Let's Play: Knights of the Old Republic II: Update 23: The Dark Side of the Force

[Smiley Face]

In terms of character build, since this is KotOR II, I suggest maxing dexterity, as once you take the Weapon Finesse feat, it adds to both your defense and offense, and actually makes swapping to pistols a viable option if you want a change of pace (seriously, dual pistols+master speed+force stat boosts can get crazy when you're tired of sabers). You'll never get hit. As for the class, well, Sentinel gives you the skill points you need to unlock all the fun conversations, Consular makes you invincible on account of the force needed to cast Force Wave recharging faster than you can cast it, and Guardian is fun because you get to launch yourself at someone from 100 feet away and cut them in two.

And these guys are right - at early levels, kung-fu Jedi is surprisingly viable, although the attack animations can get a little stale

 

[putowtin]

Sentinel, big question are you playing as female?

No, male, partly because we played a female in the last LP, and partly because I think the story is better as a male, though not for any sexist reasons, just because some of the characters are better for the male PC.

The Handmaiden is way cooler than the Disiple.

On the other hand, you miss out on some dialogue with Scion...

And the dialogue with Atris (a sorely underrated character, in my opinion) is much more interesting with a male...

Valid, but you don't get to flirt with Atton!

 

[AD-Stu]

The Handmaiden is way cooler than the Disiple.

On the other hand, you miss out on some dialogue with Scion...

And the dialogue with Atris (a sorely underrated character, in my opinion) is much more interesting with a male...

Valid, but you don't get to flirt with Atton!

The other problem with playing female is Disciple's combat dialog... which being a screenshot LP we don't have to listen to, but I'd feel really bad inflicting it on woodaba all the same

*first time*

"You have left me an opening!!!"
*sniggers - heh heh heh, he said...*

*forty millionth time*

"You have left me an..."
"OH SHUT UP ALREADY!!!!"

 

[putowtin]

The Handmaiden is way cooler than the Disiple.

On the other hand, you miss out on some dialogue with Scion...

And the dialogue with Atris (a sorely underrated character, in my opinion) is much more interesting with a male...

Valid, but you don't get to flirt with Atton!

The other problem with playing female is Disciple's combat dialog... which being a screenshot LP we don't have to listen to, but I'd feel really bad inflicting it on woodaba all the same

*first time*

"You have left me an opening!!!"
*sniggers - heh heh heh, he said...*

*forty millionth time*

"You have left me an..."
"OH SHUT UP ALREADY!!!!"

Never in all my female exile play-throughs (and we're talking 30+ play-throughs) have I used the disciple in my team.... he's just too bloody annoying!

 

[Anti-American Eagle]

I vote for face thirteen.

 

[FitScotGaymer]

Please don't pick the bearded white jedi, or at least lets NOT name him Kung-Fu Moses.

Reminds me too much of Jedi Jesus from the Something Awful LP of this game (without the TSLRCM) where the LPer spends the whole LP bitching about the cut content.

Let's at least try to be original peeps. lol.

 

[sage42]

Please don't pick the bearded white jedi, or at least lets NOT name him Kung-Fu Moses.

Reminds me too much of Jedi Jesus from the Something Awful LP of this game (without the TSLRCM) where the LPer spends the whole LP bitching about the cut content.

Let's at least try to be original peeps. lol.

A valid concern but let me offer what I believe is an equally valid response: There are no other good looking male faces. Seriously the rest look like shit.

 

[Varil]

I vote face #10.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

I don't really have a strong face preference...I'm mainly just dropping in to say that ever since I saw this [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ermahgerd], I can only read this thread as "ERMAHGERD SERTH LERDS".

 

[Sutter Cane]

Yeah i don't really see a point to playing as a female exile in kotor 2 as you miss out on one of the best characters in the game, and are forced to take along the worst one instead.

 

[FitScotGaymer]

Please don't pick the bearded white jedi, or at least lets NOT name him Kung-Fu Moses.

Reminds me too much of Jedi Jesus from the Something Awful LP of this game (without the TSLRCM) where the LPer spends the whole LP bitching about the cut content.

Let's at least try to be original peeps. lol.

A valid concern but let me offer what I believe is an equally valid response: There are no other good looking male faces. Seriously the rest look like shit.

There is one head mod - called Breach (or is it Wound?) in the Force. And its fricking awesome; especially the dark side transition of it.

Also OP; download the Movie Style Dark Side Transitions mod.

