Starwars KOTOR 2 - Restoration project trailer (Drool)

[Daniel]

I dont know if this is common knowledge or not, so I thought I would share this with other KOTOR fans.

Anyone who has ever played KOTOR II, was probabally left feeling deflated and unsatisfied at the end of it all, not because it is a bad game....its one of the best I've ever played, but because it left somthing to be desired, the game was an unfinished masterpiece.

Obsidian were presured by Lucas Arts to meet a christmas release date and as a result, they had to wrap things up long before they had finished, and were forced to cut a lot of material. These werent small quests, but major plotlines, big story essential quests, an entirely different and more furfilling ending, new levels and even an entire planet were cut from the finished product in the rush to meet christmas, and this is all painfully evident just by playing through the game, there is so much that doesnt make sense or ends abruptly with no reason.

However an aweful lot of this missing material was completed, but due to time issues it was never implemented into the game, the good news though, is a lot of this material is still on the game disks. Masses of prerecorded dialogues, cut scenes and even new areas, that were not implemented in time.

There is a group of people named Team Gizka (check there site: http://www.team-gizka.org/ ) who have been unearthing this missing content from the disks and working to implement it into the game, restoring KOTOR to what it was originally intended to be. I normally tend to avoid unofficial mods of any kind, but this one has a certain 'Officialness' about it, and after just viewing the trailer I'm amazed at the job they have done and cant wait for its release. Anyway here is the trailer of the progress so far, and a list of cut material being added back to the game. I hope you enjoy it and are as excited as me:

***SPOILERS*** Trailer and cut material

- Telos Military Base sublevel is being added, this area is currently unaccessible in the game.

- HK Droid Factory this is a quest you can currently be trigged by talking with HK, however triggering it is all you can do as they didnt implement the factory. This is a massive quest that was supposed to affect the games entire ending depending on how it was played.

- Malacor the fates of your companions Malacor always left somthing to be desired, after the ship crash, all your party members just seemed to vanish with no explaination, with the exception of the Mira vs Hanhaar battle, and the Goto and remote cutscenes. It was painfully obvious that this was due to more cuts from the game, as most of this made no sense. Luckily a lot of the originally planned material is still on the disks and is being implemented.

This includes a showdown between HK-47, Goto, and an army of HK's. Also a ton of events that happen between your companions depending on your Gender and alignment, E.G a lightsided female with a love interest for Atton will find him being captured and tortured by Darth Scion, and eventually dying to save her, where as a darksided female with a love interest for Atton will get an entirely different storeyline that will finish with a battle between a dark sided Atton and the Discple. Its unbelievable how much material was cut from Malacor as regards to your companions. There is tons more but you get the idea.

- Masses of NPC banters and cutscenes Nothing major but there were tons of small banters that never made it to the game, it will be nice to see these added.

**Possible restored material**

- Master Vash on Korriban In the current game Master Vash is already dead when you finally find her on Korriban, obviously due to time issues, more evidance of a rushed game. Team Gizka have discovered sound files on the disks, of the player speaking to Vash on Korriban about the force bond you share with Kreia. Its obvious that Vash was originally supposed to be alive when you found her, whether Team Gizka plan to act on these sound files though I have no idea, they havent given any indication so far.

- Kreia redeemed, Atris becomes the new Darth Traya From what I've read I'm confused at whether this is being implemented or not. Originally it was intended that depending on your alignment you could redeem Kreia and that this would result in Atris becoming the new Darth Traya and the new last boss (Apparently there were many, many, many different endings originally planned and many ways to go about getting them, its a shame that we only ever got to see two of them, and those were crap). Unfortunately the game was rewritten and changed so much in an attempt to meet the christmas deadline, that implemeting this now, could cause too many problems and discrepencies in the game.

- M4-78 the Droid planet There was originally an entire planet planned for the finished game that didnt make the final game, M4-78 the Droid planet (My guess is this is where the HK factory was originally intended to be found, and why it didnt make the finished game). Whilst they said they wont be adding this to the game, they said the size of a project like that is out of there scope.....at the moment. I'm probabally clutching at straws but it might be a hint that after the current mod is complete, they could begin work on the droid planet.

There are plenty of other features being restored but I have rambled on enough, so here is the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjTw8qexs8c

and if that doesnt whet your appetite here is a link to some of the unearthed voice overs: http://tubertarian.com/kotor2missingcontent.php

[JrKASperov]

I kept updated with the project because I saw that KOTORII had some proper roleplaying potential in it with the skillchecks and such. Also, the story and characters were interesting, but sadly unfinished. A leap above KOTORI with it's bland and cliched characters and story. The first level on the abandonded mine left me wanting more right away.

[Daniel]

Originally posted by JrKASperov: I kept updated with the project because I saw that KOTORII had some proper roleplaying potential in it with the skillchecks and such. Also, the story and characters were interesting, but sadly unfinished. A leap above KOTORI with it's bland and cliched characters and story. The first level on the abandonded mine left me wanting more right away.

Yeah its definately up there as one of my favourite RPG's. KOTOR might have been a finished product, but it wasnt half as engrossing and fufilling as KOTORII....even with all the bugs and missing content. Awesome game but sadly never had the chance to meet its full potential. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Team Gizka do a good job and help the game realise some of that lost potential.

[JrKASperov]

If only for playing through a bug-free game once. I got stuck in a loop at the ice base.

[Daniel]

Originally posted by JrKASperov: If only for playing through a bug-free game once. I got stuck in a loop at the ice base.

Thats gotta suck, did the patch not work?

[pritchke]

Originally posted by Daniel: quote: Originally posted by JrKASperov: If only for playing through a bug-free game once. I got stuck in a loop at the ice base.

Thats gotta suck, did the patch not work? [/QUOTE]This happened to me too, I had to download an unofficial patch to fix it.

http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/cg...;f=22;t=001968

[ 07-19-2007, 10:11 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[JrKASperov]

Originally posted by Daniel: quote: Originally posted by JrKASperov: If only for playing through a bug-free game once. I got stuck in a loop at the ice base.

Thats gotta suck, did the patch not work? [/QUOTE]No I always fully patch any game I have. This bug wasnt fixed by the patch, but I believe the restoration mod fixes every known bug in the game.

[Kyrvias]

Yep. I've been keeping tabs on this since it started. And it's getting along very far when concerning a release dae. Huzzah!

[Balintherlas]

I never played the sequel, but thanks for posting this. Its made me want to go back and play the first one again.

[CerebroDragon]

I'm the same as Balintherlas - I've not played the sequel - but have it awaiting installation. [img]smile.gif[/img] Perhaps I should wait just a bit a longer until this mod gets released and some comments about its quality are made? Friends of mine have complained about its later flaws alot and so I've been forewarned!

For the record, I thought the first Kotor was a decent effort. Not a masterpiece by any means, but it still contained some nice features nonetheless. The droid murder case sequence and the trial, for example, were well written roleplaying scenarios. I also found the motivation to escape from the first planet rather compelling on my first playthrough. It was however, a bit down by overly easy combat and my attempt to play a neutral character seemed to fail as options became so black/white. Can't expect too much grey area from a Star Wars game however!

Still, thanks for the heads up Daniel! I'll wait a bit longer before trying Kotor II now.