Recent reviews by _docodemo

This is my first ever review on Steam, I think. And first, let me just say that this is one of the best Star Wars game ever made. Let me tell you why.

If you ever played the first Knights of the Old Republic and examine it closely, you'll see that it is a love letter to Star Wars. It expanded the lore with their rendition of Jedi and Sith philosophy, did a lot of Star Wars character tributes with their own way like T3-M4 and HK-47 being their own funny take on R2D2 and C3P0, and basically treating Star Wars' archetypical Hero's journey. It is a lovely game that you should play also if you love Star Wars. But..

Knights of the Old Republic II did the opposite of the first game. While this game is also a love letter to Star Wars, instead of doing their own take on the beloved classic tropes, what it does is breaking it apart piece by piece. And with those pieces, constructing something new to answer the questions fans and the galaxy far, far away have difficulty answering. Which are why was the galaxy in constant state of war between two religious monk groups with laser swords, and how we stop it. That means it's going to be rich in story and enlightening in experience.

Like all other things, peace is ultimately preferred by a lot of people. But in order to attain it meaningfully, it must not be given unto our own hands like giving a candy to a baby. It must be attained with our own hands and our own struggles. I think ultimately that's what this game want to tell us, and by extension in its in-game universe the people of the galaxy. It is a lesson in strength and meaning. It is how to be aware and in control of our destiny. It is how to be a superman, in a world with superpower given to people by a God we know as the Force.

I don't want to make this review an essay that many people have done. And I'm not going to lie, that I've also watched many of them and taken inspirations for this review. So let me make it short and hopefully faithful to the essays and the source material. You see, the Force surrounds the people in the galaxy. It binds them, and penetrates them. It also seems to have a will. Whenever evil appears, the Force wills it so that evil is undone. But here's the catch: with any means necessary, even if it means sacrificing millions and millions of people in order to do so. What I mean is that the Force really has a hold on every people of the galaxy's destiny. Do you, or the people of the galaxy, really think that such life is truly our own? One other thing. I consider is that the Force is intoxicating. It forces its wielder to be in the extremes, to be something not human. To be the slaves of the Force's will, both the Jedi and the Sith alike.

So what this game proposes is how not to be slaves to the Force's will. To kill it, in a way. So that the people can shape their own destiny without the Force meddling its way and maybe kill you or making you a sacrifice to achieve balance in the process. But really, if you want to know more of the detail surrounding what this game is telling its audiences, you have to experience itself and/or read other people's essays regarding this. This game is an exercise in freedom and taking freedom for ourselves.

Now we're talking about the technical side of things. This game was first released around 2004 and 2005, so the graphics are on that era's quality. Meaning that it looks like a PS2 or XBOX game. Another thing is that this game is VERY RUSHED, I think they made this in around 13 months only. So the original game has a lot of cut contents that are intended to be in the game. It also has a lot of bugs, considering this game is just KotOR I but with its own scenario. By itself, it sucks. But thankfully, this game has mod support by the means of Steam Workshop. And I suggest that you install the restoration mod. There are two versions of this that I aware of: a) the one that only restores existing files in the game that are cut or otherwise have their trigger disabled, and b) the one that also restores missing stuffs that are planned by the developer yet ultimately not developed at all because of the time constraint. Both are equally valid and awesome way to play the game. There are also many other mods that can be tailored to your own preference and enhance your playthrough. Currently I'm on my second playthrough and it has been fun since.

Tl;dr, play this to be a big brain Star Wars fan and install mods to make this much more enjoyable.