Well, well. The Daily Prompt has actually given me a prompt I’m excited about. Admittedly, I’ve saved all the emails from recent DP posts in a folder on the off-chance that maybe one day they’ll inspire me, but this one is probably my favorite prompt ever.
By now I’m sure your curiosity is piqued and you’re slowing leaning in towards your screen in excruciating anticipation. You can’t wait to find out what I’m so excited about. Well, I’ll tell you. After I relieve myself, because this is so cool that I have to pee.
[Author's Note: This turned out to be a LOT longer than I had anticipated. Bravo to you if you make it through this post. And thanks for reading.]
I wrote a post a long time ago pondering whether or not a possible sequel to Knights of the Old Republic 2 could be vexed by the existence of a book revealing Revan‘s story. I finally had a chance to read the book, The Old Republic: Revan, and finished it just a few nights ago.
I came to a couple of conclusions after finishing the book. The first conclusion I came to is that there will be no Knights of the Old Republic 3. Ever. That was likely decided even before LucasArts was shut down by new owner Disney, but that’s another post entirely.
The second conclusion I came to was that this book, as someone pointed out in my previous post about this, is nothing but a setup for Star Wars: The Old Republic. I didn’t know the commenter, as he/she posted anonymously, but I took the comment with a grain of salt. Whoever that person was is right on the money.
Please be advised, after this point there will be plenty of spoilers from the book so if you haven’t read it yet and don’t want to know…STOP READING NOW!! Continue reading »
For years, gamers have been clamoring for a third and final chapter in the Knights of the Old Republic saga. We all want to know what has happened to our beloved characters. Where did Revan go? Did the Exile find him? What did Revan find out in the Unknown Regions that turned him to the dark side? What did he leave out there that he needed to go back and fight while abandoning all of his friends?
There actually were plans to produce a second sequel to Knights of the Old Republic, but KOTOR3 was cancelled when LucasArts hit a pretty rough patch in the latter part of the decade. Why it hasn’t been picked back up mystifies me. Per game designer John Stafford “we wrote a story, designed most of the environments/worlds, and many of the quests, characters, and items.” Why not just pick up where they left off now that they are back on their feet? If nothing else, the early success of The Old Republic should be a sign that gamers love Star Wars RPG. There are handfuls of online petitions begging LucasArts to produce KOTOR3, yet it still hasn’t happened yet.
There is slightly good news, however, depending on your point of view. If you are just dying to know the fate of Revan, that wait is over. No, there are no plans (that I know of) for KOTOR3, but there is now a novel written by Drew Karpyshyn titled The Old Republic: Revan. This novel details Revan’s exploits after the end of the first KOTOR game.
While I’m eager to read this book to find what happened to Revan, and perhaps the Exile, at the same time I have a sense that because Revan’s story has already been told, there will be no third KOTOR game. And that angers me.
LucasArts has been steadily declining in quality over the last decade, and I wonder if mismanagement has anything to do with it. They’ve reportedly had many layoffs. But I wonder how something as massive as The Old Republic can get the green-light but KOTOR3 can’t? LucasArts has put out a steady string of failures in recent years. The failures have outweighed the successes. They did great with The Force Unleashed, then release a sequel that offered nothing really new, and a game that I completed in 6 hours. I could go on and on about other disappointments, but then I’d be here all day.
They bottom line is this: LucasArts is not listening to the consumer. We want a KOTOR3. Many others want a Battlefront 3 (another successful franchise that they abandoned). Others want another addition to the Jedi Knight series. I personally would like to see a sequel to Bounty Hunter, featuring Boba Fett instead of Jango Fett. There are all kinds of possibilities for LucasArts out there, but they seem to be focused solely on making Clone Wars games, which leads me to believe they are getting their direction from Lucas himself, who somehow went from a genius in the 70′s to a senile old idiot in the 90′s who forgot how to create a compelling story.
Please, LucasArts, give the customer what they want. Starting with KOTOR3.
Query: Why would you even consider playing a game that didn’t feature me? Answer: Because you’re an imbecilic meatbag, of course. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have finally completed KOTOR 2 with the Restored Content mod installed. I completed it as a male, light-side Jedi. The ending is completely different with the restored content.
To be honest, not much changes throughout most of the game. The beginning and the adventures you have traveling to the five planets (Telos, Onderon, Korriban, Nar Shaddaa, and Dantooine) have only subtle differences between the original and restored versions. The most noticeable is the HK-50 sub-story. There is also a sub-plot with the Handmaiden and Atris.
