Awaken.

Cold, sterile whirrs of the orchestra haunt the air as you gaze upon the two gender, three class selection yet again. Each string plucked, each horn blasted, every meticulous arrangement give way to the being’s charred mien, its toxic animosity plaguing the environment’s atmosphere. Yet, ironically, it’s from this upsetting disposition that merely makes it more alluring, as it bares its tale for dissection. This is the side of Star Wars very few have dared to venture towards, with fewer still having ever done so today.

As for the PC side, I appreciate Aspyr getting the go-ahead on re-releasing it on Steam and GOG alongside widescreen and even Mac OS & Linux support, with a downgrade path available for those who decide to dabble in such for one reason or another, but we can still embellish it with mods like before: JC’s Minor Fixes as well as their Supermodel and Feats Fix, Head Model Fix, Prestige Saving Throws Fix, and finally Widescreen UI Fix plus Improved Widescreen Experience are all the important stuff you’ll need for your descent into KOTOR2’s underbelly, and thankfully there’s no extra steps to get this all working on the Steam release. “But what abou-” save all questions until the end, thank you. I’m unsure of how the mobile and (relatively) recent Switch port are, but once again this is part of Xbox’s backwards compatibility if you’re more concerned with playing it out-the-box instead. This is gonna be a long spiel that could’ve probably been trimmed a bit, so the TL;DR is that it’s about as epic as Paranoia Agent.

To expand on what I meant by its bold venture, it should be important to reiterate the time period this was released in, and again I’ll run through this quickly since it’s old grounds. Bioware constructed the first game as a means to combine the meat of A New Hope’s space serial escapade feel with the aesthetical and newly encroaching ideas the Prequel films were, though in a polarizing fashion, establishing. Double this with the Extended Universe reaching as far as it ever has, and it resulted in a move that paid off immensely, quickly becoming the fastest-selling Xbox title at that time in just four days and critical acclaim from critics, newcomers, and fans of the IP. Bioware, however, didn’t pick up the offer to do a followup - though James Ohlen did reveal an idea as to what they could’ve done - and instead focused on other endeavors, these experiences and certain ideas being utilized in Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1, and Dragon Age Origins. Because of this, they suggested newly formed Obsidian Entertainment, mainly containing ex-Black Isles alumni many of whom were close to Bioware, to take up the reins for a successor. Drafting up its story before the the first game had finally hit the shelves, as well as founder and CEO Feargus Urquhart sharing that lead designer and writer Chris Avellone was currently combing through everything related to the IP besides the first game, the original KOTOR graphic novels, and the original movies. Of course, blood was spilt during the course of conception staining the package’s physique, but that’s for a later discussion. What resulted from the scour and cogitation is a narrative that slowly turns into a thesis analysis about the brand’s iconographies and writing facets.

The first game popularized (and perhaps introduced, but it bears repeating that side stories were bountiful during this era) the idea of a Gray Jedi, one that isn’t wholly siding with either the Jedi or the Sith’s teachings. Nowadays multiple people have simplified the term into the defacing statement “Force-Wielding Centrists”, and understandably so considering the rampant and crass fixation this has garnered during this span. Though in fairness there is more to the ideology than that; Jolee, the progenitor painted in a Neutral alignment, still had his heart set on the belief of the Light, mentoring the MC via his life story and anecdotes meant to teach and guide their fate and affecting actions in accordance to a number of events including The Twist, as well as what comes after. Though he has his disagreements with the Jedi Council, such as his own thoughts about what love can do to a person, his major dissatisfaction from the Council comes from his trial treatment of doing/contributing to A Lot Of Dumb Shit being given a pardon, with the justification being a “hard lesson of wisdom” and “mitigating the circumstances” after the wartime, even being offered a chance of becoming a full Jedi. In his own words, that was when the Jedi had failed him. If you’ve played both games, you can see where I’m going with this: Kreia, while utilizing the same mentorship, is the inverse of Jolee in almost every way: instead of once beholding to Light, she has unburdened herself from it and the Dark entirely; instead of divulging his past as a way to teach the pupil, she surrounds herself in a wall of deceit, rarely letting herself be open for any reason whatsoever; instead of a kooky grandpa confiding and nurturing you in his own special way, it instead feels like a snide grandma is looming over you, cautiously creating a barrier mostly enclosed to not let its secret eek away, yet containing a crack little enough to allow and lure in personal dialog exchanges. Neither of them deal in absolutes, they’re beholden to their goals under the roots of what was once something they confided in, and it's from their experiences and turmoils that shape their ostentatious pupils during the course of each game’s adventure. This is also where the best part of the game is unleashed.

