Kotor 1 vs 2

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by Runetouch, Jan 26, 2014.

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Kotor 1 vs 2

  1. Kotor 1

    80.0%
  2. Kotor 2

    20.0%
  1. TheGodBen

    TheGodBen Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    That's a problem with a lot of games though. I read once that the amount of gold you can carry in Minecraft, if compressed down into the 2m³ the player occupies, would have a density greater than a neutron star.

    My main problem with inventories in RPGs is when they restrict how much you can carry for some reason. I played Skyrim recently, and I spent too much time managing my inventory because I ran out of room constantly. Few things in gaming are more tedious than pausing a quest to check stats on items to figure out which should be dropped. On top of that, after almost every quest I had to teleport back to my house to drop stuff off or sell it at stores. Mass Effect 1 probably had the worst inventory system I've ever encountered though, especially on console. It had such a clunky UI, and your inventory got clogged really quickly with a variety of weapons that had miniscule differences in stats. And you had to manage all that for 7 different characters. :ack:

    KOTOR's inventory system was fine for me because it was limitless, I never had to waste time discarding items because I hit some arbitrary limit on what I could carry. I understand why limits exist for balance reasons, but I just consider that stuff to be wasted time.
     
  2. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I didn't find the turn-based combat to be all that bad, to be honest. It's what I preferred using in both games.

    My problem is more with games that don't integrate D&D rules very well into their games. It should be more of an "under the hood" kind of thing where you shouldn't really have to notice it in order to play successfully Aside from stats, it should be transparent to the gameplay experience.

    Ok, story time. I have Baldur's Gate, but I've never completed it for this very reason. I would love to, given the fact that it's a classic, but gameplay seems to rely too much on knowing exactly what you need in terms of stats, making it very difficult to just play in the process. It leads me to getting my ass beat very early on and that's just not fun.

    Speaking of inventories, I agree with Mass Effect being the worst. The dumbing down of the inventory made it horribly broken and uninformative, worse yet being that there was a limit to how much you could carry and selling items one at a time. Most items and upgrades were redundant as well. It's surprising given the history in Bioware developing RPGs. Late in the game, and you could still randomly get upgrades that were useless for how late in the game you were. Why am I still getting level 1 upgrades?
     
  3. Robert Maxwell

    Robert Maxwell memelord Premium Member

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    Dragon Age: Origins has an inventory system so bad, it makes me not play it. Seriously, I quit playing because I hated having to search through every character's items to figure out if anyone had anything that would boost their stats.

    In any case, the sort of min-maxing you're talking about is pretty rampant. Any game that relies more on statistics and strategy than reflexes will have play styles that are quantitatively more effective. That's how you end up with things like junk classes, or classes that are far too powerful. Also, it's why a lot of games use the rock-paper-scissors paradigm, because it's much easier to balance things in a triad than larger combinations.
     
  4. Jeyl

    Jeyl Commodore Commodore

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    What a pity. Dragon Age Origins I find to still be a pretty solid game with a storyline that's very replay-able. I vote for a cheat add-on sir. Just blow your way through the oppressors and enjoy the story.
     
  5. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yep Robert, I agree. I just wish in the case of min-maxing, that they'd be able to offer ready-made characters based on the class you choose, kind of like they did with Arcanum, which I loved. That was a great game that used similar rules but seemed less abstract about the use of its rules.
     
  6. SPCTRE

    SPCTRE Badass Admiral

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    The original KOTOR is (much like the original Baldur's Gate and the first Mass Effect) one of the reasons I'm lamenting the "death" of BioWare at the hands of EA's shareholder interest.

    That said, KOTOR 2 is an incredibly well-crafted game with a probably more interesting story compared to the first game. To this day, I'm a big fan of Obsidian Entertainment, and KOTOR 2 played a big part in my affection for that studio.
     
  7. ATimson

    ATimson Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Obsidian... reaches high. But they don't meet their contracted release dates, so the final product just isn't as satisfying as it could be.

    Hopefully their self-funded RPG (Project Eternity) will be able to meet the polish bar their retail games never could.
     
