Late Knights

So I have to admit that I have been negligent in my posting to this page. I have been around, and I have been reading stuff that I thought about commenting on. However, I have been engrossed in the book I am reading (percentage completed is given below), and playing with a Christmas present. If you care to watch me ramble, I’ll probably do it at length.

I’ve never been much of and RPG (roll playing game) player. When I moved in with one of my current roommates, it was one of my first introductions. I think it may have been something like Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. I became an observer and commenter. I watched the surroundings for items not seen during combat and offered thoughts on plans, weapons, and possible story paths. I got pretty good at being the observer, and I felt like I helped a little. It led me to explore outside of the few RTS (real time strategy like Age of Empires: Age of Kings Homeworld, and Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force) and on to Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. Then my roommate bought Knights of the Old Republic(KOTOR) for XBox.

KOTOR was voted 2003 game of the year by many sites and groups. It was done beautifully and did wonders for Star Wars games. KOTOR had a great plot, beautiful environments, excellent voice work, wonderful weapon customization and fun combat. Frankly I thought the plot was better that most of the movies we have seen. In KOTOR you play a person returning from time on the rim of the galaxy. You stumble into the Republic’s war with the Sith and Darth Malak, the apprentice of Darth Revan. Revan originally lead the Republic and a band of Jedi against a Mandalorian invasion, against the Jedi Council’s orders. After defeating the Mandalorians, Revan falls to the Dark Side. This splits the Republic fleet and Jedi between those loyal to Revan the war hero and the Republic and the Jedi Council. This starts something akin to a civil war. Revan was recently killed and many Jedi have fallen in with the Sith. The Jedi order is strained with many of their ranks turning to the Dark Side, and the Republic is starting to collapse under the strain of repeated wars. You turn out to be the pivot point. As you turn so does the galaxy. You have decisions to make and answers to find. Each one leads you down the path of dark or light. Until you have one last decision that locks it all in place. Basically you get to chose to be light or dark, and you can change the fate of the galaxy based on which side you choose.

So a few months back I saw the PC version of the game for sale for $20. I like supporting good games, so I bought it and played it. I had a fantastic time and played twice. Once choosing the light path and once choosing the dark path. For the light side I played male as Luh K’Hae Boghb, and for the dark side I played female as Phuh K’Ing Beich. I have to say the dark path lead to easier advancement, but the light path was easier for me to play personally. As light my character made increasingly light decisions as time went. As dark I was merely self-serving, manipulative, and cold at first. I only became evil for evil’s sake later. I loved getting light side points for avoiding combat, but I also liked manipulating a conversation, so that the other person attacked me first.

Anyway, for Christmas this year, I asked for a copy of KOTOR II. The price had fallen to $30 so what the heck. I have been occupied with that over the past two weeks or so. I’ll tell you about it, and I will try to avoid big spoilers. Yes I give some stuff away, but you learn that stuff fairly fast anyway.

KOTOR II was made by Bioware, but KOTOR II was made by Obsidian. Lucasarts presided over both. I think KOTOR II used an expanded version of the original game engine, so it looks and feels very similar.

KOTOR II is similar to the first and many other RPGs in basic story line. A hero or band of heroes must set out to defeat something enormously powerful in order to save lots of stuff. It’s the implementation and details that are nice. II takes place a few years after the first one. You are an exiled ex-Jedi that has been out on the Rim alone and have just returned to Republic space. You were exiled because you fought alongside Revan in the Mandalorian war, but your connection to the force had somehow been severed. You returned to the Jedi Council, and they cast you out of the order without explanation of why you were cut off from the force. Your return to Republic space finds you marked as the last known Jedi. Being cut off from the force has allowed you to go unnoticed, but your return to Republic space coincides with the slow return of your connection to the Force. This means that you have become the target of the latest threat to the galaxy; one more insidious than the Mandalorians or Revan ever had time to be. So you must run, and you will need all the help you can get.

KOTOR II is a lot like the original, or most other RPGs for that matter, in that you talk to people, do odd jobs to get where you need to go, and upgrade yourself and your stuff. You still have the ability to go light or dark, but it may have even greater consequences in this one. You have more party members I this one, and a greater ability to level up your character. The biggest change from the first game is your relationship with your party. Through conversation and action you can gain influence with your party members. This means that the one thing you really wanted to do in the original is now possible. You can draw your party to your side, or push them to the other. That means that more influence makes each person more like you, light or dark. It also opens new conversation topics and gives you more insight into the person, the past, and yourself. In fact, if the influence gets high enough you can do something else. Many of the people you gather are sensitive to the Force. If you gain enough influence with them, you can pass on the teachings of the Jedi to them. In other words you can turn them into Jedi or Sith. I managed to turn 5 members into Jedi by the time I was done. I have only played light side, so far, but I’m thinking about playing dark side again. I chose the name Ye’Th N’Hou for my light character. I’ll have to think about a dark name.

As for the game play, it was good. Damned good. I loved it. The plot has even more things to grab your attention and more mysteries to solve than the original. It even seems more desperate since you may actually be saving the whole galaxy rather than just the Republic. There is one problem though. The ending. It is told that Lucasarts wanted the game released by a certain time, and that Obsidian wanted more time to finish it. They didn’t get the time. The last 4 hours of the game are strange compared to the rest. They feel rushed. I saw more glitches here than in any other part of the game. Then the last 2 hours were so different it was jarring. It was repetitive open a door and slash everyone inside over and over. And a lot of stuff is left hanging without closure. Some say Obsidian wanted to release a patch that would make the game complete, but Luscasarts forbad it. There is also a grass roots effort to complete the game close to how it was supposed to be. Most of the dialog and sound files were still on the install disks and were available for use.

So, I really liked both of them, even with the problems. I hope the hooplah about the ending of II gets through. I’d rather a game be pushed back several months and be right than to have it be thin in parts. Next I have one big question. Why is it that these games were so good, and Clone Wars Vol. 1 and 2was so good, but the movies were so mediocre? If you haven’t seen Clone Wars I recommend it. It takes place between Episode 2 and 3 and explains so much that it makes 3 a better movie. It’s even canon. These games are on par with that. They produce a compelling and complex story. The voice acting, dialog, and much character development are very good. I would almost like to see a movie attempt at them. The problem is that a movie would probably have to be split in two or be several hours long. Maybe you could animate it and have it come out on a two DVD set. Or you could mimic the game and have two movies. One could be the light path and another the dark. Hmmm. One can dream. Now I have heard rumors of a KOTOR III in the works. Here’s hoping they can keep a tight ship and make it as good or better then the first two.