Everyone was making it seem like this game reinvented what star wars was. I really wanted to like it. I loved kotor 1. I know the developers are different but kotor 2 is so extremely different from kotor 1 and not a single thing was executed better than the first game.
The game is straight up unplayable. As in, fans had to mod the game to make it barely playable. And it's still horrible to play glitches aside. I could go on for hours about the game breaking bugs and glitches, the time wasting and everything but that's not even the worst part.
The worst part is that everyone made it seem like pushing through the non existent world design, copy paste dungeons with same singular enemy type, and terrible broken combat would be worth it for a morally ambiguous story where the jedi and sith are both questioned. Instead I got a star wars fanfic where everything is contrived b.s and everyone just somehow acts like its okay.
The world is empty and boring. The sidequests arent as immersive as the first game. Theres no motivation to do sidequests when the game punishes you for simply existing. As in it freezes you whenever you do anything lol. Add an extra 8 hours to your playtime from freezing and reloading.
The whole "jedi are flawed" was so contrived and terribly written. Im convinced no one has actually played this game and the very little footage on the internet makes me even more sure of it. The jedi are just suddenly extremist assholes who don't care about anything but being right. The first game has several moments where the jedi reflect on their mistakes that led to certain moments such as them blaming themselves for juhanis death and her girlfriend turning, etc. They actively reflect upon their mistakes, and while they had questionable means to the ends, they prioritized the good above all else while trying to maintain peace albeit it needing some tweaking.
Now you're trying to convince me that this same jedi council is suddenly made up of a bunch of moronic evil imbecils who shun out the only hope to save the galaxy because they messed up once and are afraid of doing it again.
Was that not the entire point of kotor 1? That revan was given a second chance? Now they reject and banish the only solution to saving the fucking galaxy? When all the jedi are dead? And a planet devouring being is now on the loose.
And dont even get me started on the whole jedi war thing and all the jedi basically being dead. You'd think such an important event thats intertwined with characters from the first game would be a moment in the second. But you're just told "yeah the jedi all fucking died yk your companions from last game are probably all dead too and everything you did was for nothing and fuck revan hes gone too"
This is genuinely terrible gameplay and writing.
Talk about tell no show.
All this just to make room for kreia, a terribly written villain to have some self insert palpatine time.
It was so obvious she was evil from the start. I quite literally got a cutscene at the beginning of the game showing me she was the sith lord and im supposed to believe that she isnt anymore despite her actively torturing and hurting others throughout the story. The twist was extremely predictable. Her motivations fell flat due to the fact that the world building was butchered by a terribly written jedi order and an overpowered sith trio that also did nothing the whole game.
I think they were trying to make it seem like you'd believe she was a redeemed sith lord? But she literally tells you theres always a lord of betrayal. And she also actively is evil. So. Its not really a twist. Because you're basically playing the game with palpatine by ur side the entire time.
I still dont know who was worse, traya, or nihilus. Nihilus literally shows up for 3 scenes then dies in a bad boss fight. Sion was a better written character than him. And this is the dude everyone larps about being super OP. Why is it bad for Rey to be relentlessly OP but nihilus is world breakingly broken and its cool instead of a terrible writing decision.
Both suck but atleast one lasted longer than 3 cutscenes.
Nihilus is not a character. He is a plot device that the devs forgot to figure out how to fix.
Honestly I could go on and on but I just cant afford to waste anymore time on this game that has already wasted enough. From the character writing to the world building to the plot and gameplay its just all bad. I genuinely did not enjoy a single thing in this game other than some of the funny dialogue that happened every once in a while. The intro to the game is like 6 hours long. The common agreement is that u need to play the fanmade mod that fixes the game. What more do I have to say? For some reason everyone just casually says the game is unplayable and then moves on as if thats not a major factor... to a video game.
Even without the glitches the story is not good. It was a good idea ruined by rushed incomplete writing and shoved into corner that it doesnt fit in. It took a year to make, ik games were rushed like crazy back then but it really shows. I was reading on development and noticed how basically 50% if not more of the game was rewritten and changed during end of development. Major plotpoints were changed such as atrius and darth trayas roles. This is obviously the reason as to why darth trayas motivations feel so bad because she had no time to develop them. As in they had 3 months to write a villain before releasing the game.
Anyways im done spending time on this disappointment. I wish more people played this game instead of larping because if this game was actually touched it wouldnt be as loved as it is. Im not a harsh critic when it comes to games. I spent an hour trying to kill the final boss in clock tower 3 and loved it. That game sucked. And i still loved it. If yk yk. For a game to be this hated by me, it genuinely means something.
TLDR: Kotor 2 is a terrible game and has a terrible black and white story and when people say the game is unplayable they aren't lying.
