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New KOTOR2 Trailer Released
xCepheus writes "IGN has posted a new trailer for Xbox/PC RPG Knights Of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. An interesting tidbit from the trailer notes that, as your character sways towards the light or dark side, so do the rest of the characters in your party." The original was my fav non Final Fantasy RPG in recent memory, so I can't wait for this one.
I actually found light side to be sickenly over powered if you went the guardian rout. My guardian smuggler could have easily beaten the entire game by himself without breaking a sweat, but I know that my dark side guy was in pain for that last level. Few things are more badass then a speed/forcejump with full buffs. Most things died first round.
As to your point about dark/light, I agree completely. Often times in KOTOR I would have to make a decision. Then sensible thing to do is the light side option. The stupid things to do is the dark side option. The light side offers the greatest reward, while the dark side offers and equal or lesser reward. I found it more then a little annoying that I would have to be a jack ass to be on the dark side.
So, let's consider one of the earliest situations you run into in KOTOR. You find an alien getting kicked around by some Sith troopers. The Sith troopers see you, attack, and of course die. You talk to the alien. You can either rough up and kill the alien for no reason, mug him, or be nice. The two jack ass things to do would be to kill or mug the guy. Killing or mugging the guy nets you a few credits and is all around a worthless action. Why draw attention to yourself by killing or mugging a some poor bastard? That isn't the dark side thing to do; that is the stupid thing to do. The smart thing to do is to be friendly to the guy you saved and pump him for information that might help you in your mission to get off the alien world you know nothing about. What I would propose is that you keep the option to kill/mug him for the truly insane people out there, but also include the ability be friendly in a 'dark side' way. Namely, be friendly not because you are a nice guy, but because you know he is in debt to you and you can probably get some quality information if you just crack a little smile for thirty seconds.
This same sort of dilemma presents itself all over the game. The sensible thing to do is the light side option, while the stupid thing to do is the dark side option. The game ignores that you might do something 'nice' for purely selfish reasons.
Another thing that would improve dark/light decisions would be to make it so that the light side choice doesn't always resolve itself nicely, and have the dark side choice some times resolve better then the light side choice. So, a hypothetical example might be that you are tasked with stopping a terrorist from blowing up the shipping yard (for whatever reasons). The dark side option is to simply confront the terrorist before he attacks and kill him, thus completing the mission and saving the shipping yard. The light side option is to talk the terrorist out of it, believe that you have succeeded, but have the shipyard blow up anyways because the terrorist was just bluffing because he knew he couldn't beat you in a fight. The dark side decision in this case is the one that has the fewest consequences, while the light side decision makes you feel like a jack ass for letting the guy go. In this case the dark side decision saves the ship yard, gets revered by whoever sent them to do the task, and saves a pile of lives. The light side decision results in the deaths of innocent lives, no reward, and some people pissed that you didn't stop the terrorist when you had the chance.
Basically, I am saying that you should be able to play the dark side without playing like you are some stupid and crazy maniac who would rather burn an orphanage and rape the charred bodies rather then complete a vital mission.