BioWare ignored TSL...

[Paddy Garcia]

I haven't played them, I have watched part or all of most of the story lines. It's been a while, though.

 

I agree with DAWUSS' assessment, that the "eight major movers" is more interesting than THE ONE, though it'd be more interesting if someone made an RPG where you don't play as a big hero.

 

I'd have to rewatch the different stories to remember what was wrong with them, though what's wrong in TOR is mainly how they simply reverted KOTOR2 to a world similar to KOTOR1 (Big Sith empire v big Jedi Republic) and shoddy production values.

[Tommycat]

I haven't played them, I have watched part or all of most of the story lines. It's been a while, though.

 

I agree with DAWUSS' assessment, that the "eight major movers" is more interesting than THE ONE, though it'd be more interesting if someone made an RPG where you don't play as a big hero.

 

I'd have to rewatch the different stories to remember what was wrong with them, though what's wrong in TOR is mainly how they simply reverted KOTOR2 to a world similar to KOTOR1 (Big Sith empire v big Jedi Republic) and shoddy production values.

Trust me, play them. It's free. Then at least you can speak with some authority. Going by your assessment of the stories and the treatment of the Good/Bad dynamic, you really don't know enough to comment, and if the watching of videos left you with that impression, then you watched the wrong videos. Seriously, just play for yourself and make your own determination. Going light side on the imperial side is really fun, and produces some rather good story elements which explain why nice people would work for the empire.

[The Lord of Chaos]

I do believe that mim said that it wasn't as deep as TSL.

 

And really, how can you comment on story when YOU have not played them.

 

Well that's easy, he can comment on the story by reading about the story from people who have played the game and described the story.

[Paddy Garcia]

I have played part of one, and watched most of them (one of the Jedi, the Smuggler I believe, and one of the Sith, the one where you become a member of the council). The stories themselves are not so bad, though I dislike where they've taken the overall setting. It's essentially KOTOR 1 2.0, with a few extra silly threads like Revan still being alive and the op because the plot demands it Emperor.

 

Saying that I've "read a story by reading about the story from people who have played the game and described the story" is disingenuous, watching a silent walkthrough that avoids all the "gameplay" sections isn't a description, it's footage of what actually happens in the plot. I just don't have to experience the hours of painful trudging and pve MMO combat.

 

Trust me, play them. It's free. Then at least you can speak with some authority. Going by your assessment of the stories and the treatment of the Good/Bad dynamic, you really don't know enough to comment, and if the watching of videos left you with that impression, then you watched the wrong videos. Seriously, just play for yourself and make your own determination. Going light side on the imperial side is really fun, and produces some rather good story elements which explain why nice people would work for the empire.

 

Yeah, when I look through the playthroughs again I was incorrect to state that the factions of TOR were made into more obvious good vs evil roles, and there's a lot more moral leeway than before (Episodes I, II, III).

 

I would give it another shot, if it wasn't such an awful game. It doesn't matter how strong the story and role playing elements are, when you have to trudge through hours upon hours of filler walking/swoop biking through uninteresting maps fighting hordes of enemies with that godawful mmo combat, it becomes a tossup between actually playing the story and roleplaying, or getting to experience the story without wasting so much time. I'd rather disregard the roleplaying aspect I'd get from playing my own character (what little there can be, with only 3 dialogue options at most at once) and watch a playthrough of it, skipping through the filler.

 

Besides this, the cutscenes themselves fail in every technical and artistic regard besides voice acting. The animations are ridiculous, the textures are terrible, the models/art design is dated, and the music seems to be entirely recycled KOTORI and II tracks.

 

Basically, in sum, the setup for TOR, the fundamentals of its lore (the Emperor, the fates of Revan and the Exile, and the whole war) just seem rather silly to me. They tried too hard to be the same as the clone wars, even the Republic armor looks like the clone trooper armor. TOR would've been better off without Revan and the Exile, in some other part of the Star Wars continuum. Of course, that bit is almost entirely subjective. What isn't subjective is TOR's shoddy production values.

[Tommycat]

Well that's easy, he can comment on the story by reading about the story from people who have played the game and described the story.

 

Well I can comment on anything that I hear about second hand, but to form an opinion and speak definitively about how that story is a specific way(when it is actually not) seems a bit shallow. It would be like hearing the story of Star Wars from a Trekkie who heard about the story from someone else.

[The Lord of Chaos]

Yeah that's true, but I personally couldn't care less about the stories of TOR. I don't speak for anyone else here when I say that, of course. I hated the fact they made it an MMO 300 years after KotOR II that completely ignored the non-canon endings of the first two games.

 

I wanted a story set 2-5 years after KotOR II that was a single player RPG and took the non-canon endings into consideration. They never did that and it's very disappointing because the second game ended on such a cliff-hanger.

[DAWUSS]

I guess you have your 8 TOR characters to develop into what your Revan and Exile were supposed to be (within their respective backgrounds and storylines). Have the Jedi Knight character become your Revan 2.0 and the Sith Inquisitor character become your Exile 2.0. ...or something like that.

 

Regarding choices vs. canon for KOTOR & TSL to TOR, there were ways to include the fates and legacies without really delving into the topic. Most of the canon stuff that trickles down into the game involve the characters themselves instead of the galaxy they shaped. I guess it was easier to just rub canon into everyone's face.