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Thusly "Charles Whitney" <cbillingsw@yahoo.com> Spake Unto All:
>What gameplay differences were there between Fallout and Fallout 2? I
No, I won't follow that sidetrack. Start a separate thread if you wish
to explore that further. I stand by my assessment that KOTOR and
KOTOR2 have no significant difference in gameplay, and that what few
differences there are, are on the size and scope of what one'd expect
to see in an expansion pack.
>precisely the same as the one Fallout 2 uses. The fact that some skills are
>more useful in Fallout 2 than in Fallout 1 reflects a similar change with
>the Kotors.
Truthfully, I didn't notice. As the game was easier than KOTOR, there
was nothing, with the exception of the tank droid, in the entire game
which would not go down quickly and easily if one simply dual-wielded
and masterflurried. I occasionally force waved and force screamed, but
mostly to amuse myself in what was otherwise tedious and repetitive
combat.
>> Uh - the KOTOR2 story is "a great deal more involved" than KOTOR??? If
>> anything it's LESS involved, as there is no plot twist in KOTOR2. The
>> story is straight and predictable as an arrow right up until the devs
>> ran out of time and simply truncated it on Malachor V.
>
>It's a great deal more involved. Did you actually pursue the subplots with
>each of your companions?
You mean the people who stop having anything to say about halfway
through the game? Only Kreia and the Handmaiden had anything
interesting to say to start with, and the Handmaiden like the others
dried up after she became jedi.
>Did you get to the point where you could make all
>the characters who could become jedi?
No, I failed there. I only got the Handmaiden, Visira, Bao, and Mira
to become well adjusted members of the Jedi community. Atton only
wanted to obsess about his dreary "dark past" as a sith assassin and
play pazaak, and the Mandalorian Canderous clone... well, basically I
didn't lug either of them around enough to gain any influence.
>Did you speak to NPCs and find
>all the sidequests? Did you try to determine the backstory behind the
>sidequests? And just because a story is linear doesn't mean it's not more
>involved. A too-linear storyline is a valid criticism of both Kotors, but
>that doesn't make the latter less involved than the former. Predictability
>and linearity are not mutually exclusive from depth. I mean hell, you
>suggest that having a plot twist somehow makes a story more involved. Are
>you thus suggesting that if Kotor2 had ended when you arrived at Telos the
>first time with you discovering that Atton was actually a woman, that story
>would have been more involved than Kotor2's story actually was?
You're not seriously claiming that a story that's easily predictable
start to finish is more involved than a story that's NOT easily
predictable, are you?
AFAIK 'involved' in this context means 'complex or intricate', so
unpredictability is certainly a big part of it. If Atton being
cross-gender had any effect on the plot, say through a romance with
the player, that could certainly have made the story more involved.
But having Atton tell you, without any in-game consequences at all,
that he used to be a Sith assassin, doesn't. It's just a red herring.
Other things which would've made the story more involved would, for
instance, have been if the characters hadn't been format 1A rpg
archetypes. E.g. Bao is as a monk, Mira is a rogue etc, and they look,
sound, and behave exactly as these rpg archetypes are supposed to.
There *are* some attempts at complicating the story, but they're never
followed through, although I suppose part of the reason for that is
that the game was truncated in order to hit shops in time for
christmas.
For instance, in several places it is hinted that BALANCE is what's
desirable, that both lightside and darkside are needed. This isn't
exactly a revolutionary thought, as it's basically Yin & Yang all
over, but making the player establish _balance_ in the galaxy between
the stuck-up stupidity of the Jedi and the self-destructive malicious
coolness of the Sith would've been an interesting vehicle. And it'd
have opened the field forever for sequels.
Now, I do sense the hand of Chris Avellone here and there, for
instance in discussions with Kreia, how to deal with the leader of the
rebellion on Onderon, and definitely in the cut ending (which, if what
I've read about it is correct, is reminiscent of the final segment of
Planescape: Torment) but as a whole the story is transparent and
unproblematic.
(btw, check out Planescape: Torment if you want to see an *actually*
involved story, and an example of how interaction with party members
*should* be)
>Like I said, you saw two superficial things, the name and the fact that's
>one's a wookie and overlooked everything else.
Yeah, well, I'll give you that point. The SW universe is probably as
teeming with sassy rogues with wookies as it is with famous ex-fallen
ex-Jedi mega-generals who deeply impressed the Mandalorians with their
skill and valor yet have lost their powers and been reduced to level 1
and formed a unique force bond with someone.
--
"Forgive Russia. Ignore Germany. Punish France."
-- Condoleezza Rice, at the time National Security Adviser, on how to deal
with european opposition to the war in Iraq. 2003.
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