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CommanderAce Commander Thor Since: Oct, 2011
Commander Thor
02/14/2015 07:22:04 •••

Knights of the Old Republic II - Squanders chance to improve on sequel, but not bad

KOTOR 2 is a Contested Sequel to KOTOR for being different and probably isn't everyone's cup of tea. That being said, it is not bad, but there are some factors that prevent it from being masterful.

The biggest advantage KOTOR 2 has over the original is that its characters and story are far more interesting. Malak was a bland Vader clone, while the villains here are an abomination of nature, a hateful being who can regret his choices and a manipulative being who plays against traditional conceptions of Star Wars and challenges the player to think while being a surprise. Similarly, the companions have more depth with interactions varying more than just being positive to them such as Hanharr despising sympathy and the influence mechanic ensuring they can be swayed to either side. The story, while hard to swallow with its ruthless deconstruction, challenges your traditional views of Star Wars and makes you pay attention and isn't an average Good Vs Evil Star Wars is known for.

In terms of gameplay, while it is a little easy to become overpowered, it make s a greater sense of being a strong Jedi/Sith. The greater usage of skills in such as factoring them into conversations and actions helps and the ability to upgrade almost any weapon is a vast improvement over KOTOR's special limitations, along with a far larger arsenal of items.

In spite of these strengths, KOTOR 2 has some deep flaws. The unfinished nature, while remedied by mods, is glaring and hurts the game by forcing the player to seek out the missing content. Additionally, the deconstruction is Love It or Hate It thanks to being so ruthless on the series and being a very jarring contrast from KOTOR. It does not help there are situations where the player is engineered into listening to Kreia and accepting her advice, which will drive some people insane due to her being a blatant mouthpiece for Chris Avellone's Star Wars views. The best example of this is on Nar Shaddaa, where after making a decision regarding a beggar, the player is chewed out by Kreia and is unable to tell her to quiet if they choose without being penalized. As a result, one may feel insulted for playing the game due to it at times feeling like a Hate Fic of Star Wars.

Overall, KOTOR 2 is a good game warranting a look, although its great writing is potentially alienating, especially to fans.

SpectralTime Since: Apr, 2009
02/12/2015 00:00:00

Honestly, I'd agree with this 100%. I admit that, as a Star Wars fan, my views are probably super-biased, but Kreia being such a mouthpiece for Avellone's ranting was so alienating that I couldn't even finish the game.

Tomwithnonumbers Since: Dec, 2010
02/13/2015 00:00:00

The only punishment for ignoring Kreia is losing influence with her right? And you shouldn't really care about that if you dislike her.

I took great pleasure in seeing all of Kreia's justifications and manipulations ultimately ending in the mess any normal person could have expected. She's the greatest failure in the Koto R universe. She tried to train the Koto R guy, and it went wrong and everyone rejected her for her bad ideas.

She tried to train Sith and it went wrong and everyone rejected her for her horrible ideas.

And then she tried to train you and it went wrong and everyone rejected her for her horrible ideas.

Her only success was Atris, which was fitting because Atris was the other character who thought they could see everyone else's failings but was blind to their own.

SpectralTime Since: Apr, 2009
02/13/2015 00:00:00

But it's *not* just that easy. The game heavily pushes her onto the player, as she's the only way to unlock huge amounts of abilities, combat powers, prestige classes, etc.

Plus, the game rarely, if ever, gives you the chance to tell her to bugger off, so convinced is Avellone that you're sitting there in slack-jawed amazement, hands shaking at every glorious revelation that spews out of her mouth.

Tomwithnonumbers Since: Dec, 2010
02/14/2015 00:00:00

The prestige classes aren't unlocked by her, they just happen anyway at a set level.

I'm fairly sure you don't unlock many abilities with her either and maybe 0 useful combat powers? (Her two useful character unlocks you get without getting influence with her)

Getting influence with every character unlocks abilities and stats and stuff and you can't get influence with everybody, so why prioritise Kreia?

I felt like I got to knock Kreia's beliefs around a large amount of the time. And it's very very easy to have a reading of the game where Kreia is the villain and her beliefs are misfounded, because as I said before, literally everything she does has canonically failed. Moreover there's the whole Sith thing and at the end game revelation, if you're surprised, your crew say "Wait the torturing, manipulation and hatred towards everything didn't tip you off?"


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