Jagndeke
February 5th, 2005, 05:19 pm
Gamespy released a review of KOTOR II right here. (http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-2/585574p1.html)
Although sounds like a top notch job was done with the storyline, it seems the game took a step backwards in regards bugs and other annoying things.
It's that storyline that immediately stands out as the single strongest feature of KotOR II -- and when I say strongest, I'm not just comparing it to its immediate predecessor or the other aspects of the game. The story in this game is one of the best I've ever seen in a video game, instantly joining the pantheon of classics like System Shock 2, the Baldur's Gate series, or Planescape: Torment. Where the choice in the first game was about choosing between the Dark Side and the Light Side, KotOR II probes that choice, revealing subtleties in what would seem to be stark moral choices.
That's pretty high praise for sure.
Unfortunately, as good as the storyline and basic gameplay are, there are more than a few issues that keep this game from reaching the bar set by the first KotOR. The first: bugs. There a lot of them; most are just annoying, but a few are deadly. While I didn't experience any total crashes, it happened to our managing editor twice and neither of us have underpowered systems. A more annoying bug was one that caused the game to fold down onto my Windows taskbar whenever it switched out of the game engine in order to show an FMV cutscene. There was a weird bug that caused in-engine cutscenes to be blurry if your character was running with Force Speed just before the game shifted to the scene.
Uggghhh! And it gets worse.
Worse than the bugs, however, and far more inexplicable, is the truly god-awful A.I. possessed by the characters. I can't count the number of times my companions got in my way while I was trying to maneuver through a tight spot. During combat, I'd be getting pummeled because one of my characters decided not to bother getting involved in the fight and was two rooms away staring at the wall. One mission in particular had me tearing my hair out, where I had to escort a Czerka employee out of a military base. It would have been easy (considering I had killed all of the monsters already), except that the employee just refused to follow me. He would take a few steps and then stop. I was reduced to continually asking him to follow me again and again, moving him a few steps each time toward the exit. Thanks, that's 20 minutes of my life I'm never getting back.
Whelp... I won't be first in line to buy it until I hear what some of my fellow 3D Gamers have to say about it. I hope it's not as bad as it sounds!
Although sounds like a top notch job was done with the storyline, it seems the game took a step backwards in regards bugs and other annoying things.
It's that storyline that immediately stands out as the single strongest feature of KotOR II -- and when I say strongest, I'm not just comparing it to its immediate predecessor or the other aspects of the game. The story in this game is one of the best I've ever seen in a video game, instantly joining the pantheon of classics like System Shock 2, the Baldur's Gate series, or Planescape: Torment. Where the choice in the first game was about choosing between the Dark Side and the Light Side, KotOR II probes that choice, revealing subtleties in what would seem to be stark moral choices.
That's pretty high praise for sure.
Unfortunately, as good as the storyline and basic gameplay are, there are more than a few issues that keep this game from reaching the bar set by the first KotOR. The first: bugs. There a lot of them; most are just annoying, but a few are deadly. While I didn't experience any total crashes, it happened to our managing editor twice and neither of us have underpowered systems. A more annoying bug was one that caused the game to fold down onto my Windows taskbar whenever it switched out of the game engine in order to show an FMV cutscene. There was a weird bug that caused in-engine cutscenes to be blurry if your character was running with Force Speed just before the game shifted to the scene.
Uggghhh! And it gets worse.
Worse than the bugs, however, and far more inexplicable, is the truly god-awful A.I. possessed by the characters. I can't count the number of times my companions got in my way while I was trying to maneuver through a tight spot. During combat, I'd be getting pummeled because one of my characters decided not to bother getting involved in the fight and was two rooms away staring at the wall. One mission in particular had me tearing my hair out, where I had to escort a Czerka employee out of a military base. It would have been easy (considering I had killed all of the monsters already), except that the employee just refused to follow me. He would take a few steps and then stop. I was reduced to continually asking him to follow me again and again, moving him a few steps each time toward the exit. Thanks, that's 20 minutes of my life I'm never getting back.
Whelp... I won't be first in line to buy it until I hear what some of my fellow 3D Gamers have to say about it. I hope it's not as bad as it sounds!