed out with regards to the various characters, and that you had more freedom selecting who went with you...at times the linearity took away the fun of the choices you made. From what i've read it seems there was pressure on them to finish the game early and that would explain it, but its a real shame cos right up until the end i considered this to be as good as the first one (sure it had its faults but the new stuff covered them up).

I hope the fans are able to make up some of the lost content that was supposed to be placed in, i've read one group is doing just that, and i hope if LucasArts they make a third one, they take the best elements of the first and second kotors and make the best game ever.

 

Anyway, thats what i thought...games like kotor really immerse you even more than a good book or movie, and just like the latter two, when you finish you want to tell someone what you thought, especially when you feel it could have been such a classic. On another note, i am amazed at how far games have come in the past fifteen years, they're gonna have to start banning this stuff soon cos its so addictive.

[darthbass123]

Well said.

[Gabrielle]

Yeah...

[Krookie]

That about covers it.

[Gabrielle]

That about covers it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Especially the bad.

[Krookie]

That about covers it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Especially the bad.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, but I agree on the good too.

[Gabrielle]

It was all good.

[Krookie]

Yeah.

[The man in the iron mask]

Yup.

[Ioini]

The Restoration Project will restore some of those buggy quests and cutscenes and it will make it as good as the first one.

[savak]

The Restoration Project will restore some of those buggy quests and cutscenes and it will make it as good as the first one.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah i checked out the Restoration Project website and i sure hope all the folks involved find the time to finish it off, it would definitly go a long way. However, i have had some experience of modding in other games and i've seen a lot of mods disappear before they were done, hopefully that wont be the case here.

 

Also, i read somewhere that there was talk of an Obsidian content patch a while back, but that Lucas Arts rejected it. Not sure why they would do that, i mean would it really take that long to fix the ending and some random quests, since they already have some of the material? oh well.

[Shryke]

(i really hated mira, i was hoping the wookie would kill her before realising i had to grrr play her as the main)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

blasphemer!!

 

Mira rules

[Daroowise]

Also, i read somewhere that there was talk of an Obsidian content patch a while back, but that Lucas Arts rejected it. Not sure why they would do that, i mean would it really take that long to fix the ending and some random quests, since they already have some of the material? oh well. 

 

 

Gee... you'd think they'd want a refined, polished product. No wait, they already have our money, who needs a loyal customer base these days?

 

I'm just dork enough to have crafted two letters, three emails and three phone calls (all very professional) just to get a good deal of runaround regarding this very question. Eventually I got the hint LA didn't want to be bothered.

 

 

edit:

 

er... recant part of that . I actually received a reply regarding patching the sound & movies along with missing content and a couple of bugs.

 

http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...ic=35098&st=120

[Gabrielle]

(i really hated mira, i was hoping the wookie would kill her before realising i had to grrr play her as the main)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

blasphemer!!

 

Mira rules

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was hoping that stupid wookiee would become a chopped up cookie.

[Shryke]

 

death to the walking carpet!!

[Dark Moth]

Hanharr was just strange. He had no real background story, except being some psychotic carpet who was out to kill Mira for some bizarre reason. And the end confrontation with him on Malachor was just pointless.

[Jediphile]

Hanharr was just strange.  He had no real background story, except being some psychotic carpet who was out to kill Mira for some bizarre reason.  And the end confrontation with him on Malachor was just pointless. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If you can say that, then you really make me wonder if you ever played the DS version of events and discovered Hanharr's motives. I found they were actually pretty well thought out. Sure, Hanharr is a pretty complex character for a wookiee, but I support it when writers do something unexpected and then can explain why it is so. I find that to be true for Hanharr, but you have to play DS and build high influence with him to get there. After all, Mira knows very little about him.