 

[woodaba]

[HEADING=2]Update 1: Tell me if you've heard this one before...[/HEADING]

Spoiler: Third time's the charm...

Hey, look! It's the Nameless One! Hey, Nameless One! Sup?

We'll be seeing more of this chap later on.

If you want to see character creation, click below. Otherwise, read on.

Spoiler: Character Creation

Here's where we pick your class and gender. It's a bit weird the way you pick them at the same time. I initially though, playing KotOR 1 for the first time, that your gender changed your stats, like in Dragon Quest. We'll be using this guy, the male sentinel.

And, here's the handsome mug we'll be wearing for the duration.

Here's the attribute page. Most are fairly self-explanatory. Strength dictates how much damage you do with melee weapons, dexterity does the same with ranged, and increases your dodging capabilites. Constitution gives you more health. Intelligence and Wisdom increase your efffectivenes with Force Powers and how many you can perform respectively. Charisma makes you more personable and better at persuading people. It's clearly the most important stat for a game where the dialog is the main attraction and the combat is an afterthought, but Wisdom and Intelligence both offer new options in conversation too. Dexterity looks like the dump stat, but we're going to be increasing it more as we go through the game.

And here's the skills. Again, pretty self explanatory. Computer use makes you better with computers, Demolitions makes you better with explosives, stealth is basically useless apart from one quest, awareness helps you detect traps and opens up conversation options, persuade opens up a LOT of conversation options, repair let's you reprogram robots to fight alongside you, security let's you pick locks, and treat injury increases your pancake making skills.

Here are feats. Feats increase skills, give you physical combat abilites, and other such goodies.

And here's our completed character. Alliteration FTW!

Technically, it should be "A really long time ago", given the setting, but I'm not one to nitpick.

(everyone laughs)

Wait, something's missing...


That's better.

Man, I bet Flash Gordon is really pissed that Star Wars stole his opening title schtick.

We cut to an asteroid field, with a mysterious freighter drifting through it.

Dun Dun Dun!

Players of the last game (or readers of the last LP) will recognize this as the Ebon Hawk, the ship Revan used to terrorize the galaxy. But, what's it doing here?

Annnd...that doesn't look ominous at all.

We cut to a mysterious feed from inside the ship.

Here's a good time to bring up the tonal shift between this game and it's predecessor.

KotOR I was an epic, loud, bonbastic game. You spend the opening fighting through a crashing ship, massacring our way through many Sith Soldiers, and escaping just in the nick of time. How does KotOR II open?

Your character is mortally wounded, everyone else is dead, we have no idea who did this or why, and our hopes rest upon the shoulders of...

...T3-M4, the most useless character, and resident R2-D2 rip-off, of the last game.

"I resent that. R2-D2 sold out a long time ago. I still have my dignity."

If you want to skip the tutorial, read on. Otherwise, click below.

Spoiler: Tutorial

"Good god, I am sick and tired of cleaning up after these meatbags' messes. I mean, that entire time with Revan was spent cleaning toilets since they couldn't think of anything else to do. Ugh. Brain the size of a planet and they make me do manual labor. Wonderful. Let's get to it, the sooner I get this done, the better. The door to the rest of the ship is locked, so I'll have to hack it."

"Y'know, when I think "hacking" I don't usually picture jamming spikes into a computer."

"There we are. No door can hold the awesomeness of T3!"

"Man, this place is a complete tip...wait...what's that noise?"

Fun for all the family!

"It get's better...there's a body here."

STAR WARS! ADVENTURE! EXCITEMENT! ROMANCE! DEAD OLD LADIES!

"The true tragedy is over here...look..."

"(salutes) Good night, Comrade."

How the hell did you salute? You don't even have arms.

"Shut up."

Elsewhere, we break into the cargo hold, and find...

...another droid! Who is, judging by the head position, possesed.

EXORCIST VI: THIS TIME, WITH ROBOTS

"Yes, I would love it if you joined me! Together, we will fix the Ebon Hawk and save all our buddies! And the Humans!"

"I'm glad you're here. This ship is lonely and frightening without you. I mean, Star Wars is meant to be family entertainment! Why are we playing a level from Dead Space?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. KotOR lost the right to call itself that when it gave you the option to Mind Rape a Wookiee into murdering his best friend. Also, would it kill you to be a tad less cheerful? It's making my impending death all the more annoying."