Since Chris Avellone was the main writer for a majority of the events within this game, it should be relayed that a lot of his penning focuses on three aspects: relics of those old and forgotten, the bruised and demoralized psyche of man, and goth chicks manifested chains that shackle someone or something down. Kreia, largely and rather blatantly attributed as Chris Avellone’s spokesperson, prattles and challenges the nature of Star Wars’ good v. evil mantra, as well as how it uses the Force as a predetermined, all-powerful, metaphysical entity. It’s pretty plain to see, really, especially since he was open about it in a blog post over on the Obsidian forum page, going as far as to detail other influences such as Ravel Puzzlewell from his prior work Planescape Torment, the ending of Chinatown, and illuminating on one draft for the game’s story that got scrapped save for a few ideas. The details are those not many have ever divulged unto: if the Force, an entity that engenders itself onto places, subjects, and even basic commodities is a constant metaphysical practice, what happens if one is just… excised from its grasp? Severed from the cord, be it willingly or from immense destruction? Echo is used in curious intent, whether it’s by caustic trauma or corroded history, the past is ever-present to all that you meet in your venture. This idea manifests in two forms, the first being that the endeavors you witness are all tied to a scar buried deep within the planet’s core: Telos, a shambling pulse for the Republic’s longshot war rebuild project that can be further driven by either the Ithorian’s Ecologism beliefs or Czerka Corp’s Economistic desires; Nar Shaddaa, borning a refugee and bounty hunting hotspot of those plagued by recent battles from the Mandalorians and the Jedi Civil War, who’s inhabitants can either be mended with charity or drove further into pain unto a bygone end, all under the watchful eye of The Exchange; Dantooine and Korriban can be revisited, and in their bombed runoff lie either a discordant community of settlers and mercs trying to breathe anew in the aftermath or a pile of corpses intoxicating and fuming the air with decrepit energy and influenced thralls from their agony; Onderon, though very much well off compared to the last planets, suffers from an internal power struggle between those that rely and compel upon a strong reliant ally, or keep their independence and sought to fend for themselves amongst political trickery and faking deals, while its old jungle moon Dxun seeps with wartime feeling, as the creatures of this land occupies much of the old battlegrounds and encampments while Mandalorians keep to themselves in training for their triumphant return. All touched by war, all feeling the wake it has left behind, an abundant amount of denizens terminating the distinction between what makes a Jedi and what makes a Sith, all serving as a practice for yourself to endure and learn from, where the reactions grow into a potent substance further in.

The other sense is one of ethnomethodology, centering its experiment around your crew and the main pieces of the story. Largely brought about by a common goal, the party this time around is of a dichotomous feeling, rarely ever trusting each other on a deeper level aside from yourself. G0-T0 and returning T3-M4, though harboring secrets, has one taken to the side of approaching means that receive the most benefit and anyway while the other keeps to himself to honor the wishes and promises of his old comrades among his new ones, hoping to one day meet them again. Bao-Dur and Mandalore - who’s not so subtly exposed as the returning Canderous - have been marred by the experiences of the Mandalorian War, yet while one seems to have deep regret for his actions despite them being necessary due to breeding and expounding hatred, the other seems to seek a return of their glory days in a front to keep themselves from fading from existence, as well as to prove useful to one they used to call a friend. Handmaiden and Visas are two trainees under a Jedi/Sith, marginalized from either being the offspring of an infidelity affair or enslaved after the vanquishing of her kind, both either reaffirmed or further drowned under the tutelage of the Male Exile, whereupon females cannot be able to recruit the Handmaiden at all. HK-47, though not having a difference within the crew, aims to figure out the newfound creations of droids under his module, belaboring his rusted assassination skills against the fresh machines that stalk everyone. Mira and Hanharr, though bounty hunters with forceful upbringings, has one seated with pervasive beneficiaries so that no one else has to face a loss of companions, or march towards brutality to fuel their revenge against those that had broke his spirit physically and mentally, a narrative that’s mechanically felt as you can only get one or the other through Light or Dark methods. The Disciple and Atton Rand are both people that seemed to have a personal history with the old Jedi order and certain clusters of them, but while one carries their memory on through historical foundings and musing, the other wants nothing to do with that anymore, seemingly harboring a deep-rooted trauma while continuously feigning acknowledgement of it. This is also where the Female Exile can vie for one or the other and in turn fuel jealous remarks, with Disciple getting the boot if you’re playing as a Male. Through this disharmony sings life that the old Ebon Hawk crew couldn’t achieve before, something that bellows stronger as it possibly can with the newly introduced Influence mechanic allowing gain of (dis)trust depending on what you do/respond to someone/something. Some have criticized this for being something that requires hyperspecific setup and rollouts to get the most out of everyone, and while true in some regard, I find that the approach that this falls under bolsters the concept of the thread being told here.

Many hardcore enthusiasts proclaim this theological exercise is about Avellone himself “hating” Star Wars, but that is fundamentally untrue. He fell in love with KOTOR1, saying that he wouldn’t have changed much of anything in it from that blog post at all, and it’s a feeling that has remained consistent since. It’s a nagging topic that I loathe discussing in relation to this game, the duology, and the brand as a whole, this position as a “deconstruction” or “subversion” of Star Wars quite simply isn’t the case. Inspect the insignias, unravel the metaphors and allegories buried beneath, and what unfolds is an extension of ideas that had come before and even after. If we pertain this to just the movies, most of them follow a character, usually our MC, being tasked with a herculean objective that confronts their predisposed ideas and mannerisms, and the falling action and aftermath that follows after. This had happened with Luke and Vader in the Originals, this had happened to Obi-Wan and Anakin when the Prequels were coming out, and it had even happened in The Last Jedi with Rey and Kylo, where the exploits challenge their faith and companionship of the people and themselves, self-identification against an armada of fascistic forces hoping to weaponize the past for arrogant pragmatisms. It had also happened with the last game’s protagonist, laying upon the meaning of the Jedi’s actions amongst their harsh yet rare punishments and stubborn ideologies, and it continues again with the form of the Exile, a being drastically altered after participating in the Mandalorian War on the side of Revan’s army. From witnessing a grand hero(ine)/villain(ess)’s rise to action and the archetypical storytelling that follows against Darth Malak’s iron fist, here you witness the consumption of power and might the Force delivers upon those who overly rely on it through the thematic bridges of Darth Sion’s intense pain and hatred being the ironic fuel of his livelihood, Darth Nihilus tossing their humanity aside to become a husk in an all-consuming quest to feed off Force energy for dominance, Atris’ feverish upholding and fixated search of Jedi and Sith teachings soon clouding her mind and inner emotion thereby dooming anyone near her, and the old Jedi Council walking away from it all and harboring their own set of opinions as to what the trail ever actually meant to them, most carry out in the background as you face each planet’s own set of dilemmas that as well tie back into the idea. This, all of this, is the embodiment of two sides of a principle that George Lucas himself was familiar with, serving as drive of not just the first movie, but the bone to Star Wars’ foundation as a whole. They serve to complement each other, not to upstage another.

