I believe before anything I should preface this by saying this is my long time friend's favourite game of all time, and before I played this, I had a long history of knowing about it, and wanting to try it at some point, by coming with the hurdles of not being too huge into Star Wars, getting used to older western RPGs, getting these games to work properly in the modern day, and having to play a whole other (though great) game before playing it. Still, this game has always caught my interest, if only from my friend's trust, and after playing through it all, I can finally say, I get it, I finally get it after all this time.
The first Knights of the Old Republic is no doubt a truly fantastic experience, one of the most engaging and fun RPG experiences of the early 2000s, and really expanded the universe of Star Wars to be a lot more fleshed out and willing to go into regions where the franchise sort of strays from typically, while still having that enthusiastic sense of exploring space and the cultures around it. KOTOR was obviously a major success, and one of the highlights of 2003, if not the biggest game of that year, so a sequel was sort of a no brainer. And obviously Lucasfilm believed so too, and commissioned a sequel to be released less than a year after the first game's release. A truly insane decision, only to be followed up by then novice game studio Obsidian's equally baffling decision that would sort of solidify their legacy into making one of the most complex and overly ambitious stories that Star Wars has ever told.
Knights of the Old Republic II is not a finished game, only now with modern technology have we been lucky enough to have a more fleshed out experience, and even then this game has holes in it that hurt. That being said, the Restored Content mod is one of the most important mods for any game because what it restores and puts back into the game helps to remedy the shortcomings of the original release. Like many sequels of this sort of nature, much of the content of the original is used again, but what they decide to do with these familiar characters or world is truly so flipped on its head that its genuinely mind boggling. It may feel like the first game, but tonally this game is as dark and willing to question the Star Wars universe as this series has delved into.
I think what makes KOTOR 2 so special is its willingness to question just about every convention this series has built up, from the Jedi to the Sith, the nature of the force, the droids, the wars, even the first game, is all worthy of being critiqued, or at least given more light shined onto them. To me, this is, at its core, a story about trauma, its the story about a war that set up the first game's story, and shows us the effect it still has on people, and the galaxy as a whole, as its very obvious it has not, and might not heal. The war touches literally every aspect of the game, from the now almost dead Jedi who resent Revan and those who followed him going into war, the many worlds ravaged and just barely scrapping by, to the normal citizens to which no world in the Republic has left any of them in a good position, least of all your party who accompanies you.
What makes this game truly special is its cast. Perhaps one of the best casts to ever be in any RPG. There are twelve characters who can potentially accompany you, and nearly all of them, save one optional one are exceptional. All with their own horror stories of how the war affected them, and how they still struggle to live with it. Whether they actively participated in it or not, and how it tires them. How this world has continually hurt them, and how they still continue to scrape by. Least of all there is Kreia, who is so complicated and complex herself, a character who in many ways is the game itself, every central theme no matter what decisions you make, she reflects heavily on, and questions the nature of this universe. It is all so wonderful, and the amount of brilliant writing that more oftentimes surpasses the first game is staggering given the amount of time they had to complete this game.
I feel a lot of things now finishing this game, not helped at all by the fact that even in spite of many parts of the original release now being patched up and resolved in a way that is satisfying, there are still some wounds that just still hurt. And in a way, I suppose that is fitting. It is a complicated game, asking complicated questions and asks what you should do about it. And for me, I choose to believe that even past all the trauma of the world, and the stagnant climate or imposing nihilism of the universe can bring, there is a reason to fight back, to do good, to heal and become stronger for it. Star Wars has never been a franchise I had much attachment for, even if I enjoyed some of the movies, but I truly love this game. Even in spite of it being a dark, sometimes horrifying game, it is still extraordinarily funny, and filled with so much charm from the writing, and its a game that just makes me happy that this franchise was able to tackle in the way that it does. It is quite a powerful experience, and even if its incomplete, in some ways for something like this, perhaps that is how it was meant to be, even if it is a hard pill to swallow. I think in due time, I, like many others, will grow to appreciate and continue to love this game for what it is, in spite of those issues, and remember it for the truly powerful story that it is.
The first Knights of the Old Republic is no doubt a truly fantastic experience, one of the most engaging and fun RPG experiences of the early 2000s, and really expanded the universe of Star Wars to be a lot more fleshed out and willing to go into regions where the franchise sort of strays from typically, while still having that enthusiastic sense of exploring space and the cultures around it. KOTOR was obviously a major success, and one of the highlights of 2003, if not the biggest game of that year, so a sequel was sort of a no brainer. And obviously Lucasfilm believed so too, and commissioned a sequel to be released less than a year after the first game's release. A truly insane decision, only to be followed up by then novice game studio Obsidian's equally baffling decision that would sort of solidify their legacy into making one of the most complex and overly ambitious stories that Star Wars has ever told.
Knights of the Old Republic II is not a finished game, only now with modern technology have we been lucky enough to have a more fleshed out experience, and even then this game has holes in it that hurt. That being said, the Restored Content mod is one of the most important mods for any game because what it restores and puts back into the game helps to remedy the shortcomings of the original release. Like many sequels of this sort of nature, much of the content of the original is used again, but what they decide to do with these familiar characters or world is truly so flipped on its head that its genuinely mind boggling. It may feel like the first game, but tonally this game is as dark and willing to question the Star Wars universe as this series has delved into.
I think what makes KOTOR 2 so special is its willingness to question just about every convention this series has built up, from the Jedi to the Sith, the nature of the force, the droids, the wars, even the first game, is all worthy of being critiqued, or at least given more light shined onto them. To me, this is, at its core, a story about trauma, its the story about a war that set up the first game's story, and shows us the effect it still has on people, and the galaxy as a whole, as its very obvious it has not, and might not heal. The war touches literally every aspect of the game, from the now almost dead Jedi who resent Revan and those who followed him going into war, the many worlds ravaged and just barely scrapping by, to the normal citizens to which no world in the Republic has left any of them in a good position, least of all your party who accompanies you.
What makes this game truly special is its cast. Perhaps one of the best casts to ever be in any RPG. There are twelve characters who can potentially accompany you, and nearly all of them, save one optional one are exceptional. All with their own horror stories of how the war affected them, and how they still struggle to live with it. Whether they actively participated in it or not, and how it tires them. How this world has continually hurt them, and how they still continue to scrape by. Least of all there is Kreia, who is so complicated and complex herself, a character who in many ways is the game itself, every central theme no matter what decisions you make, she reflects heavily on, and questions the nature of this universe. It is all so wonderful, and the amount of brilliant writing that more oftentimes surpasses the first game is staggering given the amount of time they had to complete this game.
I feel a lot of things now finishing this game, not helped at all by the fact that even in spite of many parts of the original release now being patched up and resolved in a way that is satisfying, there are still some wounds that just still hurt. And in a way, I suppose that is fitting. It is a complicated game, asking complicated questions and asks what you should do about it. And for me, I choose to believe that even past all the trauma of the world, and the stagnant climate or imposing nihilism of the universe can bring, there is a reason to fight back, to do good, to heal and become stronger for it. Star Wars has never been a franchise I had much attachment for, even if I enjoyed some of the movies, but I truly love this game. Even in spite of it being a dark, sometimes horrifying game, it is still extraordinarily funny, and filled with so much charm from the writing, and its a game that just makes me happy that this franchise was able to tackle in the way that it does. It is quite a powerful experience, and even if its incomplete, in some ways for something like this, perhaps that is how it was meant to be, even if it is a hard pill to swallow. I think in due time, I, like many others, will grow to appreciate and continue to love this game for what it is, in spite of those issues, and remember it for the truly powerful story that it is.