  8. Bry_Sinclair

    Bry_Sinclair Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I really like both of them, but KotOR1 just sneaks in above 2.

    KotOR2 had too many glitches and story elements that made no sense, though did have some characters I really liked (Bao-Dur and Visas in particular), however others were just pointless and I never used (all the droids for example, especially G0-T0--what was it useful for anyways?).

    KotOR1 had a good story and all the characters had their own role and purpose and were used equally, as well as opening up some interesting side quests that helped to really flesh them out.

    Its a shame we never got KotOR3 to see how it all ended, and to play with Revan and the Exile together.
     
  9. SPCTRE

    SPCTRE Badass Admiral

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    True. I loved Alpha Protocol, but it was a perfect example for their certain brand of, frankly, lack of polish ;)
     
  10. CorporalClegg

    CorporalClegg Admiral Admiral

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    KOTOR II by a mile. More robust gameplay mechanics. More complex and high-concept story. Better mods. Better pazaak. And all around better replay value.

    Karpyshyn's book does exactly that. It's terrible, but that's beside the point.

    Combined with Revan's Meetra's and Bastila's appearances in SWTOR it's more than what would have been gained from a strait KOTOR III.

    But for the record, Revan is currently merchandising himself for the Hutt Cartel.
     
  11. Herkimer Jitty

    Herkimer Jitty Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Don't count them out just yet. Call me naive, but I have high hopes for Dragon Age: Inquisition. Well, more like "cautiously optimistic", but you catch my drift.
     
  12. SPCTRE

    SPCTRE Badass Admiral

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    ^ Oh, I feel similarly optimistic about Inquisition, especially since the last couple of years have softened me on Dragon Age 2 :)
     
  13. Herkimer Jitty

    Herkimer Jitty Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Considering the single year time-frame Bioware had to develop DA2, I tend to think of it as nothing short of miraculous, warts and all.
     
  14. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    My vote goes to the first game. Perhaps KotOR 2 has the "better" story, but IMO it lacks KotOR 1's sense of fun and adventure. KotOR 1 did a better job of capturing the tone of Star Wars and actually made me feel like a hero (or a villain, depending on the playthrough). KotOR 2's moral ambiguity doesn't really mesh well with Star Wars' black-and-white, good vs. evil themes. I also thought Revan's companions were, overall, much better than the Exile's.

    OT: Herkimer Jitty, I love that avatar! So bummed that WH13 is ending soon (and only getting six more episodes). :(
     
  15. Herkimer Jitty

    Herkimer Jitty Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Hyeah, pretty much. I don't think any of the KOTOR II companions come close to Jolee or Canderous. They're just... the best. Jolee might just be my favorite Jedi in the entire franchise.

    Thanks :)

    It's a bummer, but it fits: it seems like like 4-5 seasons is as far as SyFy's willing to take a show.
     
  16. ATimson

    ATimson Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I think the biggest problem with Dragon Age II was the number. Had they kept the Dragon Age: Subtitle pattern, expectations that it'd be related to the first game more than tangentially would have been lowered.
     
  17. Runetouch

    Runetouch Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    16 to 4? Well, glad to see that so many liked the first one more.:)
     
  18. TheGodBen

    TheGodBen Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Ummm, Canderous is a companion in KOTOR II. He's the Mandalorian leader that joins you on Dxun.
     
  19. Jeyl

    Jeyl Commodore Commodore

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    When I played KOTOR for the second time, I decided to give Jolee Bindo some focus. Holy god, is this guy for real? For 15 minutes, he shows more wisdom and understanding about what it means to be a good Jedi than anything Yoda has ever said in any of his movies. I honestly hate Yoda after knowing Jolee's whole back story and what he does to set things right. It's so unfortunate that everything else in Star Wars glorifies Yoda's vague, "everything is a path to the dark side" approach.
     
  20. Herkimer Jitty

    Herkimer Jitty Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, all that cautious "path to the dark side" business ended up biting the Jedi in the collective butts, so good riddance! Hmmph!

    *any of the newly introduced KOTOR II companions

    Happy now? Or do we need to do more proofreading, professor?