With a number of analytic nerd bullshit said, I don’t want to barter this as a “you play this RPG for the story” deal, cause the inner mechanics are still quite interesting and robust to go over. The combat function of this will be quick because er… to be real, little has changed positively or negatively. You can largely copy the paragraph I wrote in my KOTOR1 review and paste it here with little deviation. Well, I suppose that wouldn’t be true? Even on Peragus Mining Facility combat has seen some small yet well needed tweaks. We have stances now, finally, making the friendly AI easier to be relied upon by giving them what you’re setting them up as and leaving them to it even if they can still be just as dumb and “awkwardly standing doing nothing” as ever. Dice rolls, modifiers, and other little influences are tuned up and/or overhauled to help alleviate fights, making it much more worthwhile to use stuff like stims, grenades, and even mines and stealth which I almost never used in the previous game across all my runs. There’s been some added Force Powers with a select few now having a utility effect for certain hazards such as Stun Droid for mines, as well as new feats making it much more fulfilling to craft different builds to slot different niches onto a member. That last aspect is less so an outright improvement of KOTOR1 and more so righting a wrong made; in 1, there weren’t that many scenarios where it felt like you could use one partner over another for a particular obstacle, be it because the skills are all simplified that it made the diversity lesser or because it just wasn’t necessary altogether. Because of all the changes being made, this has thus been ameliorated so that you do have reasons to create different strike teams, like having Atton on mine/stealth duty while Handmaiden/Mandalore take up the soldier aspect, or Visas doubling up damage and support, or Mira blasting foes away alongside her explosive wrist rockets and poisonous darts, and more. Party composition feels more alive than ever, especially now that you’re able to convert more people into Force-wielders to help give them just a bit more of an edge, even in its most fringe cases.

Stat management itself has been vastly augmented, fully embracing its RPG heritage that was dabbled with before. While you can blow through the preceding title with a meager pile of skills, all of them are now integral for one build or another, especially in regards to the newly revamped lab station and workbenches where you can craft new materials, ingredients, even some armaments to help bolster your entourage’s prowess, which also means that some PMs can be the builder of these items so long as they have met the required stats. The three Jedi classes from before - Guardian, Sentinel, and Consular - are now changed in a way so that each one isn’t necessarily stronger or weaker than the other unless you’re super specific on metagaming, on top of three new prestige classes for the Jedi/Sith side allowing even more opportunities to craft an idea that’s unique for your playthrough. If you wish, you can also choose to not wield a lightsaber at all, never hindered or besmirched for this and giving higher meaning in a roleplaying, challenging, or “fuck it we ball” sense. I opted for a Monk-style build, mainly dealing with unarmed attacks with a dash of supportive Force powers and Shock, which was pretty damn amusing. With changes to perk pickups now allowing for cross-classing, or using the Dex attribute as the leading hit chance, and regenerative health/Force capabilities comes more wriggle room to branch out from designated roles, as well as skill checks being introduced to help give your character more of an edge in information or decision making, even if some understandably prefer the more truncated and easy-to-understand mold Bioware had shared before. There’s still a smidge too much combat, and the DnD calculations are just as numb-inducing as ever, but coinciding with how this title is just as easy to break as ever, most of them at least try to be more grand in scale and evocation, such as the Two-Front Siege in Onderon, Nar Shaddaa’s companion swaps befitting a heist, Dantooine almost getting there with the Settler/Mercenary conflict, the entirety of Korriban, and others that would make this review much longer than it already is. Helping matters is that the morality aspect is less cheese-inducing, the prose for the dialog option being more sensible, acutely worded options and the aforementioned skill checks helping to instill a better sense of involved conversations. So long as you aren’t being outwardly hostile or abiding the virtuous code, you can be as sassy/sarcastic/downright goofy as you want to people, which is a godsend when going through the two titles back to back. Heck being evil’s pretty cool now since it’s at least entertaining, like getting one or both guys to kill themselves a la jumping into Shaddaa’s center hole, forging a dead salvager’s will to claim all of their possessions, being able to manipulate people’s actions into your own gain, the works. I don’t think there will ever be an RPG that will truly get the mechanical side of moralism just right, but in this case, it isn’t suffering from overzealous ambition or foolish pride… mostly.

