Ahhh, now you see.

[jackofallgeeks]

I just finished playing through the (generally) Lighside version of "Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords." And I have to say, I really, really liked the story. Really. Like, so much so that I may play through more than just my Darkside version, just to get more of it. I'm not sure how I'd rank it compared to Kotor1; technically, I never beat that game, and I'd want to play through it again, anyways, to remember exactly how it went. But they both have really, really cool stories.

The gameplay was a little lacking; it wasn't always intuitive what you were supposed to be doing, some of the NPC's motivations seemed flimsy at best, and almost every battle was too easy -- until the Final Battle, when I had to pull a cheap 'hit and run' tactic so I could heal up after taking the Boss down a few pegs.

But all-in-all, I really liked it. I may have to take a break from my Darkside game in favor of StarCraft (a classic which I technically never finished -- I got hung up on a mission in the Expansion), but I'll certainly be coming back to this game once if not three more times.

Comments

[ambereternal.livejournal.com]

My friend Alex is playing that game right now. He and monkey completely drool over it, which I think is silly. But then again, I'm no gamer. :-p
Anyways, I enjoy watching him play evil characters.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Yes, there's a perverse pleasure in watching the Fall. It's what I loved in the first Kotor, and there's a very neat twist in the play-style of the second Kotor that adds a new level to it -- you influence the rise or fall of your companions far more in the second. Were they to make a Third, I think it would really be great of them to explore that even more, and to show how easily one can Fall, even from seemingly benign acts. They did alright in this, but it still seems you have to be too overtly evil to Fall. One need not commit genocide for the Darkside to win; simply strike out in anger.

[naughtjennifer.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, the depth of character decisions in KoToR . . .

1. Donate your liver to starving orphans (Always the top choice)
2. Make a neutral comment with no effect (These are rare)
3. Kick a puppy
4. Force Choke a puppy (Always the bottom choice)

While a fun game, and a good setup in theory, it's WAY too easy to manipulate alignment. That and it's hard as hell to really play a believable character.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've found that this isn't really the case. Yes, sometimes they allow you to Force Choke a puppy, and yeah, it's usually the bottom choice. *SOMETIMES* they let you donate your liver to starving orphans, but this is very, very rare. A lot of your actions end up being neutral, and while it's hard to play a believable character and attain force mastery (Lightside or Darkside), it's pretty simple to play a character who 'makes sense' and hovers around the 0-50% (Lightside or Darkside) mark.

And, once you know the story, or more specifically, have some idea of the background they don't tell you right off, it's fairly easy to say "OK, so he was Exiled from the Order, and this has him kind of miffed; he did what he thought was right and got punished for it," and build a believable character from the start.

My complaints are that it's hard to build a believable character when they don't tell you pertinent background stuff (which wasn't the problem in Kotor1 that is seemed to be in Kotor2; amnesia really is a useful plot device), and that they don't have your action's affect you enough. Yes, Force Choke on a puppy should be really bad, and drop you pretty drastically, but what about doing the right thing for the wrong reasons? It's a slippery slope, my friends; I think that if they based conversation choices on Alighnment, this might work better. The True Lightside will never even consider Force Choking a puppy, and the True Darkside won't even have the option to donate their liver.