My Knights of the Old Republic 2 is the first Old Republic game I ever played. Played it before the original Knights, and I played the XBox version, which could not be patched (or if it could it didn't matter since I was never online with this thing). After finishing the Bounty Hunter story mode in the MMO version I thought I'd go revisit this game, which I hadn't played in a very long time... many years.

Having just got off a MMO treadmill it's refreshing to do plunge forward without worrying as much about my level, the game was hard in places but the proper application of tactics got me all the way, in just a few days, from the beginning to the place where a shuttle crashes AGAIN, this time into the snowy polar region of Telos. It was nice to actually GET what the story was behind Telos is now, as with the Mandalorian wars, Revan and Malak, the whole bit. Makes KOTOR2 feel a little less isolated. The writers at times are very inventive and seem less stodgy than the KOTOR 1 counterparts, the latter seeming to desire to make everything fit a rhetorical pattern at times, though this organic feeling to conversations also makes things more prone to odd behavior. I do find a bit of joy in not being hedged into Good and Bad choices, even the good ones ended messily for me in the orbital station, and I got to be bad by proxy as a droid running around extorting money from innocents.

Of all the Old Republic games, KOTOR2 also does the best when it comes to modding and character builds. Even if SWTOR has more overall builds possible, you are given a lot of different options in KOTOR2 when it comes to breaking down and building items, and building characters. It really adds to the replay value, even if you're like me and just want to have someone shooting a gun rather than using Jedi magic.

I haven't crashed the shuttle on the polar caps yet... I get the feeling it's right there that things start to become a bit buggy and absent. Maybe it's not so much that the game is better in a lot of ways, but it is DIFFERENT, it shows what others might do with the same system and that's refreshing.

I'm not looking forward to the mess that's coming, and I'm not happy with all of their choices (at times they seem to channel more Star Trek than Star Wars), but it's a palate cleanser after all the Bioware stuff I've been playing this past year. I'm thinking of doing a comparison of the two KOTORs and SWTOR, I think all three are clear enough in my mind right now that this seems like an easy enough exercise.

Anyone out there try the modded KOTOR2?

...

Although I know others have modded the game extensively, I more meant this new one which seems to be more complete in its additions and fixes: http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-sith-lords-restored-content-mod-tslrcm/downloads

My Knights of the Old Republic 2 is the first Old Republic game I ever played. Played it before the original Knights, and I played the XBox version, which could not be patched (or if it could it didn't matter since I was never online with this thing). After finishing the Bounty Hunter story mode in the MMO version I thought I'd go revisit this game, which I hadn't played in a very long time... many years.

Having just got off a MMO treadmill it's refreshing to do plunge forward without worrying as much about my level, the game was hard in places but the proper application of tactics got me all the way, in just a few days, from the beginning to the place where a shuttle crashes AGAIN, this time into the snowy polar region of Telos. It was nice to actually GET what the story was behind Telos is now, as with the Mandalorian wars, Revan and Malak, the whole bit. Makes KOTOR2 feel a little less isolated. The writers at times are very inventive and seem less stodgy than the KOTOR 1 counterparts, the latter seeming to desire to make everything fit a rhetorical pattern at times, though this organic feeling to conversations also makes things more prone to odd behavior. I do find a bit of joy in not being hedged into Good and Bad choices, even the good ones ended messily for me in the orbital station, and I got to be bad by proxy as a droid running around extorting money from innocents.

Of all the Old Republic games, KOTOR2 also does the best when it comes to modding and character builds. Even if SWTOR has more overall builds possible, you are given a lot of different options in KOTOR2 when it comes to breaking down and building items, and building characters. It really adds to the replay value, even if you're like me and just want to have someone shooting a gun rather than using Jedi magic.

I haven't crashed the shuttle on the polar caps yet... I get the feeling it's right there that things start to become a bit buggy and absent. Maybe it's not so much that the game is better in a lot of ways, but it is DIFFERENT, it shows what others might do with the same system and that's refreshing.

I'm not looking forward to the mess that's coming, and I'm not happy with all of their choices (at times they seem to channel more Star Trek than Star Wars), but it's a palate cleanser after all the Bioware stuff I've been playing this past year. I'm thinking of doing a comparison of the two KOTORs and SWTOR, I think all three are clear enough in my mind right now that this seems like an easy enough exercise.

Anyone out there try the modded KOTOR2?

...