Alright time to drop the mystic nasal-voiced YouTuber BS and talk about what I don’t like, and even find to be strict downgrades. KOTOR1’s pacing is akin to A New Hope, and 2’s with Empire Strikes Back; one’s quick and seamless transitions help goad you into following the action more succinctly, while the other’s more focused on the introspective journey and highlighting the turmoil of what has happened to the world since, even if it results in a disjointed and plodding shift. For a specific example, I love the Peragus Mining Facility introduction. It’s such a great setter for the type of mood and tone this establishes, and is also one of my favorite tutorial prologues - er… one that’s after the actual tutorial prologue anyway… - ever in a game. Aping System Shock’s scenario to tell the tale of an out of the way facility, one that’s necessary for another planet’s hope of survival and Republic’s war efforts, to the decrepit ship that is the Harbinger where Sion makes his brooding, shocking entrance that continues to play up the player’s backstory and integral slot of what has and will happen, all the meanwhile teaching the player the different tools and trades the sequel either keeps the same or changes from before, alongside a clear improvement of texture and graphical quality and even cutscene direction, is a fascinating route to take that pays off immensely. It’s such a great opening that I even spent more time here than I reasonably should have across my numerous starts, I love it that much. Telos, however, drags it down poorly. Like, the Citadel Station stuff is fine. The abundance of loading zones and the small sidequest platter makes exploration rather meek, but the overall layout is compact enough that it doesn’t get super tedious, plus we got more chances of setup within the narrative, party banter, and worldbuilding/atmosphere. However, it just doesn’t stop there, now we have to head down to the surface because we need to pick up Bao-Dur, and you get thrown into so many combat encounters with minefields and stupid AI shenanigans that it gets exhausting - and that’s before you enter a station where even MORE enemies and trap-ridden spots! What the hell happened?! How did we go from such breakneck pacing in the first game and ESPECIALLY in the opening hours of this one, to drudging through this muck of muted/heightened greens, yellows, and grays? I can’t believe Atris’ facility is one of the first instances I’ve had where I thank God that I’m being blasted by pure white in something, it’s such a refreshing scene that also includes one of the best (and initial) dialogue sequences in the entire game, just you and Atris in an endless battle of back-talks and inquisitive setup that then kickstarts the second act.

Telos isn’t the only place where the pacing is shot, but it is very much the most egregious spot. Since we’re still under Bioware’s McGuffin Structure, you’re prioritizing planets in any which way, although this time it’s more obvious as to which speck is more or less fulfilling in their breadth of content. I (and from the looks of it, most) follow the order of Nar Shaddaa -> Dxun/Onderon -> Dantooine -> Masters Of The Palace -> Korriban, which meant I had to saddle up on more exposition, more queries on key figures, and having to come to grips with party builds since that’s what NS is centered around. I do think it’s a rad place, as well as how it ties into the game’s mechanical and thematic revelations, but doing that after Telos’ slogful third adds a bit of salt to the wound, especially since this also has its last third be centered on combat. Dantooine feels utterly lacking in meat even despite the unfinished nature, being credulously absolute about its faction storyline when almost every other beat either obsequiously or holistically illuminates the inner turmoil boiling within everyone. Dxun and Korriban are… actually pretty well paced, given their stories, so no major ire there. The overall art direction and compartmentalized layout soils it as well, gone is the classification of a planet's distinct color and texture, they now typically share the same greens, greys, and yellows, mainly surrounded by hard materials and boxy structures that’re even more copy-pasted than KOTOR1’s rooms, gnawing into repetition a fair bit. There's also the difficulty, but let's be real here, if you're accustomed to CRPGs, neither of them are gonna test your mettle much, so arguing about which game is "more busted and pitifully easy" is incredibly moot - if you’re a newcomer entirely, well, prepare for some spikes early on. I have a couple of other reservations, but they’re either wholly subjective (I’m not as into Mark Griskey’s compositions as Soule’s, but it’s still pretty damn good ambiance with its own set of grand slams), comparatively minor and/or the same issue as before (still able to exhaust companion’s arcs within a few rounds of exchanges, and I find any attempt to idolize Revan’s past stratagems to be really annoying), or is tied into the absolute biggest issue and the thing this game’s known for, being unfinished.

Of all the post-Black Isle “broken” titles I’ve played, this one is the most immediate. Alpha Protocol manages to skate by freely despite its blunders, Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines and New Vegas’ seams hold on for about two-thirds, and though little playtime was made I hear Arcanum and Temple Of Elemental Evil are on the same boat. KOTOR2, meanwhile, has its essence feel mangled right about the time you exit the first act, which in turn either lessens or worsens. While the people at Obsidian admitted their overambition bellied up the workload, LucasArts rushing it out to meet a Christmas deadline had ultimately doomed it, and with it came many attempts to stitch, alter, and overall duct-tape it all into one package. Ideas and executions cut short due to this, and it makes what could’ve been very intriguing and bombastic setpieces and events feel skewered and stilted by comparison, with the only truly whole places being in its first act, Korriban, and Dxun/Onderon. Because of this, it also means the exploration of the two umbrella thoughts - selflessness and pragmatism - are undercut due to some leaning much more to one side than another, something that likely would’ve been avoided if given a proper format pass. This all comes to a head with Malachor V, the planet where the belligerent bonds and war-torn disillusions have been born form, being so routinely mocked for being so utterly lacking in content, so disjointed in its attempts to finalize each arc for the 11-party entourage, so vapidly dull in what its attempting to tell in battle, that the ending quite literally jumpcuts to the credit crawl after the climactic battle has come to a close, several threads abruptly aborted before they could ever have a chance to show themselves. One of the more known cut pieces, M4-78, can be restored thanks to the Enhancement Project mod, but there’s a reason for a consensus of saving it for a future run; it’s boring as hell and contributes little to the grand scheme outside of a conversation with a Jedi Master who was supposed to be there, and considering most of what it showcases have been repurposed or reorganized into other areas as expressed by designer Kevin Saunders in an old forum post as well as dabbling into this in GDM’s Post-Mortem section of their April 2005 issue, this again adds to the tale of its fractured state.

