K2 Revisited

[Carwil]

I know that K2 catches a lot of flak, despite offering a story that is both significantly longer and much darker in tone that the first game lacked, but I also feel that it was lacking somewhat because of all the content that was cut due to pacing issues. I mean, an entire planet, and that's just one example, not to mention the Trayus Prison and other plot devices and minutiae that were axed before the final release. The list goes on and on, and I sometimes doubt all of the cut content will ever be recovered and restored.

 

So, good and bad, feel free to post your opinions regarding K2 below.

[Zoom Rabbit]

 

Pardon the confusion, but I am old. When I googled 'K2,' this is what I got. I have no desire to visit it even once, since it looks cold and difficult.

 

On an unrelated note, my favorite video games have always been the ones with a lot of content. I want to be able to break away from the 'pacing' and explore a bit, maybe put the controller down for a moment without pausing to enjoy refreshments. Being mostly a flight simulator player, I find that just flying around is a lot of fun...but only if there is a huge map in which I can lose time.

[Carwil]

Ah, um, perhaps I should have clarified that I was using K2 as an abbreviation for KotOR II, not the mountain of the same name. I've been told that climbing the mountain is considerably more difficult than playing KotOR II, especially considering that it's located in Pakistan, which means that one would be climbing very fast indeed to dodge bullets.

[Rece]

LDR and I did a video about the good and bad of TSL (That's what most people refer to it as) even though it ended up just being a random conversation about the game

 

[JesusIsGonnaOwnSatan]

I know that K2 catches a lot of flak, despite offering a story that is both significantly longer and much darker in tone that the first game lacked, but I also feel that it was lacking somewhat because of all the content that was cut due to pacing issues.

 

That's exactly why, and pretty much the only reason (though its a big one). The story, in comparison to K1, is incredibly more complex and intellectually stimulating (K1 is amazing as well, but in a very different way). When I was a kid, I played K2 after K1 and was disgusted. "How ridiculous and broken", I thought. All I saw was the incompleteness of the game; I lacked the intellectual capacity to appreciate the story.

 

I played the game again when I was ~19 and the writing blew my mind.

 

If K2 wasn't rushed by LucasArts; if Obsidian got their time to work on it, and finish it all properly, K2 would have been something truly spectacular.

 

I still mourn for the series. I tried TOR but it wasn't a worthy successor. I really hope that whatever Bioware is making right now for SW will be a spiritual successor to the KotOR's.

[Darth Avlectus]

I knew the story, generally, before I ever played KOTOR2. For a time after having completed K1 I thought "Why would I want to play a broken game?" but over time curiosity got the better of me.

 

There's some plot holes and some other things like that, and I don't believe the game ever quite goes into the origins of the 3 antagonists even with the restored content mod. However in other literature I do believe it was covered as well as it can be:

 

-It is implied (and as much is acknowledged by Obsidian) but never confirmed that Arren Kae and Kreia are one and the same. There's enough in the game to draw this conclusion. For a time some thought she was the matriarch of the Draay family, and her son became Sion, and Hazen had become Nihilus but this was shattered due to previous literature on Sion which leads me to...

 

-Darth Sion was originally a Sith Marauder for Exar Kun in other literature. So he'd been around some 40+ years prior.

 

-Nihilus was simply a man but had somehow survived the mass shadow generator's activation and awoke to find newfound abilities much to his horror at first when in contact with another. He had no control over it, as Kreia describes him in-game. This was covered in additional literature.

 

Opinion: If anyone could do what Surik did and that she was nothing special, then it renders much of the K2 the plot superfluous.

 

I personally believe there is an implication here. When Meetra Surik (the Jedi Exile) lost her use of the force by severing her connection in order to survive, that the powers went to he who would become Nihilus.

 

The relevant things in the game may explain it in part, but if it doesn't have any additional meaning to it and "that's just the way it is" as is so often said, then the explanation isn't a complete one. It wouldn't make sense being that the game was building up to the conclusion that Nihilus' powers are connected to the loss of her powers and her actions lead to his rise.