"I love your paint job. Orange is so in this season!"

It's worth noting that that entire conversation (in broad strokes, anyway) was cut content from the original game. It's a brilliant little sequence, not only establishing the influence system, but also establishing T3's character. Yes, he has a character this time around. In fact, he comes out as one of the most consistently awesome characters in the entire game. And that's saying a lot. But, we'll talk more about that later.

I should probably talk about the influence. Most of the game has very similar gameplay to the first game, just with more options. However, influence was the big new feature of KotOR II, and while quite a lot of people can't stand it, I love it to bits. Influence is basically how much a character likes you. Do things that they like, and you gain influence. Do things they don't, and you lose it. In order to find out what they like and what they don't, you have to talk to them. Influence gives you a lot of things, from letting characters open up to you more, to bringing them closer to your alignment. It lets you access one more thing, but I'm not spoiling that just yet.

Oh, and that whole alignment thing? I don't want to spoil anything, but...

Plot Point!

T3 and his new friend break into the Med-Bay, in an effort to save Bob Bindo.

"Nurse! Get me medpacs and sawblades, stat! I'm not losing another goddamn patient today."

"Steady...Steady...dammit! We're losing him!"

"Yes! Dr.House ain't got nothing on me."

That done, we head to the lift, moving to make some external repairs on the Hawk.

"My god...it's full of stars...weird looking, two dimensional, stars..."

Wow, the Ebon Hawk didn't look too bad until we saw...that. Ouch.

"They say the chaps out of the Hurt Locker are pretty badass, but did they ever defuse a bomb on the outside of a spaceship before? No? Well then."

C4 fixes some external wiring, and then the dynamic duo head back inside, but not before checking out the view.

Yeah...uh...good effort, Obsidian. To be fair, it would be extremely difficult to create proper asteroids in the KotOR engine, but those look more like thin strands of paper.

Off to repair the Hyperdrive.

"Ugh. SO untidy."

Woah, the graphics really bugged out here. Just goes to show, no matter how much polish is applied, Obsidian games are never free from the curse of bugs.

Now, all that remains to be done, is to head to the cockpit, and plot a course for Peragus.

Looks like Galactus took a big ol' bite out of that particular planet.

The engines give out just before we reach the facility, but luckily, we got in tractor beam range, and we're pulled in.

Woohoo! We made it! That was a little harrowing, but all's well that ends...

Wut 0_0

"Flee! Flee!"

Wait...no...it can't be...

"You...you're still...no...what are you doing...AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!"

0_0 0_0 0_0 0_0 0_0

...this is a Star Wars game, right? I didn't buy System Shock 2 by mistake, right?

 

[woodaba]

Spoiler: Part 2!

Some time later...

The Kolto drains out of the tank, and we slump out of it.

Pain. It surges through bone, and blood. It tears at your heart, the place where the Shard once was.

Oh, wait, wrong game.

So, we've woken up in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by the dead, and have no memories of recent events. If this sounds familiar to you, it's because it's identical to the openings of Planescape: Torment, and Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, games that share many thematic elements with each other and KotOR 2. I'll be pointing out a lot of the other similarities as they come, particularly in regards to Torment, as they share the same writer, Chris Avellone.

After getting our bearings, we leave the room of our awakening and begin to explore the Peragus facility.

We first check out the medical office, looking for any clues as to what's going on, particularly on the computer.

Protocol Droid? What, like C3-PO? I don't remember anything like him on the Hawk...

Y'know, I'm just waiting for SHODAN to start speaking up, telling us how we're a pathetic mix of flesh and bone.

Well...that ended well. I wonder if the other Miners in the Kolto Tanks are alright?

Oh. Fuck.

Oh, fuck.

Thoroughly creeped out, we unlock the door to the morgue, hoping there's some way out through there.

Plus, her hand appears to be levitating.

We ransack the other body, finding a Plasma Torch that will let us cut our way out of the medbay.

I don't know about you, but if I was rising from the grave, my first priority wouldn't be to fix my hood.

"Hey, Lady, it's an RPG rule! Don't tell you're going to start deconstructing shit, are you? Wait, your voice, I heard it, as I floated in the Kolto tank."

"Slept too long? You looked dead when I came in."

"The Kolto left me a little drained. Who are you?"

"Last thing I remember, I was aboard a republic ship. The Harbinger. Know what happened to it?"

"If you think I'm a Jedi, think again."

"The Order and I have a... troubled history."