There’s also the famous Restored Content Mod, some insistently declaring it’s a required install for not only its namesake, but also the numerous bugfixes it contains. And, listen, those bugfixes are indeed valuable, but the reason I held off on mentioning it til now is because the “reinserted cuts” only pertains to about 10-15% which, by the way, only majorly bandaids that last stretch, meaning you might not even get to see much if you abandon early on! Outside of that, the rest falls victim to hyperfixation, in that anything not in it must’ve clearly been from unavailable time, not from change of plans/ideas mid-development. Additional fights in a game already filled with them, awkward cuts to dialog/cutscenes that do nothing but fill up time on info you infer or already know about, rubberbanding lost scenarios half-cooked like HK-47’s assault on a Telos factory or shoving in unneeded standoffs Atton and Bao partake in during Nar Shaddaa’s rescue arc, and even a few sidequest changes such as those found with Dantooine’s Kaevee and Saedhe’s original head model. By adhering to the author's intent so strictly and rigidly, they circled back onto the same overambition that befall those before. I’m not saying the leaders behind this project are all awful, clearly they’re passionate about their goal and love, earning them all kudos from both Obsidian’s staff and Aspyr’s, but I don’t doubt that there was a reason Aspyr couldn’t be able to put this on the Switch after all. If you still want to play TSLRCM despite it all, then heed my advice: after making that your first install, go after the Tweak Pack and Community Patch to mitigate and enhance the overall flow, then install the mods from the beginning. I also recommend the Darth Sion & Male Exile mod to give him more depth than he would’ve otherwise if you weren’t playing as a female.

But well, that’s sort of the thing regarding this title, isn’t it? There’s poetic irony in a game about husks and cataclysmic trauma bearing weight for the process of healing via (dis)compassionate bonds, reinvigoration of self and faith, and confrontation about selfish desires and fallen ideals be so warped by the mandated whims of a publisher looking for big bags during the holiday, amongst the sea of mainly old blood looking to develop their own studio after their last one was seeing signs of burning down from within and above. There’s a looming, harrowing presence that follows the two studios that nurtured its being following suit, themselves having experienced cycles of discarded ideas, woeful collapse, and revitalized spirit. There’s a heartwarming sensation pulsating through the community resuscitating life into this and its predecessor in their own ways, when most everyone have either moved on or is keeping newfound exposure in limbo. There’s vindicated conceit in knowing that something I had been pouring my time onto since I was merely five, something that had already affected my mentality long before I knew about the confounding and everchanging nature of moralism, seemed to have clutched unto others and taught them much of the world as well.

At last, I now see what I’ve been looking for amongst the dead.

I don't trust anybody who can say with a straight face that Kotor 1 is better than this in any way that matters.

It may be unfinished, and definitely has some technical hiccups, leaving what can understandably be a underwhelming experience. But what this game offers, in comparison to Kotor 1, is that it actually has ambition and does genuinely compelling things.

Also it has combat that doesn't suck hard. And companions who I genuinely don't remember their names or characters at all, because they're all boring and forgettable. The few that do return in this game are actually handled far more interesting and engaging.

It has some of the best opening introductory levels ever. Where you wake up and have to piece together the mystery of why you're there, what happened, and how it even relates to the events in the previous game in ways Bioware clearly never intended at all.

Also, Nar Shaddaa is one of the coolest levels/worlds in any video game, just in terms of the amount of things going on and that unravels. Granted, it does overstay it's welcome a bit near the end where you have to control a new party member and single-handedly clear out an entire map worth of enemies.

The game does such a compelling and fantastic job of making a Star Wars experience feel so gritty, dark, and genuinely depressing. When you do Dark Side stuff, you really do feel the weight and consequences behind it, unlike the first game. There's no big galactic war to partake in and fight, that part's already passed. Now all that's left is the carnage and wreckage brought upon the galaxy because of that said war, and how people try to survive a galaxy at it's most crucial, weakest breaking point. To everybody else, who isn't a Sith or Jedi, there really isn't a difference between the two anymore. Just a group of religious people in power who brought so much turmoil and destruction for everybody else caught in the crossfire.

The real "villain" of this game, and by extension Star Wars as a whole, is the Force.

It's so genius and thematically poignant.

I'm going to be one of the few people alive and say the game is better played without the restoration mod. Considering that mod, while it does add some bits that I prefer being kept in the final game, overall just restores way too much that's very clearly still unfinished and not polished. Or better yet, was cut out because it really didn't fit with the tone, pacing, and whatever the game was trying to go for.

Kinda heartbreaking because I think the story here was like two more draft cycles away from being an all-time great. The more complex theming here is obviously very welcome; I loved playing the first game but thought the story was pretty slight. As is though II's just not incisive enough for me, it feels too adrift in its abstract Star Wars-isms. I get what the theming is going for, but you can't just have good ideas. You have to dramatize them, make me feel them in the pit of my gut. You know, like Planescape: Torment (by the same writer) was extremely good at doing.

It doesn't help that it's such a fuckin' bummer. I love tons of games that end on sad notes, but I dunno y'all, I finished it on my birthday and I was just like "cool, great, why did I put forty hours into this." Again, it could've been chef's kiss perfect if it had really come together for me, but even with the patch I just don't think the story's all the way there.

The sequel to the 2003 game of the year, Knights of the Old Republic. Often considered the weaker of the two games. That is not true. This game is what Bioware could only dream they could write.

This game is an introspective, contemplative and philosophical discourse on the whole of the Star Wars franchise, taught through the game's narrative and characters. Written by Chris Avelone the man who wrote New Vegas also. This game is unlike almost any RPG I've ever played, the RPG asks deep existential questions about the universe, war, the nature of good and evil, morality, how different perspectives change our interpretation of history and events. Deep and thoughtful.

The only issue with the game is that it was rushed to completion to meet a deadline (a theme with Obsidians games) and as a result is incomplete. Best way to play is with the Sith Lords Restoration mod.