 

The LS end confrontation between Hanharr and Mira was pretty useless, though, since it was just tossed in there without putting the whole thing in context. I really got the feeling that - given all the stuff that was cut - it was left in there only because we had already seen Kreia revive Hanharr and send him off to kill Mira later. But since so much was cut from the game that the context of the final confrontation becomes lost, it would have actually hurt the story less if they had just cut the sequence where Kreia revives Hanharr as well, thereby leaving Hanharr dead as early as Nar Shaddaa.

[DAWUSS]

Yeah it would have made more sense if the Atton-Sion or Visas-Handmaiden fights were in the game as well

[Gabrielle]

Hanharr was just strange.  He had no real background story, except being some psychotic carpet who was out to kill Mira for some bizarre reason.  And the end confrontation with him on Malachor was just pointless. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's why he loses big time as a character.

[savak]

(i really hated mira, i was hoping the wookie would kill her before realising i had to grrr play her as the main)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

blasphemer!!

 

Mira rules

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Hehe yea, i guess its just because she knocks you out then takes your place AND you're expected to save her, i'm like wtf, die! And then you have to play her as your main and i didnt know how to operate that wrist thing of hers (didnt realise it was in the mine/grenade action box) and i didnt have any good ranged gear to give her...i was a bit pissed at that section to say the least.

[Knights&Darths]

..the DS version of events and discovered Hanharr's motives. I found they were actually pretty well thought out. Sure, Hanharr is a pretty complex character for a wookiee, but I support it when writers do something unexpected and then can explain why it is so

i agree, i found his past very touching, he killed his people to spare them and when he came to doubt the sense of lifedebts he wished mira ended his life so that he could join them and they may forgive, and even more when the exile finally breakes his ties to that twisted code of honor. yeah, i think the carpet is the best character in k2 save kreia, even more so considered that his lesson of strength was my favourite lesson from kreia too..

 

hanharr- it is a dangerous predator that can bend the will of another with a word. it is the most dangerous predator

hanharr- she hunts truth, i think - and she seeks it in you. and truth is difficult prey - difficult to find, difficult to face. And with greater desperation, she hunts that which runs against that truth

hanharr- to be brave enough to hunt truth, yes. for the hunting ground for such things is within you

kreia- it is to surrender yourself, to make yourself a slave to a teaching or belief, that makes it so that the belief will always rule you

kreia- to believe in an ideal, is to be willing to betray it. it is something that no sith or jedi has ever truly learned

the exile- the only power i need is myself

kreia- and know that that is the true lesson of strength - to turn away from strength that is not your own

[DarthRevanRLZ]

While we're on the Hanhaar PWNS thingie, might as well point out how his assessment of the Onderon 'crisis' was so damn cool.

 

For those who don't know what the hell I'm talking about, bring him with you when you leave the ship on Iziz for the first...

 

He basically says that all hunters and prey go insane because they feel the imminent death of the planet. Pretty sweet stuff.

[vaxen83]

Somehow, the sidequests did not fit in with the main part of the story.

[Darth Verus]

Hanharr indeed rocks. I get the feeling he's Force sensative, but not enought to be a Jedi. In this game at least.

 

What I really like is how your conversations with Hanharr lead to a fuller understanding of the Force (and Kreia too), and not just in the way that Kreia intends. From talking with Hanharr, I came to realize Kreia is wrong when she says that the Force has a will. It doesn't have a will, it has many urges, impulses. Like in KotOR, when Carth says to female Revan, that it almost seems like there is something out there stalking Jedi, waiting to turn them to evil. Those strong in the Force can perceive things. What they perceive is thoughts, emotions, impulses, events, the Force created by every living thing, based on proximity, strength, will, time and other factors. Hanharr felt the power of the predator/prey relationship in the Shadowland. He embraced the things that relationship system created in the Force as the totality of how one should behave, and with that as the guide of his behaviour, became evil.

 

One of these days I'm gonna do Nar Shadaa dark side and try to redeem Hanharr. Anyone know just how dark side you need to be to get Hanharr instead of Mira?

[BattleCookiee]

*pruned*