A few Questions?

[Whitsel]

Hey guys,

 

I held out on getting any KOTOR game up 'till now 'cuz I was planning on getting Mass Effect for my laptop but I just found out about the whole SecuRom CRAP and even though I have DSL I am not connected very often.

So:

 

-I played Mass Effect on the 360 for about 140-150 hours and did everything with different classes and all. What are we talking about in terms of Hours-of-Gameplay first-through on this?

 

-For those of you who played Mass Effect, what did Mass Effect have that this won't in terms of gameplay aside from not actually fighting in the combat? And do your decisions have alot of action/reaction effect?

 

-Someone told me not to buy this unless I DLed some content extension thing made by the community and dont play it unless I buy and play KOTOR first. Will I be lost if I just buy this and jump into it? And is that content thing the crap LucasArts rushed Obsidian to release the game without or we/e?

 

-I have seen a good number of mods for this but what are some "must-haves" and/or "recommended" ones?

 

-For a game 3 years old now will the older technology the game runs on sort of kill the experience at all? I am not one to b*tch about graphics as gameplay matters most to me, but is there a serious lack of modern aspects in the engine?

 

-Finally, I am pretty much only a shooter fan with the exception of Oblivion. I like the 'having to think fast to survive' thing, but I can never ignore a good story. Since KOTORII is like some sort of bordgame in terms of combat will I enjoy this experience at all? has anyone that plays pretty much 99% shooters played and loved this game?

 

 

Thanks Much For Any Help!

[Tigranes]

-I played Mass Effect on the 360 for about 140-150 hours and did everything with different classes and all. What are we talking about in terms of Hours-of-Gameplay first-through on this?

 

Is that 140-150 for all your playthroughs? An average playthrough of KOTOR1 or 2 will take about 30-40 hours, I believe, maybe a bit less; each game is worth replaying at least once more, because of the clear Good/Evil paths. Since the first KOTOR1 is cheap now, you could probably get both for a similar price and get similar hours out of it, in total.

 

-Someone told me not to buy this unless I DLed some content extension thing made by the community and dont play it unless I buy and play KOTOR first. Will I be lost if I just buy this and jump into it? And is that content thing the crap LucasArts rushed Obsidian to release the game without or we/e?

 

You don't need to play the first one first, that's completely insubstantiated.

 

The content extension thing most likely refers to the ongoing project to restore many things that were cut from KOTOR2, as LucasArts rushed Obsidian to a Christmas time release. Also, the ending is rather, uh, unfinished, and that's being worked on, as well. It is still a solid game by itself, though.

 

-For a game 3 years old now will the older technology the game runs on sort of kill the experience at all? I am not one to b*tch about graphics as gameplay matters most to me, but is there a serious lack of modern aspects in the engine?

 

No, it's pretty modern. Though if you are a shooter fan, then there may be differences between us about what characterises 'modern'. If you must have parallax mapping, dynamic lighting and so forth, you may experience 'aww's, but if you're not quite that bothered, no problem.

 

-Finally, I am pretty much only a shooter fan with the exception of Oblivion. I like the 'having to think fast to survive' thing, but I can never ignore a good story. Since KOTORII is like some sort of bordgame in terms of combat will I enjoy this experience at all? has anyone that plays pretty much 99% shooters played and loved this game?

 

I play and enjoy shooters sometimes but not to any great extent, so hard to say. The combat is very easy (but Mass Effect was easy, too): it is more abstract than Mass Effect, it won't feel anything like you are actually shooting at the enemy; you are switching characters giving commands to things like 'shoot'.

[random n00b]

-You are better off waiting for TSLRP to be finished. If it lives up to half of the hype around it, you'll get a far more fulfilling experience overall.

 

-You need to have played the first one only if you want to get all the references to some "Revan" person, and some cameos of characters from the first game.

 

-You really don't want to mess with K2 modding since it's messy and generally user-unfriendly if you want to use several mods simultaneously. Also, TSLRP will be incompatible with most mods, so that's really the only thing you'll want to use.

 

-Graphics are looking pretty dated by today's standards. Character animations are what stands out as the worst, probably. Engine issue, since NWN2 anims weren't all that hot either.

 

-Combat is a snorefest. Go make a sandwich.

[Whitsel]

Appreciate the long explanation, Tigranes

I had a total of like 3 characters, one good, one bad and one based off of decisions I would make in that situation. All of them together with completing all of the quests I had like 150 hours. So somwhere around 65 hours first time, 35 the second, like 20 hours the last I never finished and one I started but deleted.

 

I played Ghost Recon 1 regularly up to about 3 months ago, I am not into the "fancy" ascpects of new engines. I dont mind the modern goods but I get just as much fun out of Operation Flashpoint as Armed Assault and was one of few ppl who were not swayed by Crysis' good looks.

 

My cuz told me to try the game out on Utorrent and if I like it then buy it, but if I dont then just dlt it. I am not so sure I want to do that but I may try and rent it on the xbox and see how it is. I know the combat it more like playing a Turn-Based RTS game than a shooter but I cant resist a good story. Even if I dont get to shoot stuff I still love to get the "fuzzy" feeling from the game, like I got from Bioshock, Oblivion, Mass Effect & COD4.

