How KOTOR2 attempted to destroy the Star Wars universe from within (article)

KOTOR 2 is one of the most underrated games of all time. It always gets mentioned on big websites as the red headed stepchild of the Star Wars franchise, while in fact it's the best SW game ever.

The game had extreme technical issues that without a doubt marred the game to some extent. The plot, setting, storytelling, some aspects of the combat and other things are probably the best in a Star Wars game, but calling it underrated ignores the bad things about the game. It's fairly rated.
 
Perfectly describes why KOTOR II (with cut content) is my favorite game of all time.

But we already got KOTOR 3,4,5,6...

Poor, naive 13 year old me believed Bioware's filthy lies about how great the SWTOR story lines would be. I've played 6 out of the 8 classes (kept playing the game because of people I met there), and none of them are even remotely close in quality.
 
I just could not get into KOTOR2. Bland characters, boring worlds, bad voice acting. Writing and RPG elements were decent, but not nearly as great as it gets credit for.

One thing I didn't like about KOTOR 2 are the companions. Most of them were downright boring.
 
Perfectly describes why KOTOR II (with cut content) is my favorite game of all time.



Poor, naive 13 year old me believed Bioware's filthy lies about how great the SWTOR story lines would be. I've played 6 out of the 8 classes (kept playing the game because of people I met there), and none of them are even remotely close in quality.

Clearly you have yet to play the IA story, then. Definitely worthy of a full game installment.

Besides, quality doesn't change their status.
 
KOTOR 2 is one of the most underrated games of all time. It always gets mentioned on big websites as the red headed stepchild of the Star Wars franchise, while in fact it's the best SW game ever.

Is it?

A lot of people lament the fact that it was rushed and released in an incomplete state, and some prefer the predecessor (which to be fair is regarded pretty unanimously as one of the great WRPGs of the 2000s), but I haven't seen anyone outright destroy it.

Pretty much everyone regards it as at the least a very good game.

The Force Unleashed has much more redheaded stepchild potential.
 
No that was George Lucas's prequels trying to do that.

It's why I loved KOTOR II.
Indeed. The prequels did more harm and jeopardised the universe more than KOTOR 2 ever could. This is just a different interpretation of morality, it doesn't nullify the actions of Luke Skywalker or Yoda. It's essentially the same reason why Ancient Greece could produce Aristotle and Plato. One is inductive, the other is deductive. Is one truly superior to the other or disprove the other's philosophical notions?

Sometimes authors get too caught up in trying to subvert things.
 
I agree with this.

I also don't think it quite "attempts to destroy" the Star Wars universe, it just looks at it in a more nuanced (and interesting) way.
Agreed as well. Played it in full a couple of years ago with the restoration mods and loved every second.

Many writers would be afraid to challenge aspects of the SW universe for a number of reasons, but Avellone and co. did so in pretty thought provoking ways. I would love for them to get another shot at it one day, this time with a full dev cycle.

The game's greatest fault - aside from the bugs - is being part of the KOTOR franchise. Where the first game was a Jedi star wars fantasy at its fullest, the sequel strikes a very different tone that doesn't really align at all with what the original went for. I really liked that approach; far better than phoning in a simple rote follow up.
 
Clearly you have yet to play the IA story, then. Definitely worthy of a full game installment.

Besides, quality doesn't change their status.

I leveled a sniper to 43 last November. I don't even really remember the details, which to me means it probably wasn't that good. Hopefully Act 3 is more memorable.

As to the quality not changing the status, I guess so, but seeing the things the writers have done to Revan and the Exile makes me think they actively dislike KOTOR and its legacy.
 
God KOTOR II is just so phenomenal.

The bleakness of the world, the complexity of the characters, the quality of the writing.

It's completely staggering.

The best piece of Star Wars anything since Empire Strikes Back.

I understand the frustration over technical issues and a rushed ending, but this is simply top-tier a experience for any fan of the franchise.
 
I just could not get into KOTOR2. Bland characters, boring worlds, bad voice acting. Writing and RPG elements were decent, but not nearly as great as it gets credit for.

Pretty much my views on it too. It just felt like a typical "grimdark" take on a universe and I had to roll my eyes at some of the attempts it made to show you that "doing the good thing isn't always the good thing." Like when my mission is to save a Jedi guy, and when I do he gets pissed because it was his plan all along to get captured or something (it's not like I had a choice, that was your objective the game gave you). So much of the game was like that, "don't give that guy money he'll get mugged because you did," "don't side with the nice people, it'll be slightly more effort for you." I purposely role-played as light-side of a character as I possibly could just to piss off that Kiera companion, which was some of my only enjoyment with the game.

I got a game stopping bug after about 20 hours, but I'd had enough at that point. I was so close to getting HK-47, which is the only thing I regret not seeing.

The writing and dialog about whether or not the war was justified or not I enjoyed, but I can't say I recall anything else of note in the rest of my time with the game.

I don't think it did anything to "destroy" the Star Wars universe, I just felt like it took the universe way more seriously than it was meant to be taken. Not to say that can't end up as something good, but I didn't feel like it did in this case.
 
I really like the characters in KOTOR 2, even though three or four of your companions seem intentionally designed to be the least interesting people ever. Kreia is mostly fantastic. A shame they couldn't get it to 100% of what they wanted, but if there's a new KOTOR, it's not like it'll automatically fill in the rest of KOTOR II and be more of that.

Pretty much my views on it too. It just felt like a typical "grimdark" take on a universe and I had to roll my eyes at some of the attempts it made to show you that "doing the good thing isn't always the good thing." Like when my mission is to save a Jedi guy, and when I do he gets pissed because it was his plan all along to get captured or something (it's not like I had a choice, that was your objective the game gave you). So much of the game was like that, "don't give that guy money he'll get mugged because you did," "don't side with the nice people, it'll be slightly more effort for you." I purposely role-played as light-side of a character as I possibly could just to piss off that Kiera companion, which was some of my only enjoyment with the game.

I got a game stopping bug after about 20 hours, but I'd had enough at that point. I was so close to getting HK-47, which is the only thing I regret not seeing.

The writing and dialog about whether or not the war was justified or not I enjoyed, but I can't say I recall anything else of note in the rest of my time with the game.

The game will give you shit for picking the dark side option in every single one of your examples too. In some of them you get shit on for every option. That's the Kreia character.
 
I loved how it added so much subjectivity to a world that is too often described in terms of black and white. I think the Star Wars universe would benefit from more of that.

The prequels kind of touched on this, showing how Sidious and Dooku manipulated both sides into a war that neither wanted or needed. Even the opening crawl of RotS mentions that there are heroes on both sides. The expanded universe (of which Kotor 2 was obviously a part) also goes to great lengths to show many sides to the various conflicts.
 
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