Just finished KOTOR 2, Who said it was bad? Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Outline Switch to: Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Wounded Ronin]

Well, tonight I just powered through KOTOR 2. There were some cheesy aspects (implausible looking action in cutscenes, supposedly unique relics spawning randomly more than once on slain enemies), and towards the end of the game it felt like they forgot to allow for multiple solutions to levels (eg. hacking or sneaking instead of Conan-style lightsaber rage) but playing as a melee oriented character I certainly enjoyed it.

The game had more philosophical complexity than the previous KOTOR. I don't really feel like I'm spoiling anything if I say that right away one philosophical question the game poses is whether it is good or evil to rush to war in order to attempt to defend innocents. Role-playing out my character's take on that issue was emotionally interesting to me because I felt the question had a lot of parallels with NATO involvement or lack thereof in Bosnia and Rwanda, respectively. I felt it was real enough of an issue that I could get into role playing it in the game even when transplanted to a hypothetical imaginary universe.

Naturally these sorts of moral questions weren't part of the original 1970s Joseph Campbell Star Wars philosophical body which dealt more with mythology and proto-Jungian personal psychological actualization, but it was just fine for a game in my opinion.

I'd not gotten KOTOR 2 for a long time because I thought people had considered it to suck especially in comparison to all the praise that I recall KOTOR 1 getting. But, heck, KOTOR 2 is just fine aside from a few minor complaints and the fact that I wouldn't recommend playing anything other than a melee-oriented character.

KOTOR 2 finally lets you wield a Gamorrean war axe! If I didn't have so many other video games awaiting my attention (I finally got the Baldur's Gate boxed set, finally...) I'd play it again making a Robert E. Howard Conan ripoff main character. That way I'd get all the Dark Side points for being passionate and self-empowered but probably balance those out by "noble savage" actions when appropriate.