Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2
Game Review, by Nick Maker
This game, this game….now I understand where the “average rating” scored came from and here’s why.
I played the first game and gave it a review; it was a good standard star wars space opera game that had good story, characters and good gameplay. When I bought the sequel I thought it would be epic but no, it felt more on the lines of average. Probably slightly below average but average is what I most felt it.
STORY
The story here had potential it really does! It builds up to this sense hype of the reveal. As you start to progress from the story you meet this old Jedi name Kreia and you start having this bond between you and her as apprentice master, you start noticing that the Sith is back (not big surprise honestly) and you must convince the Jedi order to join your side but it will be difficult because of your exile from the Order that you had committed.
It felt so exciting but it began slowly with plot holes that make no sense, like leaving the mining field and suddenly boom! Sith just appear right out of nowhere in the mine facility, those moments you swear you feel you miss watching some cut scenes. Not to mention the ending where it leaves you a cliffhanger and you just ask what happen to this certain event, or why is he important to the certain role that at the end you forgot about him in the first place. All of this doesn’t explain and it acts that kotor 3 will come “for the truth” which honestly doesn’t deserve that excuse for an easy explanation to the minor plot holes (especially of how nice the revelation came to be.) Not only that but certain moments of the game you feel a rush of excitement when combat starts but in moments where you think the “badass” comes, it falls flat. Sometimes those moments are good but sometimes there are weak moments I can’t explain why they didn’t pursue those moments to be epic once, maybe budget or time cuts?
Star Wars, the clone characters
Now don’t get me wrong, there are now many new aliens in KOTOR 2 and they have improved on the human models to not look the same all the time. No, I am talking about your AI companions, they aren’t that bad is just that first I notice that most of the personality they act comes from the previous characters from kotor 1, I don’t know if is me but I swear Atton is like a copy of Carth, but much annoying, his back story doesn’t even help liking him more. As for the rest of the characters I don’t find them as much of a connection as to my old crew, for one thing the new “trust” system looks good at first but then certain dialogues tend to repeat themselves if not few, so there is not much of open conversation unless I’m missing something? The worst thing about your companions is that half of them are useless on their purpose to “follow you”, Mira and especially G0-T0 is the worst offenders because their existence is absolute pointless, they could just be easily set aside as quest favors or temporarily companions, those characters I stumble upon almost at the end of the game, which by the time I go for the final mission I forgot I can select this character she/he decide to tag along.
There are few new characters I sort of fond of like Visa a blind Sith who seeks the truth of your adventure and Kreia, an interesting wise old (yet selfish she seems within her reason) Jedi who wants to lead the protagonist to the right path, at least in her view. The technician and finally the always fan favorite HK-47 who is now I think funnier than ever before especially if you give him the Pacific chip, you will get a chuckle out of him. You can always influence your partners to be good or bad depends of your Force meter and even train them to be Jedi padawans! Though their attitudes don’t change only when enough “trust” and finish some certain dialogue you can teach them of the force, that’s all.
How about the villains they are great right! Well….one of them, Sith Sion looks so cool with its corpse shape body, don’t feel any pain and just want death! The other with a haunted mask, um…what’s his name again? Half of the play through I completely forgot his name, he had potential he looks like a badass next level villain going on, he is a leech that sucks up the Force and drains it out until the person is dead is sounds so cool-if we get more scenes out of him! Back story I don’t know much about except when I look in Kotor 2 wiki to know more about the guy and I only know little of him in the game, the comic seems to show a bit more backstory and shows more of an actual intimidating villain. Sadly in the game he is an underrated villain that gets a few lines and screenshots like Darth Maul and not the full extend potential this guy could have been. I love him and Sion and I want him to have as much attention as he had but I guess the comic should make it up for it.
Dark side, light side what’s the difference?
Sadly they dumb down the “moral meter” like if you’re going for light side, yes you have good moments with people you met but the major characters that will judge you near the end, nope they will treat you like a monster and at the end your effect will be “good” but only through story telling instead of seeing the effects. Want to be dark side, be a prick to everyone with no reason and the major characters will see you the same monster they still sees in you and at the end your effects, same thing story telling that you “feel” the horrid impact but the effect is less than when you are good, show don’t tell is always important. Especially in the “trust” system your partners morals are really one sided, like one of the good character calls you out on doing something bad but next mission she slaughter innocent characters and even encourage the players to do so. There is the flaw of the trust system the inconsistent character moral placements, it just do what it wants to nag you and the characters will have no impact if you did something terribly wrong, they would not question nor abandon you or any, though if you go to the dark side you will get more dark side characters than it is light side characters, but it is the same. Bad characters don’t react on your good behavior on some missions but in one particular simple mission they would go all out on you.
Gameplay and Conclusion
Link to the mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=485537937
About Nick… “I am a studious person who loves reading and loves researching about virtually anything! I play the piano and every year I have to give a performance in a church. I love video games – especially when it’s a puzzle and action game. I would like to become a programmer one day in the field of computer science. I love my family so much, even if we drive each other crazy sometimes, we’re still one big happy family.”