I made a whole ass review but the TL;DR is that this had the biggest impact on my teendom era, even if it was a build up. Bioware was always a studio emphasizing world interaction and breadth, and of the catalog thus far this is easily the best it's been. Yea, the reuse of assets and such hampers it, but I'll never get over that scene on Ilos, or seeing the flyby of Citadel, or that one random planet with the Prothean dream sequence. Helps it's one of very few times the studio's Choice Fixation fetish actually works, probably the only time in the series I felt tempted for a Renegade run (except for Udina I ain't helpin out that pompous Republican bitch lol)

My full review goes into a lot more detail, but despite starting it more times than finishing it, I like the whole tone of the game; it's tropey as shit but damn, sometimes there's nothin better than to kick back and watch a group of people on a dev team just MAKE something they think is dope as heck, even if it doesn't always hit. Easily has the best companions from the studio, along with having the best pool of roleplay management.

I'm enamored with its writing and worldbuilding, but it's so hard to overlook its undercooked sections and feeling that permeates throughout! Really hurts to say it's "just" good despite knowing it can be so much more of given a chance...

You either love this game to bits, find it the hallmark sign of Bioware turning over to the mainstream, or some mixture of the two. I'm the latter, and granted it's not totally hard to see why the three camps are made considering how its rooted onto the Pop Whedon Of Duty shlock intermixed with the Hard Neo (Space) Western Samurai goings on. Still there's some consistent gems to pick apart throughout, so it's hard for me to hate on it too much, considering what comes later.

This was where I started my journey, and when you think about it, this could be the poster child for the "Do Games Age" debate. Not cause it 'has' if that's even possible, but cause whenever I try to replay it with the knowledge I have now it's easy to go "oh wow so this wasn't all that exciting, hm". The more twee, childlike writing where the MC can screech out lines, to the point there's a mod to have it more 'natural sounding', alongside being an option for another that fixes typos and other miscellaneous mistakes, the watered down roleplay aspect where you're fixed into the types of build and finesse you and your partners can become with uncomfortable rigidness, it's not exactly my wheelhouse anymore.

Still I can't say it's bad, it's quite good for what it does. The best way to try and create an RPG for this franchise, planted some cool inklings with the Force and creatures that the sequel takes full advantage of, and the story formula - including the 'twist' hook - being so good mixed in with a quaint, breezily-paced romp Bioware kept repeating it for JE, ME1, and DAO! I'm definitely one of Those Fellows that much prefers KOTOR2, but I'm not as dismissive of this as others tend to be; it's an enjoyable past time.

You can tell this was when Bioware The Creative had died and Bioware The Corporate Corpse have been transmogrified. Major bummer some of their best bits in history are trapped in something so self-destructive and defeating.

This is most definitely an MMO they did that sort of messes up the narratives in both games (especially 2). Eh.

Do I even need to explain this one?

No seriously, do I? I feel like everything that can be said has. Even I made mention of that!

Also this game's the biggest evidence that despite being one of the more inclusive companies, BioWare's handling of LGBT people is shockingly tone-deaf and ill-meaning.

Fun fact: If you ask Google what the most 4/10 Western RPG is, the cover for this shows up!

Insipid trite with boring revelations and uncompelling pulls in the story, the obnoxious MMO-like build of the world AND SIDEQUESTS of all things within the gameplay, a slogging feeling within kinematics and 'strategic plays' found in the combat, and probably the most hit-and-miss cast within their wheelhouse. For every one good this game has, there's a trench of mud to go through for more of that.

Can't wait to revisit it again, I guess...

I don't have as much visceral ire towards this anymore but I still find it shocking just how poor it is on like, every level. It tries so hard to be Mass Effect 1, Again yet completely falters on sticking the landing on every moment that game was able to do with (relative) ease. I don't think I've become as apathetic as the crew found here, it's kind of an achievement just how little they have going on even when applying their loyalty mission. Plus the story is just thinly-disguised Colonialism, like it's super blatant even to a dumb mfer like me, doubly so considering the only other new alien species have absolutely no problem or moral fighting over just having you help them out.

Apparently the patches makes some things a little better, but I dunno man, this is a case of needing to overhaul the entire game before it can be functionally and tonally sound.