Knights of the Old Republic 2 with The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod

I spend the last few weeks going through my second playthrough of KOTOR2, this time with The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod (TSLRCM). As background, Knights of the Old Republic was developed by Bioware in 2003. Production of the sequel using the same game engine was contracted to Obsidian and released on a compressed schedule in 2004. TSLRCM developed over time using hidden game assets that had never been implemented.

What does TSLRCM add to the experience? Extended dialogues in the last act bring companions back into focus, which is important given the big reveal that drives it. You get harassed by assassination droids practically everywhere. Nar Shadda, already the biggest mission in the game, gets even bigger. A number of cut-scenes among secondary characters helps bring them to life. Multiple baffling ambiguities are made less ambiguous. The narrative is still loaded with plot holes.

Is there a bad side? KOTOR2 breaks protagonist perspective at multiple points to play scenes as one of your companions: Atton, Mira, or T3. If you’ve not been paying much attention to stocking and upgrading spare equipment, some of these encounters can be excessively difficult. TSLRCM throws in three new Atton-led encounters, one against an endgame boss. The new Atton encounters felt a bit unbalanced if you didn’t luck out in making Atton a Jedi and give him your best lightsabers. Other added encounters were trivially easy.

And having half of the female cast develop a crush on a male protagonist struck me as a bit over the top. I don’t know if that’s the mod or not, but Atris’s unrequited love for The Exile shifted from subtext to text to text between playthroughs.

On the plus side, the Steam workshop made this an easy install.