 

The man was able to use the powers as Nihilus once he learned how, yet the powers took on a life of their own and the hunger is what drove him. From the beginning the powers consumed other living beings on their own, not at his command. He had no idea why he'd even survived the Mass Shadow Generator. So the powers ultimately had control over him. Upon trying to consume the Exile, Nihilus' powers failed him.

 

Given all this, I don't know any other conclusion that makes sense outside the severed powers finding the man as a host and going from there, unstoppable, until he meets the Exile.

 

The Jedi masters speculated it was "connected" to the Exile. They could sense something about it. Vrook told the Exile "you can feel the force, but you cannot feel yourself" is another hint. Kreia also saying essentially to go find the darkness and the echo rather than waiting for it to come back to you is another hint seeing as how she trained Nihilus and Sion as they arose in the wake of Darth Malak's demise.

 

I'm wiling to hear an alternative explanation but none so far have sufficed.

 

I know that K2 catches a lot of flak, despite offering a story that is both significantly longer and much darker in tone that the first game lacked, but I also feel that it was lacking somewhat because of all the content that was cut due to pacing issues. I mean, an entire planet, and that's just one example, not to mention the Trayus Prison and other plot devices and minutiae that were axed before the final release. The list goes on and on, and I sometimes doubt all of the cut content will ever be recovered and restored.

 

So, good and bad, feel free to post your opinions regarding K2 below.

 

All you need to know are:

TSLRCM & the M4-78 droid planet mod.

 

You can find these on DeadlyStream.

[Carwil]

I've scoped out TSLRCM before, but I decided to pick and choose and manually install the restored content mods I'd use, as I recall TSLRCM having some conflicts with existing restorations or something like that. Plus, I believe it would've conflicted with some homebrew content mods I really liked having (deathdisco's Jedi Temple mod, the old release of M4-78, etc.).

 

Was I the only one who thought that the promotional artwork for the game painted Nihilus as the main antagonist? I mean, I could see that being due in part to Obsidian naturally not wanting to reveal that it was Kreia all along, but he was even depicted on the TSL desktop shortcut icon. That would be consistent with your theory of Nihilus' power being directly related to the Exile's loss of her connection to the Force, which is entirely plausible if you choose to believe that Obsidian probably cut that aspect of the backstory...

[Carwil]

I can make a thread for speculation and cut content talk, if that's something everyone could get into. Just sayin'.

[Canderis]

I've scoped out TSLRCM before, but I decided to pick and choose and manually install the restored content mods I'd use, as I recall TSLRCM having some conflicts with existing restorations or something like that. Plus, I believe it would've conflicted with some homebrew content mods I really liked having (deathdisco's Jedi Temple mod, the old release of M4-78, etc.).

 

TSLRCM includes much more cut content than any individual mods, and there really aren't- to my knowledge- any cut content mods that aren't in TSLRCM and incompatible with it.

There is a patch for the Jedi Temple mod and TSLRCM, and M4-78 has been completely redone to be compatible with TSLRCM so there really isn't any reason to use the old version.

[Carwil]

Did they redo the HK factory as well?

[milestails]

Yes it is redone and included in TSLRCM.

[Sith Holocron]

Hey there, Carwil. As someone that voiced M4-78 in both the original version of M4-78 and in the M4-78 Enhancement Project (i.e the "new one), I can tell you the new one is probably going to be more a more complete experience for you.

 

Seeing as you only did one entry for your KotOR II playthrough - and that being 4 months ago - perhaps you might want to start again using TSLRCM, M4-78 EP, and the Coruscant Jedi Temple (and related fixes).

[Carwil]

Oh, yeah, that. I've got about thirty videos filmed now and ready to upload. Hopefully about eight of them will go up this weekend. "Real life" has a nasty habit of creeping up on YouTube.

 

I'll be sure to give TSLRCM another look, although I fear it may be a little too late to begin a new playthrough at this point...I really wish I'd known this earlier.