According to a recent article in Retro Gamer, the Baldur's Gate team found their portrayal of evil hampered by TSR's Code of Ethics. I don't know to what extent PS:T was similarly confined.

Well I would consider the writing in KotOR 2 great. Only points where it is a bit bad is where it is just clear that it was unfinished and I liked the writing in NWN 2 overall. It just was really cliched but I liked most of the characters.

Then there are the games which are not really story focused like IWD or IWD2 which have just a solid story that gives reason enough to kill stuff and doesn't get in the way.

And Well, Fallout 1 and 2 where also great you just had to realize that the game isn't meant all that serious.

Yes I lump Interplay, Black Isle and Obsidian together because most of the team went to Obsidian later at least the ones responsible for the writing (the ones responsible for project management apparently not).

YMMV I guess.
Personally I think the NWN 2 OC has one of the worst-written story in RPGs (note that I'm not counting excuse plots in that, but only stories that actually try to matter).
This was mostly due to the huge amount of boring filler content (with some of the worst excuses for it too; seriously, a whole part of a city sealed off because of one murder!? And ofc you can't just climb over the gate), the temporary companion that screamed "plot device here", I found most of the companions either boring or annoying, etc...

I didn't like KotOR 2 much either, even discounting all the bugs and unfinished content, mostly because I really hated the fact that you have a "wise mentor" companion forced on you who constantly urges to seek balance in your actions and be subtle, yet you don't actually get any chance to be a subtle manipulator in-game, and you're actually punished gameplay-wise for being neutral in alignment.

edit: Oh, and another reason I didn't really like KotOR 2 is that it breaks roleplay since there is some information critical to the plot that your PC knows perfectly well, but the player is never told until late in the game.
This makes KotOR 2 closer to a jRPG in that respect, the Exile can never be "your" character, s/he has far too much background for that.

Well the filler content was my main problem with the OC but its not as bad as the first 5 chapters of BG (which have an ok main story but every side stuff which makes up 2/3 of the game and it was not just one person murdered, it was one of the most important rich people murdered. In a city organized like NW this is entirely possible.

And Kreia doesn't want you to be Neutral. She actually wants you to do evil stuff but not the "I kill everyone because I'm evil think. She wants you to what benefits you. In fact she isn't actually neutral she is evil but masks it (a thing that should be very possible for a powerfull Sith Lord).

And what does your MC know that you don't know? I think, that when the MCs force was sealed away it also wiped the memories of the process.

Your character knows a bunch of stuff about the war and about his trial and about the Jedi masters that doesn't turn up until the end, because you as a player only learn it when your character discusses it with someone else. It's especially noticeable with Atris in the beginning. The first time you meet her the player doesn't know anything about her except what can be gleaned from the available responses, and you don't get a full picture until much later, even though it's all stuff your character knows. You don't get much real backstory for your character until after you've left Telos entirely, when you see the recording of your trial and can discuss it with your crew.

I like KotoR2 a lot, but I definitely agree that the storytelling is kinda... awkward.

Filler content is not the same as optional content.
Filler is something you have to do to progress in the game, but that does not advance the plot. The beginning of NWN 2 is so full of filler it's ridiculous, and it is boring "go slaughter those undead/lizardmen/orcs/whatever who block your progress towards your goal" to boot.
By contrast, BG is full of side quests that you don't have to do. If you find them boring, you can just ignore them.

Also, BG is an open-world exploration/fighting-focused game, while NWN 2 is a mostly linear story-focused game. Therefore, having a boring story is much worse for NWN 2 than for BG.


She may not want you to be neutral, but often enough she complains both when you choose the "evil" option and when you choose the "good" one. Mostly because as I said earlier in the thread the "evil" option often comes down to you being a homicidal psycho, or a rude thug.
I don't know about you, but while I'm fine about a companion having preferences as to how to solve quests, and making their opinions known, I find it really annoying when a companion complains about both options I can choose and advocates one I can't choose.

If they wanted to make a show-stealing NPC who likes manipulation and berates you for not doing it, then they should have implemented some ways to actually manipulate people, otherwise the NPC just comes across as a nagging bastard.


As for what the Exile knows that you don't, plenty. Like what actually happened at Malachor V (which is built up a lot through the game, and only revealed to the player towards the end, yet the Exile knows perfectly well about it), or why s/he was exiled (revealed a few hours into the game, while the Exile knows from the start), and s/he should have a pretty good guess just why s/he lost that connection to the Force (again a huge plot point).

It's also outright stated early on that s/he is NOT an amnesiac, although s/he doesn't exactly remember very recent events due to being in a coma, s/he just doesn't want to talk about his/her past.

Well its quite a while since I played it last maybe my opinion would be less positive today but in general I have not that much of a problem with such a thing because I rarely have problems with pre defined characters and see the player and the character you play often as a seperate thing.