Thursday, February 10, 2005
It’s been ages since I last blogged, but I really wanted to talk about Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 and needed time to digest the experience. The original KOTOR was my Game of 2003, which is pretty impressive when you consider that I don’t like RPGs and I don’t play PC games ("Bio-who?"). But it did so much right, so much original, and threw in so much Star Wars goodness that it’s one of my favourite games ever now. So KOTOR 2 had a lot to live up to. And like I was when I finished the game... I’m still a little torn on KOTOR 2’s merits. It’s a fine, fine game, but there’s just too much to annoy there that leaves it out of the realm of greatness.
(Note: I will spoil like mad here)
The overriding feeling I have is that this is game needed another three to six months work to be outstanding. As it is, it's merely good -- fine for most games, but not fine for the successor to KOTOR. You can see this everywhere. The storyline starts off well, then falls apart at the end. You've got two very good, very big and very long planets in Onderon/Dxun and Nar Shaddaa and two very short recycled planets in Korriban and Dantooine (and even then they've used barely half of their original size!). And you see it when some characters have endless dialogue trees to explore while others max out instantly.
I have to speak of KOTOR 2's great good first though. The biggest plus is that in many ways it's KOTOR 1.5 -- new quests, new characters, same formula. There are cool new quests. I love the customisation you can pull off with characters. You have so many more options in combat (I love how you have unarmed specialists now). And the locales you visit are pretty damned cool.
Four things I particularly loved:
1) Jedi Potential: Training your characters to become Jedi is insane. It makes you feel a lot closer to the characters and makes you feel that you've accomplished so much more than just revealing more of their past for your amusement.
2) Splitting the Party: A lot of people hate this and I know it can really catch you unawares (ahem, Atton) but I loved it. Again, it makes you feel more in tune with your entire party because you have to make sure you know how to use all of them. I also liked thinking tactically in picking who was good for which mission.
3) Rethinking Right from Wrong: KOTOR 2 makes you rethink your whole outlook on the Force, Light versus Dark and makes you really explore what you’re doing and why. Sometimes, the obvious Light choice really isn’t the Right thing to do. Will giving a beggar 5 credits REALLY help him? Or will it just make him a target? Your character gains experience every time he achieves something —- so by solving other people’s problems, are you “stealing” experience THEY should be gaining? Are you making them weaker by helping them? You may not agree with the viewpoint, but it’s something to think about.
4) Nar Shaddaa: This planet is unreal good. It has an outstanding storyline, is packed with interesting NPCs and quests. And that's before all hell breaks loose towards the end...
Surprisingly where KOTOR 2 loses out the most for me is with the storyline. It builds slowly, deliberately and rather well in one direction... then abandons it and rushes towards an unsatisfactory conclusion. Take one of the villains, Darth Nihilus. He looks evil and foreboding. His power is on an absolutely unimaginable scale. His origins hint at a link to you. Sounds like an interesting character. But he's more underused than Darth Maul, because you're never ever told his story. In fact, you're never even told his NAME -- you just see it pop up as a quest (yes, "Defeat Darth Nihilus"). As Obsidian rushed towards the finish they no doubt cut that introductory cutscene and many others, because the closer you get to the end the more plotholes open up.
KOTOR 2 is a story of self-discovery, not a galaxy rescue mission. And it's a pity, because it could have benefited from being focused and having a point. Towards the end, I really wasn't thinking "Oh my god I'd better go stop them and avert disaster!", more "Oh so that's where the final boss is?". It just didn't drive me in the same way that KOTOR 1's did, didn't give me the same urgency or motivation.
There are also two other major things that bothered me about the story. The first is the Revan factor. Revan's fate is hinted at far too plainly in this one -- and it only serves to highlight his absence. You're basically told Revan is out there, fighting some far more important fight in the nether regions. Look, I'm sorry, but that's just bullshit. It feels less like a cliffhanger and more like a total cop-out. "I'm sorry Princess, but Revan is in another castle!"
The second is that to be honest it doesn't feel like it fits either KOTOR 1 or Star Wars in general. The worlds certainly feel like they've been scarred by war, but there are other things which don't fit. If these Sith Lords are so damned powerful, where were they in Revan's war? Korriban has long been in Star Wars canon as the ancient home of the Sith -- so what's with the "more ancient" Trayus Academy and Malachor? And how did the Jedi "keep the Republic safe for a thousand generations" when KOTOR 2 opens with me as the last Jedi? It just doesn't fit.
Still, KOTOR 2 is a good game. It's not up to the standards of the original, but it's still very much worth playing and an enjoyable enough ride. Ironically, I remember reading 1UP's review and thinking "how can more of the same only be worth an 8?", but that's what I'm thinking too. Funny how actually playing a game can change your mind on a review, huh?
Posted at 5:09 AM
