u/EdgarWind

[Note: this post contains spoilers, but also for some other RPG, but only notably for Dragon Age Inquisition. The minor spoilers for Pillars of Eternity 1 and Mass Effect 2 are not consequential to the gameplay experience.]

This should have been a home run for me, but the experience of completing KOTOR 2 in 2026 was quite mixed if not underwhelming. I played KOTOR 1 pretty much when it came out, as a teenager, and absolutely loved it. Meanwhile, I discovered that Chris Avellone's writing is a part of most of my favourite RPG experiences, including writing my favourite NPC companion in CRPGs, Durance in Pillars of Eternity 2. So naturally I was extremely interested in seeing how Kreia plays out, and happy that the minor spoiler of having awareness 'she is not who she seems' was not affecting regular narrative experience at all. (Since this is disclosed to the player already from Peragus onwards).

I was aware that the experience would be different simply due to age, my own as well as of the game. But leaving the dated gameplay mechanics aside, my high hopes for narrative delivery also fell a bit flat. I love the overarching structure of the story as a critique of the Force, as well as a meta-critique of a fixed written narrative in the context of a choice-laden ('interactive') game. But it does not hit as hard, neither philosophically nor through Kreia as the main agent of this delivery, when I compare it to some other RPGs that attempted similar or comparable things.

Kreia's plot twist did not carry a full reverberation into the lore of the universe (even though it manifestly had the ambition to do so), as did for example Solas' in DA: Inquisition, the DLC Trespasser (the only truly great part of that game imo). It felt like the ramifications of her whole arc and setup were nowhere to be seen, rather they are simply cut short by the player who ironically has little choice (since you can't really finish the game by achieving her Force-less vision of the Galaxy, unless I am mistaken?). Meanwhile, when Solas >!transforms from party member to a narrative antagonist,!< you feel the twist at the level of the deep lore (the story of the 'Veil' separating the spirit world from the 'real' world) but also within the character's own personal tragedy. I guess to keep this analysis brief, I would say that Kreia did not feel like a fully realized tragic character.

The world shattering perspective on the Force was highly intriguing to chase throughout the otherwise bland and dull levels of the game. Yet it didn't have a significant payoff, for example when compared with the plot twist about the world of Eora in Pillars of Eternity 1. That whole lore/universe was recast in the players eyes, the feeling was 'suddenly it all makes (another) sense'. Whereas Kreia's 'revelation' somehow left the whole world exactly as it is, conceptually in my experience as a player, and effectively in the SW by the inconsequential ending.

I was positively surprised by how the game treated the other companions, which perhaps does not achieve as much praise from the reviews since. The way you had to rely on individual companions and the choices you made for them in their own segments of the game was refreshing, and it reminded me of that 'party'/NPC companion feeling of playing through Mass Effect 2. In fact, I found it more consequential aspect of the game throughout the whole journey, than the much more celebrated ME2 experience where it only really happens in the oft discussed 'suicide mission' finale.

Overall then, the KOTOR 2 experience in 2026 seems a bit faded not only due to the 'incomplete' aspect of it, but because other RPGs managed to achieve higher notes in the individual aspects of the narrative where KOTOR 2 is the most ambitious. Happy to hear counterpoints on this conclusion of "KOTOR 2 in RPG context", and please let me know if you think I gravely missed something -- admittedly this is a much belated first playthrough anyway.