It's Star Wars as filtered through a more cynical lens, and crucially, interested in exploring concepts in a more rounded way.

Just about everything you encounter while exploring is a wonderfully deliberate subversion of both Star Wars as a whole and the specifics of the previous game, not entirely unlike how Bioshock 2 handled the challenge of following up the original. There's really no point playing without it, and hopefully if Aspyr manages to do a mobile port, it'll get the okay to integrate the changes somehow. Other small bits have been tweaked, from the wrong line being played, to using in-engine cut-scenes instead of cutting away to crappy quality pre-rendered movies. Vast amounts of dialogue and chunks of game, like a plant manufacturing HK assassin droids, were still in the game to be either restored or polished up. That's part of why the Restored Content Mod is so important - it doesn't fix everything, and the scar tissue still bleeds if you poke it, but it does a lot. It's a testament to its writing and ideas that it's hard to look back in anger at this, so much as disappointment that it deserved better. Still, it's a game whose opening hours are torturously boring, with a finale that just collapses on a world full of dropped plot elements and endless corridors masquerading as fun, and with a boss battle involving flying lightsabres that desperately needs someone to patch in the Benny Hill music. It was made on a tight schedule and then had its deadlines cut near the end, so it's not too surprising. Few games have made it to the shelves in recent years so patently unfinished, and we're not just talking a few missing textures. Without it, and to some extent either way, KOTOR 2 is a mess. Ever think that Jedi turn to the Dark Side purely for the cool lightning powers? This is pretty much essential if you want to play. It's not likely to spark a whole modding scene, but it does add one big advantage - easy, one-click access to the Sith Lords: Restored Content Mod. It's back in the news now because along with a port to Mac and Linux, developers Aspyr have added Steam Workshop support to it. It's not the best Star Wars game by a long stretch, but it is one of my favourites - a bit like Planescape: Torment, in part because it was so completely different to what I expected. Did Obsidian actually say that the plan was to systematically tear down, subvert and scornfully rip great chunks of flesh out of the Star Wars universe and George Lucas' shallow sense of morality and storytelling? or was it more on the lines of 'So, we're thinking three bladed lightsabres this time,' with Chris Avellone accidentally left locked in the car?Įither way, it happened. Knights Of The Old Republic 2 is a game I'd love to see the pitch for.

Kotor 1 mods steam