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.
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.
TheMonsterMensch
1 year ago