However, once you have completed all quests on those four planets is where glaring differences become apparent. Starting with your return to Telos. The Handmaiden gets there before you and her “sisters” attack her for deserting Atris. She defeats them and then she battles Atris, who whoops her ass. You then come in at the end and whoop Atris’ ass.
Then HK-47 goes to the HK-50 factory and destroys it. This little side mission, which was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to play the restored content, was somewhat of a let down. You go in there, blow away a bunch of HK-50 droids (and HK-51 droids), and that’s pretty much it. HK-47 inquires as to who built the facility and who the master is that the droids keep talking about, but these questions are never answered. So even after completing this mission you have no idea who commissioned the factory and who programmed them to destroy the Republic. Lame.
You then board the Raveger as you do in the original, but after you defeat Darth Nihilus, Visas (if you let her live – yes, she can be killed in the restored content version of the game) and Mandalore have a very candid discussion about Revan and where he went and why.
You then take off and head to Malachor V where there are some major changes, too. Mira faces Hanharr like she does in the original, but in the light-side ending she tells Hanharr to take her to Kreia, which he does. Then Mira, the Handmaiden, Visas, and Atton attack Kreia…and fail miserably. All are captured and imprisoned except for Atton, who escapes and then has to face Sion. Atton then beats up Sion enough to get away. You then have to go find the other three and rescue them from prison cells.
From there it’s much the same. You face and defeat Darth Sion and then Kreia. Although with the restored content, Kreia reveals to you where Revan went and why he disappeared. She urges you to go help him now that you have completed her “training” because you are now ready to face what he is facing. You then have the choice of helping Revan, going back into exile, and…..crap, I forgot the third one. Oh, well. I choose to help Revan. I left the Handmaiden in charge of the Trayu Academy on Malachor V so she could help train more people for the war to come. Atton seems to tag along when you leave. In the original, when you choose the light side ending you destroy the planet so no one else can learn at this academy.
To be honest, now that I know where Revan went I’m even more pissed that there has been no KOTOR 3. The original version of KOTOR 2 left enough of a cliffhanger that you wanted to know where Revan went and what happened to him, but now that I know all the details of his disappearance it makes it all the more maddening. Considerably more in light of the fact that they decided to make an MMORPG based only a couple hundred years after the events of KOTOR (The Old Republic).
Why has this story been left uncompleted? I’ve read accounts online that say Bioware and Lucasarts had started to build a project to make KOTOR 3, but it was cancelled for reasons unknown.
If anyone at Lucasarts or Bioware reads this (hahahahahahahaha – yeah, right) get this thing going. A third Knights of the Old Republic game would definitely be profitable for you and you please a lot of disappointed fans. Like me.
Sooooooo, I’m going back to playing KOTOR 2 now, and see what other things I can find in the restored content.
And for your viewing pleasure, here is the best of HK-47 from KOTOR 2:
I got discouraged with KOTOR 2 a few months ago because the Restoration content wasn’t working properly. I quit playing it for a while.
I took one of my laptops and installed Windows XP on it (which is the OS that KOTOR 2 was designed to work with) and am going to try again. The only add-on I installed this time is the restored content and I’m hoping that I can actually play the game all the way through this time.
Here’s hoping…cause I’m really looking forward to raiding the HK-50 factory as HK-47.
So, my playing-KOTOR 2-with-mods experiment is getting frustrating.
First, I installed the restored content version 1.6. I got to Nar Shaddaa and the Red Eclipse mission kept popping up and I couldn’t leave the planet. I went out and found there was fix for this.
So I installed the fix and had to start a new game because if you’ve already started on Nar Shaddaa the fix doesn’t work. I’ve gotten to the point now where HK-47 is supposed to find the HK-50 factory. Yeah….that’s not working. The beginning of this mission is supposed to be HK-47 in the old military base on Telos, however, it keeps putting me down there with my character. I ran around the entire base and the three HK-50′s were in the control room. I tried to talk to them and then got sent to the polar region and got shot down again.
I uninstalled all of my mods and reinstalled the restored content mod and the fix, plus a couple others that are supposedly compatible with it. I restarted the mission and still get the same error. This means I’m going to have to find out what the problem is, fix it, and start another new game. Most of the restored content takes place past the part I’m getting stuck on so I’ll pretty much be playing the same game, again, that I’ve been playing since 2004.
The restored content better be worth all this headache.