Although I know others have modded the game extensively, I more meant this new one which seems to be more complete in its additions and fixes: http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-sith-lords-restored-content-mod-tslrcm/downloads

KO2OR (heh... couldn't help myself) would've been a fucking awesome game if it had actually been, uh... you know, finished. Sadly, it wasn't. Even with the shortcuts they took, like rehashing environments from the first game and so on, they still couldn't squeeze in a proper ending. I don't know who they are, but I really dislike the bastards who didn't give the developers the time they needed.

I agree that it very much dealt in shades of grey and that is atypical for Star Wars which made it more interesting at times, when the stories were fully executed at least. And for a sequel to a game that I don't think Bioware ever really wanted or intended to have a sequel to it fit in very well with the established fiction. But those Obsidian guys always seem to be far to ambitious for their own good. Somewhat a waste of what appears to be a very talented writing staff.

I have always been curious about the mods as well. I'd really like to try them out one day.

Honestly, you could play Temple of Elemental Evil in the time it would take you to finish this game. I kid, I kid.

I totally did play it with a restoration mod like a year ago, and you can probably find a more coherent explanation of why still I didn't much care for it there than me trying to remember exactly what it was that irked me.

@ArbitraryWater: Alright maybe I'm no longer interested in playing with the restoration mod. Bummer. Maybe I'll check if there's a video of it on youtube or something.

Also you were 12 when KOTOR II came out? Geez. I feel old. And I was only like 18ish then.

It never hooked me like the first one did.

@pyromagnestir said:

@ArbitraryWater: Alright maybe I'm no longer interested in playing with the restoration mod. Bummer. Maybe I'll check if there's a video of it on youtube or something.

Also you were 12 when KOTOR II came out? Geez. I feel old. And I was only like 18ish then.

don't listen to him KOTOR 2 with the restoration mod is great

I love the first one story wise. However I find it hard to go back to it as it feels so stripped vs Kotor2.

However... Kotor2 story crashes, except the game play is better.

I was going to replay Kotor 1 and Xbox 1. However I spent a month looking for the disc. It just vanished found the box, not the disc. So I decided Kotor 2 and to use only duel Pistols no lightsaber! However On Onderain I got stuck between two force feilds and had no saves that could get me out without doing 12 hours of game again.

However I would totally replay is for the restoration as much as it fucked up...it just had enough good in it to make me like it.

I love both KotOR games for different reasons. I love Star Wars stuff, and KotOR 1 is some Star Wars ass Star Wars. What's cool about 2 is that it has a very different tone than most other Star Wars stuff, which is sweet. My favorite thing about Star Wars is the extended fiction stuff, and both of these games really hit that for me. 

@Animasta said:

@pyromagnestir said:

@ArbitraryWater: Alright maybe I'm no longer interested in playing with the restoration mod. Bummer. Maybe I'll check if there's a video of it on youtube or something.

Also you were 12 when KOTOR II came out? Geez. I feel old. And I was only like 18ish then.

don't listen to him KOTOR 2 with the restoration mod is great

Lies! It's still KOTOR 2 and thus has issues that I think are fundamental in nature and have nothing to do with the part where it wasn't finished.

@pyromagnestir: Yes, I'm hella young, at least compared to the people with whom I share taste in games. That being said, if you want the game to be more complete and feel a bit less horribly rushed, then the mod does exactly that. I certainly appreciate what the game was trying to do, with the whole deconstruction angle and whatnot, but I feel like in the process it starts to barely resemble Star Wars. Also the main plot is still really dumb. I don't want to dissuade you, since KOTOR 2 is still an interesting enough failure to warrant a revisit.

@pyromagnestir: @ArbitraryWater: @Animasta:

I'm referring to this mod called The Sith Lords Restored, although I don't know if it's any more complete than the one you guys mention.

@Leptok: Since I played them in reverse, it was weird to go BACKWARDS as far as the game system (I think KOTOR2's game systems are improved across the board) but to have a more solid feeling story made me instantly realize why the first one was so popular.

@Akyho: I'm having the same problem if I went back to the first one, especially now that I revisit the sequel and see all the cool improvements they made to the engine. I do gunslinger builds myself, and as long as I spam dexterity it seems to work out. Kotor2's difficulty seems to be a bit uneven, but it's not unassailably hard even on the highest difficulty level, which means encounters are sorta fun for me, rather than my feeling like I've hit a leveling wall.

If you try the Sith Lords Restored mod let me know.

@captain_max707: Normally I'm not a fan of the extended universe, despite being a Star Wars fan my whole life pretty much, but the Old Republic stuff seems to do it right. Gets as close to that Star Wars feeling as anything short of watching ep IV or V for me.