I really enjoyed it. it treads on a lot of the ground of the original but it has its moments and I really enjoyed some of the more scripted sequences.
that being said the last level is horrid omg a game so focused on playing with a party suddenly forces u into a lonely 2 hours that the game itself is very much not balanced for I really wasn't into it also the game is incredibly buggy and it's easy to imagine why having came out only a year after the original definitely in need of a remaster at least but we will see how the remaster/remake?? of the first game is handled

Completed: July 24 2021
Time to beat: 26 Hours
Platform: Mac OS

So despite how much I loved the original as a kid, I never got around to finishing KOTOR II until I was well into my early teens, and to this day I've only finished the game 3 or 4 times. This is really the first time I've thought about the game's themes and style and writing from more than a "wow I like that" standpoint, and it's been extreeeemely rewarding. This game's got a lot to give, and it doesn't hide anything at all. You're going to feel what the game wants you to feel, or you're gonna stop playing. What does the game want you to feel? Well......

This is a game about scars. The scars of war, on the people who took part, on the placess ravaged by the destruction, and the scars we leave on the people closest to us, the unconscious influence we have over them.

Even the rushed, kinda broken ending of the game reflects that, however unintentionally. It had ambition, and it bears the scars of that weight.

It's rare that a piece of art is so hampered by the circumstances of it's creation and yet still retains every ounce of power and emotionality that it strived for. They might've gotten lucky with that, since they made a game about broken emotions and people, and the game just happened to be rushed and broken in the same way as the characters.

You can feel the seams straining to hold together while you play, the sweat that went into trying to get this game out the door on time, and it feels in step with what the game's depicting in it's fiction. Not that there was any death and destruction from the development of this game but it definitely feels like it left its scars on the artists and developers who created it.

Anyways I'm gonna be honest, even though I love this game, there's a lot of parts of it that just plain aren't fun.

(MINOR SPOILERS)
The (previously cut but re-added) droid factory's a slog, nar shaddaa's a gauntlet,
(END SPOILERS)

and just in general the game lacks polish of any kind. It's definitely due to the rushed creation of the game, but even with fan patches it's still a little buggy. Not unplayable by any stretch of the mind but it's very noticeable and occasionally frustrating. Not to mention all the places where you can tell content had to be removed, leaving holes between quest lines, or at the end of character arcs. But that's the trick, right. Those holes feel like craters on the many scarred battlefields of the game, so it just kind of fits. Empty wells left bby cut content never took me out of the game, even if I noticed them.

So the themes still come across perfectly, the atmosphere still feels like it's gonna come leaking outta your screen, and the nihilism and hatred at the core of the game, for star wars and heroes and war, still comes across like a searing blade pressed against your forehead.

(MAJOR SPOILERS)
The final planet of the game is the ultimate summation of everything on display, the good and the bad, the old and fresh scars both. It's the origin of your character's trauma, the point where they commited genocide essentially, a decade before the game opens. It's a ravaged, scarred, claustrophobic world, and it's your fault. The terrain is jagged and broken, seemingly having pushed the engine to it's limits and just waiting there. Your companions' stories mostly fall away (mostly because they were cut and unfinished), but like the other unfinished edges of the game, it kinda fits in my opinion. Everyone else falls by the wayside until it's just you, grinding through masses of Sith, on your way to the end, or maybe the center, of the game.
(END SPOILERS)

That dual commentary, the raw anger at the effects of wars, and the criticism of star wars and similar narratives (see also: the hero with a thousand faces and any media influenced by it) is not only at the core of the game, but permeates every single facet of it. The shape of the quests, the transformed versions of planets from KOTOR 1, all of it points right where they want it to. Obsidian and Black Isle's games tend to do this quite well when they want to, for example Planescape: Torment and Tyranny similarly marry themeing to setting to dialogue. Granted, those games' themes take a much more personal angle, but its got the same building blocks in the same places.

Despite the fact that KOTOR 2 is a less personal and a less finished take on this style than either of those games, it's the one that resonated with me the hardest, and by a pretty wide margin. Maybe I just like star wars a lot as a setting, and watching it get dismembered and sacrificed in front of me just entrances me for the duration of the game? Maybe I just like the novelistic character writing, particularly with Kreia and Bao-Dur, where the game asks you to meet it, sit down, and read paragraphs of beautifully written prose. Maybe I just think Darth Sion is metal as fuck, and have since I was in like 5th grade.
Actually yeah it's definitely that last one.
THE DUDE CAN'T DIE AND KEEPS HIMSELF ALIVE WITH HATRED
like it's cool thematically and all but also HELL YEAH METAL AS FUCK

Anyways, if the original KOTOR feels like being the hero in your own star wars trilogy, KOTOR II feels like being a war criminal, from the winning side, on trial in the aftermath. The adventures aren't swashbuckling or energetic or even particularly fun. They're about coming to terms with what you've done and moving on. Owning up to the consequences of your actions. It's fantastic and affecting as hell, and that's why this unfinished game is without even a shred of hesitation my favorite game of all time. It's not the best game, the prettiest game, or the most soundly constructed game, but it makes me feel sad, and really that's all I want out of games apparently

what the hell that's a depressing note to end on

В принципе игруля топчик, но очень хотелось бы ремейк. Устаревший на данный момент геймплей с его топорностью и медлительностью (с первой части мало что вообще изменилось, кроме добавления нескольких навыков прокачки), ленивое наспамливание и расположение врагов, а также сегменты, отбирающие у тебя управление гг и дающие в большинстве слабеньких напарников очень и очень бесили со второй половины игры, в особенности планета наёмников и склеп на луне.