"All right. What's going on? How did we get here?"

"Care to explain why you're in such a hurry?"

"You seem nervous, worried. Is something wrong?"

"We'll see. There's got to be someone else alive around here."

"Ah, but then, all the ladies wouldn't get a gander at my fiiiiiiiiiiiine ass. Anyway, are you well enough to travel?"

"I'll return soon to make sure you're all right."

That, was Kreia. Kreia will be serving as our Narrator throughout the story, giving us a great deal of exposition, and tidbits about the plot, other characters, and the nature of the world at the moment. She's also a compulsive liar, and hides a lot more than she tells, making her a tricky character to interact with. We'll be discussing her in a lot greater detail as we continue.

We escape the medbay by cutting our way out with the plasma torch.

Well, this area doesn't look any cheerier than the Medbay, unfortunately.

Up ahead, we find a couple robots standing around doing nothing.

"IT'S TIME TO WHIP OUT THE JEDI KUNG-FU ON THESE ROBOT ASSHOLES!"

Yes, you are watching a half-naked Jedi punch robots in the face. WHY DO PEOPLE HATE THIS GAME

The robots dealt with, we continue through the facility.

"Kreia? Am i hearing the voices again? At least you're not telling me to kill my family this time."

Pressing on, we make our way to the security room when...

OH DEAR GOD HIS FLESSSSH

We go to check out the security console.

Welcome to Exposition Theater!

Did they deliberately try to make this guy look fucking ridiculous?

With our exposition break FINALLY done, we proceed, only to be interrupted by Kreia.

"Kreia? Wh-"

The game makes this out to be a critical mechanic, but it's maybe used about once or twice throughout the whole game.

Also: we can dodge lasers. We are officially the One.

After we defeat the robots, we are once again contacted by Kreia.

"I feel strange...like the sedatives are wearing off."

"But it doesn't feel like it did... it feels like it's coming from a great distance."

Here's another thing in common KotOR II has with Planescape: Torment. In that game, the player's character, the Nameless One, suffered from amnesia. As you levveled up, you weren't learning new abilities, you were remembering old ones. It's a similar thing here, by levelling up, we're reestablishing our connection to the force, and getting back abilities long forgotten.

We continue our way into the main room. Like the holo-log said, we're gonna need to destroy every robot on this floor before we proceed.

Man, the unarmed animations are really good in this game, but they look really retarded in freeze frames sometimes.

Sometimes, though, they look AWESOME

Finally, we deal with the last robot, and the door opens.

Ok, that's pretty funny.

"Care to explain why you're locked up?"

"So, you're not a miner. Who are you, then?"

"What is this place?"

"Blowing yourself up?"

"Peragus II?"

So, it wasn't Galactus. I must admit, I'm slightly dissapointed.

"The facility's deserted. What happened?"

"There's a bounty on captured Jedi? Why?"

"Not many Jedi left? What happened to them?"

"I heard rumors of a war...but war between Jedi?"

"I've been...away...since the Mandalorian Wars."

"I heard a rumor that Revan defeated Malak, then went to Korriban to unite the Sith against the Republic."

"I'm not surprised...Revan lived for war. For battle. She could not easily turn away from it."

"You said it."

"Don't you know what happened to them?"

"Tell me your plan, then we can go from there."

"Alright. If we work together, maybe we can find a way out of this mess."

"Alright, let's go."

Why do you have to go through all that effort to use the fracking intercom?

"Sounds like you're about to tell me something I don't want to hear."

"That wouldn't be standard procedure in an emergency lockdown."

"Dammit! There must be some way we can end the lockdown from here..."

"Can we contact the miners?"

"Stop being such a negative Nancy. Maybe there's something logged in the terminal that can give us some answers."

"One more thing. The patients in the medical bay were murdered with a lethal dose of sedatives. Know anything about that?"

"Never mind. Just checking."

"Quit your whining."

Geex, how fucked are these holos? They cut to static every 10 seconds.

With another exposition dump done, we access the comm system, looking for survivors.

"Do you read me?"

"Yeah, I'm back, bitches. The real hero of this game! Let's get it on."

"Do a diagnostic, then follow my instructions."

"We're trapped up on the administration level. Can you unlock the turbolifts?"

"Is there some way out of here besides the turbolofts?"

"I'd rather risk it than stay trapped up here."

"Oh, yeah. Send the expendable droid in. Fuck you, meatbag asswipe.