[random n00b]

The story is easily better than any of those games' (ME I can't judge, though), so you won't be disappointed in that regard. But, again, it may be advisable to wait for TSLRP to be finished, since otherwise you'll get a pretty bad "WTF?" moment when you finish the game for the first time.

[Jediphile]

-Someone told me not to buy this unless I DLed some content extension thing made by the community and dont play it unless I buy and play KOTOR first. Will I be lost if I just buy this and jump into it? And is that content thing the crap LucasArts rushed Obsidian to release the game without or we/e?

 

I agree with Tigranes - you don't need to play KotOR1 first. While I played them in order, there are people on these boards who did not and enjoyed TSL (=KotOR2) just as much as I did. I do recommend playing KotOR1 first, however, if you want the full experience, since it will give you a bit more insight and perspective on certain things in the sequel. Besides, playing KotOR1 first will mean that TSLRP is probably done by the time you're finished and get to TSL.

 

It's true that LucasArts pushed the deadline to make Obsidian finish TSL faster, and IMHO the game suffers for it. There is a great deal of cut content, and some areas of the game are badly designed and bugfilled as a result. It's still playable, though, and I find the story far more interesting.

 

TSLRP (The Sith Lords Restoration Project - http://team-gizka.org/ ) is a project where a group of modders are working to restore the content that Obsidian cut out of the game, and it seems to be nearing completion. The only other mod I consider noteworthy is Dstoney's attempt to restore the cut planet M4-78, which TSLRP will not restore, because Obsidian never finished planning it. TSLRP will restore only stuff that Obsidian intended to be in the game. Since planning was never finished on M4-78, we can't know what Obsidian intended with it, and so Dstoney's mod - http://knightsoftheoldrepublic.filefront.com/file/M478;89207 - is based on stuff he thinks should have been in there.

 

Now, the games are old, yes, and were both written primarily for Windows XP (on the pc, I mean). However, I've run them both on Windows Vista without particular trouble so far, at least not more than the occassional crash or glitch I experienced on XP. Other people have reported problems on Vista, however, so you might want to check some of the topics on that out.

[Whitsel]

I am thinking that since there like 15 bucks each on average I may just get them to have like one really large game. Plus everywhere/one I ask is saying "you should get KOTOR I as well, if only just rush through it". I understand and have looked up a fair bit of info on the 'cut-content' and I see what you guys are talking about now, it's like 1/3 of the game or something right? And Obsidion had to scramble a conclusion and remove the unfinished, "cut" stuff.

I am still going to try and rent this, this weekend and give it a go but if I am at all impressed then I will get there wherever I can(prolly eBay).

[GreasyDogMeat]

-150 Hours on Mass Effect... hope you aren't exagerating this as it is nice if Mass Effect is finally a return to Bioware's LONG RPGs. Only Bio RPG I remember getting 150+ hours was Baldur's Gate 2 + Throne of Bhaal.

 

-I haven't played Mass Effect, but from what I've seen of it from video the combat is more 3rd person shooter while KoTOR, every weapon strike is based on a 'dice roll' by the computer.

 

-KotOR II has a horrendously cut ending and many things are left unexplained. It just ends suddenly. There is a mod being worked on called The Sith Lords Restoration Project which aims to restore tons of cut content which will further explain the story and, well, restore it to what it should have been. As for getting KotOR 1, go ahead. IMHO it is a damn good game. KotOR 1 is probably really cheap at this point, and you will be able to decide if you actually like KotOR style of gameplay.

 

-Must have mods... hmm. Nothing REALLY amazing out for KotOR 1, but as for KotOR 2, everyone is eagerly awaiting the restoration project. Theres also another impressive restoration mod that adds a droid planet to the game.

 

List of Restoration mods for both KotOR 1 & 2. You might want to be careful though, as the descriptions may spoil the story. Personally, I recommend you just buy and play KotOR 1 without mods. If you enjoy it and plan on buying KotOR 2, then I recommend you wait for the restoration project to finish and only play it with that.

http://team-jawa.kotor2files.com/forum/vie...&sd=a#p1873

 

-I really can't speak about graphics, as I'm currently playing Pools of Darkness, an ancient D&D RPG from 1991. If the gameplay/story is good enough, I don't worry about GFX. Also, while KotOR is older, I can't think of any reason it would give a newer computer trouble, except for maybe a system with Vista. Then again, vista gives everything trouble.

 

-My two favorite game genres are shooters and rpgs. Because of this, I can't really say if a person who ONLY plays shooters will enjoy the KotOR series. The first RPG I actually enjoyed and interested me in the genre was Baldur's Gate & Fallout. So, I don't know if KotOR will be YOUR 'Fallout/BG' or not.

 

Anyway, as I mentioned a few times, I'd just grab a copy of KotOR 1 if I were you. If you like 1 you will probably like 2.

[Whitsel]

Ppl keep saying that about the 150 hrs. Try to realize that I created one account for myself that I deleted and had maybe 5 hours on and I am counting my dad's sense I often played his when he was at work to help him out a bit. I am estimating hours of play on his to be about 10 of his 50 or so. I just really enjoyed the combat in the game so I often played lvls over again just to see the dynamic AI. Maybe 10 hrs there. brings the 140-150 to around 120 average. Having about 2 and a half campaigns completed with my main account it totals about 100 or so of that. The other 20 is for an acct I dont use but began a new playthrough with maybe 15-20 hrs just to kill time.