В написанных диалогах игры уже изначально чувствуется иная приложенная рука. Он стал куда более художественным и сложным, но из-за этого местами и менее понятен. То ли дело было в качестве перевода, то ли в лишней закрученности подаваемой мысли. Но в принципе это пошло на пользу. Больше претензия здесь у меня к самому сюжету. Он НАМНОГОООО БОЛЕЕ неравномерен в сравнении с предшественником. По ощущениям было так, что первые десять часов это чистый линейный и уже надоедающий пролог (чуть больше 1/4 игры между прочим), потом ты следуешь цели на четырёх планетах, которые по времени также не сбалансированы и где-то там твои ТИПО главные злодеи что-то делают и появляются дай Боже 1-2 раза в ролике, не связанном с тобой, в последние часы со сбором того, что требовалось от гг происходит супер резкий НАКАЛ страстей, будто бы до этого было не часов 15 спокойного шествия, а что-то зубодробительное и нереальное. Ещё под конец оказывается, что Д'Артаньяны вообще бомжи и главное зло кто-то или что-то иное. Вот с ними мне немного жаль, что их влияние настолько скудно, хотя у них и дизайны зашибенные, и красуются на постерах игры, и даётся ложные надежды с самого начала игры. Но всё-таки финальный замут мне очень даже зашёл, мысль о неоднозначном отношении к Силе, джедаям и ситхам мало где затрагивалась(!!!!!!!!один из основных плюсов!!!!!!!!), также не забыто влияние Ревана на Галактику и будущий замут его, расписанный в книгах и ММО-игре.

Произошёл UP с напарниками. И ирония в том, что по Харизме в первой части дилогии все "разговаривающие" сопартийцы превышают над новыми (исключением считается бабка и как раз персонаж из первой игры), а также равномерность развития общения как минимум с некоторыми из них куда более плавная (в пример идёт Бастилочка)))). Но по влиянию на окружение, хоть и линейное в продолжении выглядит куда круче, они ощущаются как не просто безмолвный нпс, который ничего не делает, если с ним не заговорить. Основной пример это появление катсцен без участия гг, но с участием напарников, как на корабле, так и вне. Но иногда выглядит очень нелепо и непонятно зачем оно нужно в случае конфронтации на твоём судне (думаю, там понятно будет, кто видел или увидит). Также присутствует уже собственная явная система влияния на них, а не как раньше в виде невидимых пределов отношений в диалоге. Отношусь к ней неоднозначно, т.к. в общем-то это выглядит интересно и придаёт больший системный вид уже как игроку, который хочет видеть, как влияет на окружение, но ситуаций, в которых ты можешь влиять на эту шкалу не так много, оооочень даже немного. Так под конец несколько персонажей у меня прокачаны так, как хотел, несколько сидят на середине пути из-за вступления в отряд уже к концу игры или банально не были в отряде в тех ситуациях, когда они могли получить +реп, что не всегда явно. Идеально как по мне такая система реализована в DAO, где и куча ситуаций под персонажей, и подсластить момент подарками можно. Ещё один громадный минус в том, что отсутствует усложнённая система романа с противоположнопольным персонажем)))

Локации были как и довольно неплохие, так и полный ужас, который хотелось бы скипнуть, а также копипаст старых лок, но это ладно уж. В прологе лока мне понравилась, но в итоге дальше не было чего-то прям интересного: городские планеты скучны (бесконечная беготня туда-обратно по коридорам, как в метроидвании, много загрузок и визуальный стиль невпечатляющий и дешёвый), природные пойдёт, неплохие (тоже представляют из себя линейные коридоры, но таких лок не так много + куда большее визуальное разнообразие). Менеджмент инвентаря тоже изначально завлекал, но чем дальше, тем мне казалось всё более незначительным перекладывать шмотки туда обратно и отсутствие сортировки адекватной полностью убивало интерес дальше копаться в этом. Для меня легче было снизить сложность на очередном душнецком файте и пройти с позитивом оставшуюся игру.

В итоге игруля по общим впечатлениям отличная даже, но с учётом душки в геймплее, лвлдизайне, непонятках некоторых сюжетных эпизодов и неравномерности повествования мнение под упало. Скорее всего из-за проблем в разработке появились эти проблемы. Сейчас прочёл, что Биовэр сказали сделать игру за год и они отказались, поэтому игра ушла в руки Обсидиан, мдэмс. Жду очень, что великие дяди обдумают всё и решать сделать качественный ремейк КОТОРов, чтобы было всё прям по красоте и поставить обеим частям супер высокую оценку и главное в полной мере кайфануть с игрульки.

Used to be an all time favourite but a recent play of it has knocked it down for me. The final act is just too much of a mess, even with the restored content mod. The reason so many people argue and disagree on Kreia is more because her writing is blatantly unfinished and borderline nonsensical more than anything. Half the companions start off strong and then become mutes because, again, it's blatantly unfinished. This is a good game DESPITE its flaws but I don't think I can call it a favourite like I used to.

Foreword

KotOR 1 is one of my favorite games of all time. I first played it back in the early 2000s, and have loved it since. Despite that, I rarely complete longer games, so a lot of time passed before I completed KotOR 1 in 2019.

My first experience with KotOR 2 was sometime in mid-2000s, probably in 2006 or so. I remember playing it for a few hours and dropping it. Since then I always felt that I didn't give it a fair chance. A feeling that was reinforced by all the praises it was receiving from the SW fan community. Most people claimed that it was better than the first game in terms of story, some also claimed that it was better altogether. I've seen a few people mention that it was better than the movies even. So, today I've finally completed this game and have made my own conclusions.