It's gonna be a loooong day."

 

[gamptrak]

I wonder if jolee's relative will have the same tendencies to be greyish light like him. Time will tell.

Also T3!! One of the best improvements

 

[Evolutionary High]

KOTOR II becomes such a better game when you have all the dialogue options open to you. It's like Planescape. The joy of the game isn't in the combat, but in the phenomenal writing the developers put into it. If you want to do the game justice, make sure you go for dialogue wherever possible. It puts to shame practically anything else in the Star Wars setting.

I'm only in the beginning of the game and I am just amazed at how good the dialogue is. Simply amazed. I remember playing some of the old Adventure DOS games back in the days which depended on good writing, and KOTOR2 just reminds me of that, except it was 10x better. The thing is that I thought KOTOR was a great game, I was truly immersed in the game world while playing KOTOR, but now playing KOTOR 2, I realized how simple, bland, black-and-white everything was in the first game. TSL just takes it to another level.

Here are a couple of moments that just did it for me.


1. The first conversation with Atton in the cage. That one really made me think about which option I should pick. And the dialogue was witty, awesome, better than any convo you had with Carth.

2. The first conversation with HK-50 in Peragus. That was fun as hell, and creepy at the same time, how a droid like that just suddenly appears, and has the same voice as HK-47. The dialogue was brilliant, and the same voice actor really sold it.

3. The first cutscene where you see Darth Sion. Gave me the chills. That really had me worried, I thought I had to fight him.

4. Unexpected Carth cutscenes. Totally didn't expect this. The funny thing is, he's much more likable here than he ever was in the first KOTOR.

5. The moment you meet Atris in the secret Jedi base. The writing here is better than ANYTHING in the first KOTOR (and the game has barely even begun). All the dialogue options were so intriguing I seriously didn't know which one to pick. It was just amazing. The dialogue really made me think as to what the hell is happening, and that things are about to get really, really bad from now on. The character development for the Exile is just amazing. I never thought that he that type of guy...wow. And Handmaiden, from the interaction with her, and explaining the force to her, I can just tell she's going to be an awesome character.

6. Kreia and talking with her. She's just a flawlessly written character. Even though she can be annoying. The things she say to you, just make you question why you were ever a Jedi in the first place. And plus, you learn more about Revan and Malak from her than you ever did in the first game. Revan even feels like a main character here, they talk about him every chance they get.

7. The game gives you perfectly sound reasons to go dark side. It gives you every right to be jerks to your companions. Because other than Bao-Dur, I don't trust anyone on my team. Even Kreia subtly pushes you to the dark side, now that is just awesome.



With all that, there are 2 things that bothered me a little. They might be explained or not but probably went over my head.

1. Why did you land on Peragus in the first place anyways? I know T3 fixed the ship, but he couldn't have picked any other planet/station to land on? Peragus was the only thing in existence? Was this explained?

2. How the heck did Kreia survive the fight with Darth Sion AND get to the ship in time? I think there was a dialogue option so that she can explain but I think I missed it??

 

[C F]

Bob Bindo. Excellent.

This is such a glorious start, and I love what you're doing with the characters this time around. I mean, KotOR was good, but II just has so much more potential. This is going to be a long and awesome LP.

Let's rock.

 

[gamptrak]

With all that, there are 2 things that bothered me a little. They might be explained or not but probably went over my head.

1. Why did you land on Peragus in the first place anyways? I know T3 fixed the ship, but he couldn't have picked any other planet/station to land on? Peragus was the only thing in existence? Was this explained?

2. How the heck did Kreia survive the fight with Darth Sion AND get to the ship in time? I think there was a dialogue option so that she can explain but I think I missed it??

I'm not really sure the answer to your second question. I think it's just Sion just allowing her to leave because she wasn't really seen as a threat. And seeing her limp away after seeing her fail to stop him could give him some satisfaction. That could be it.

As for your first question, I'm pretty sure I know it. T3 did minor repairs to the ship (getting engines back online), but the hyperspace drive was still damaged, so they couldn't make a jump anywhere. Seeing as they only had engine capabilities, and they were in the vicinity of the Peragus mining station, and the mining station is the only thing around for quite a while (the closest thing would be Telos, and you need hyperdrive to get there) they had to dock there.

 

[AD-Stu]

Love it love it love it, can't wait for more. And yeah, the kung fu freeze frames definitely have the potential for unintended hilarity