Tone/Aesthetic

For whatever reasons Obsidian thought it would be a great idea to take a vibrant and diverse universe of Star Wars and make it dark and bland. The first game created a sense of journey, as you explored various planets that ranged widely in aesthetics. It made you want to inhabit that world. I was always excited to run the game and see where it takes me next. But here it's all shades of brown, grey and black. Most planets look and feel the same. It's either a dark urban environment at night, a semi-urban environment at sunset or the wilderness in rain or sunset. The final mission takes place among grey rocks. The feeling of unpleasantness permeated the entire game, and created a world you don't want to return to.

Gameplay

The gameplay here is a mess. First 6-7 hours of the game that you spend on Peragus are a torture to play through. KotOR's main appeal was always role-playing through conversations and exploration, but this section of the game is mostly just killing metallic spiders. There are only two people to talk to and nothing to explore. In this section already you start noticing numerous bugs, even if you're playing with mods (which I did).

Throughout the entire game the quest chains repeatedly broke because I wasn't doing them in the "right" order. Sometimes the game allowed me to kill a major character that later would magically reappear and be very significant to the story. A lot of the quests were a pain in the ass to do. The game loves to force you to repeat the same action over and over again, like in the Gand quest, where you have to talk to a full room of identical NPCs just to find one that you're looking for. The game also loves throwing an insane amounts of enemies at you. The original KotOR would throw a bunch of NPCs or puzzles in between, but here you sometimes go through corridors and corridors of groups of powerful enemies until it gets nauseating. To add salt to your wound, towards the end of the game, it often forces you to play as the secondary characters, which I always auto-leveled up because you never know whether they'll leave at some point or even turn against you. So they can't fight for shit. I basically soft-locked myself several times because I didn't have enough medpacks for these losers and there was no place to buy/find them, so I couldn't progress without cheat codes.

A lot of the level design was horrendous too.To give you an example, on Nar Shadaa there's a racing event, which is rigged by its owner. A droid is placed by him as a racer, and due to lacking the flaws that biological organisms have, he wins all the races. A woman proposes that I destroy the droid, so that I may win the race and she may buy the racetrack, and I agree. I walk into the room with the droid, and its right in front of me, and there are two characters to the right. So of course, I go kill the droid right away. Then I go speak with the characters and they are seemingly unaware that the droid is dead, despite being in the same room. If only the room was laid out differently, I would've probably spoken to the characters first, before blowing up the droid. This is just one example of how poorly the game is thought through.

Story

But all would be forgiven if the story was really as good as everyone makes it out to be. But no, the story is probably the biggest insult. Because THIS GAME DOES NOT UNDERSTAND STAR WARS.

The game is basically critical of pre-determinism and what it deems to be the moral duality in the Star Wars universe. The problem is: its interpretation of pre-determinism is extremely shallow. If you study the history of pre-determinism in various religions (including Daoism and Chan Buddhism, which inspired Star Wars), you'll realize that the concept of free will is subject to different interpretations, many of which coexist with the concept of destiny or the guiding force. Without going deep into the philosophical waters, let me put it like this: you know those time travel movies where the actions of the protagonist lead precisely to the situation they were running from in the first place? Does that mean these characters have no free will? Not really. They make their own decisions that have real-life consequences. But time is an illusion. Prophecy is simply a way of seeing through it.

Kreia thinks she can somehow divorce herself (and the rest of the universe) from the Force that permeates everything. The Force is the origin of creation. Everything comes from the Force and returns to the Force. It is also the divine principle that guides life. In fact, the Force is life. There is no life without the Force or "disconnected" from the Force, because that would mean being disconnected from ourselves. The game tries to manipulate your views through obscure dialogues that use vague metaphors, such as "Wound of the Force" and "Scream of the Force". Metaphors that provide easily digestable visuals, but don't actually clarify what exactly they mean in the metaphysical sense. Characters talk about the Force as if it was a living creature with human attributes. Like it's something physical that can be physically removed. None of this makes any sense and doesn't fit the Star Wars mythology.

And then there's the question of moral duality. Some people seem to think that the Light Side and the Dark Side in their original conception are binary categories that one must completely adhere to. Apparently, that's what Chris Avellone thought, which might be why he went on record criticizing these fundamental aspects of the Star Wars mythology. But that's really never been the case. There have been many examples of the Jedi who go against the code (such as Qui-Gon Jinn) or use aspects of the Dark Side in their combat (such as Mace Windu) without ever succumbing to it. It's just that these "Sides" were presented in a somewhat exaggerated manner, because Star Wars movies were made for kids (by Lucas' own admission). The goal was to convey that attachment, desire and fear lead to a lifetime of suffering, while the transcendence of them leads to peace, harmony and enlightenment. It is ridiculous when people claim that prior to this game Star Wars had never had moral complexity.

Of course this all leads to yet more Lucas-bashing that seems to be so strangely popular among the Star Wars "fans". Some of the comments I've read on this game are beyond baffling. Somebody said that no other Star Wars game or movie has ever understood the Force better than this game. Are you kidding me? How can Chris Avellone understand George Lucas' invention better than George Lucas? I am honestly sick and tired of people trying to strip Lucas of his legacy. This is something that's been going on for decades now. How entitled must you be to claim that you (or someone else) understand a work of art better than its creator?

Conclusion

This game doesn't get Star Wars. It doesn't like Star Wars. It doesn't want to be Star Wars. Neither in its visuals, nor its story. It wants to be some depressing philosophical discussion on existentialism or something, with vague metaphors and scarce structure. And in terms of gameplay, it is just a more broken version of its predecessor. I am saddened and frustrated that I had to spend 33.4 hours of my life on this game, just because the majority of the fanbase seems to be confused about what they're fans of.