Obsidian's KOTOR 3 would have featured showdown with ancient Sith

Obsidian's Chris Avellone details the now defunct pre-production plans for Knights of the Old Republic 3, and how it was dropping foreshadowing hints in KOTOR 2.

9

Obsidian Entertainment never got the chance to create a sequel to Knights of the Old Republic 2, but of course the studio had a vision for where they wanted the series to go.

"When we were plotting out the idea of doing the third game we just thought it would be cool if we were foreshadowing what Revan was really doing in Knights of the Old Republic 1, and what he was preparing for in Knights of the Old Republic 2, and then bring it to a close, the end of the trilogy, but we didn't get a chance to do that," Obsidian's Chris Avellone said.

Avellone told Eurogamer that he questions whether it was smart to move away from Revan in KOTOR 2, but it was part of a larger plan. "I always liked the idea that Revan, as smart and powerful as your player-character was, was actually even more of a brilliant strategist than became apparent in the first game."

He said that Obsidian intentionally dropped clues in the second game, raising questions about Revan's motivations and what he or she saw that the other characters (and the player) didn't. The third game would have then put you in the role of "the Exile," and had you track what Revan was up to. Eventually, it would lead to the reveal of ancient Sith Lords out on the edges of the galaxy, biding their time.

"If they could shape entire planets or galaxies or nebulas, and they had all these slave races at their disposal, how cool would that be, to go into the heart of darkness and you're the lone Jedi and/or new version of the Sith confronting these guys? What would that be like? I thought that would be pretty epic," he said.

Avellone also said KOTOR 3 would have had you back in the Ebon Hawk, and surrounded by some familiar characters like T3-M4 and HK-47. The studio even had plans to dismantle HK-47 and have him ride on your back, a la Chewie and C-3PO in The Empire Strikes Back, leading to a sequence in which the droid would fire at enemies behind you.

"Ultimately," he said, "it felt like we were pitching and pitching and it just wasn't going anywhere, and at some point people just drew a line and said 'it's just not going to happen', which made us kind of sad, but, OK, if that's the business, that's the business."

Editor-In-Chief
From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 5, 2013 9:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Obsidian's KOTOR 3 would have featured showdown with ancient Sith.

    Obsidian's Chris Avellone details the now defunct pre-production plans for Knights of the Old Republic 3, and how it was dropping foreshadowing hints in KOTOR 2.

    • reply
      August 5, 2013 9:07 AM

      Honestly, that sounds like it would have been kind of terrible. Plus KotoR 2 was so buggy and bad I have little faith Obsidian could have delivered a better product.

      • reply
        August 5, 2013 9:11 AM

        Obsidian always releases buggy games that get community patches and end up being gems. They're just about the best story writers in the business imo, but they get muscled around by their publishers and forced to release before they're really ready.

        See: Community patched versions of KOTOR2, Fallout: NV, and Alpha Protocol.

      • reply
        August 5, 2013 10:22 AM

        KOTOR 2 was buggy because it was shoved out the door before it was done. That's why there's tons of cut content.

        • reply
          August 5, 2013 10:40 AM

          Which is fair enough, but the content delivered wasn't all that great either. The ideas presented above sounded like a way better set up for a game than 2 was.

          • reply
            August 5, 2013 11:19 AM

            im going to agree. KOTOR2 just wasnt as interesting or well put together as KOTOR1. i found it super uninspiring and bland.

            • reply
              August 5, 2013 5:06 PM

              well when you have the pressure of FINISH THIS SHIT UP NOW, we got an MMO to launch - it's not going to go well. they totally lost passion on it, it shows. very frustrating. totally shit the bed to try and hit the MMO "WoW killer" mentality - and then royally fuck that up, adding insult to injury.

              KOTOR 2 I thought has a great framework and the combat and missions were way better.

              instead of the usual scope creep, they put the opposite onto KOTOR 2. scope cutting. hahaha.

        • reply
          August 5, 2013 11:48 AM

          Yeah, a 13 month development is not exactly a lot of time.

    • reply
      August 5, 2013 9:08 AM

      And then we get a disappointed filled MMO with a laughable ftp revenue model. *sigh*

      • reply
        August 5, 2013 9:27 AM

        but I WANTED to pay $5 for some hotbars!

    • reply
      August 5, 2013 9:46 AM

      It's obvious BioWare and LucasArts were already in the early stages of making SWTOR when Obsidian was pitching KOTOR 3. SWTOR isn't necessarily bad, but compared to what Obsidian would have done with KOTOR 3, it's certainly a waste of 200 million US$. Just imagine what Obsidian could have achieved with only a fraction of that astronomical sum. Some of the key developers at Obsidian were the same team at BlackIsle that created arguably one of the best games in existence - Fallout 2. I have to be honest, and I'm sure a lot of Fallout 2 fans agree with me as well, Fallout 3 simply lacks that vibe and magical charm in the original Fallout series. Yet KOTOR 2, on the other hand, clearly had a much more captivating story than KOTOR did, even though the first installment was already excellent. It's just a pity that the people at LucasArts (now defunct, says something about their management and choice of developers) didn't look at raw talent and instead went for company scale. BioWare is good, but its heads aren't really people who have dealt with games since the early 1990s. They don't realise that sometimes the smaller and the more subtle things are what matters the most in games. BlackIsle, Blizzard and Obsidian knows that.

    • reply
      August 5, 2013 9:55 AM

      Everything from the story to the execution of Kotor 2 was terrible;e. The last thing I'd want to see is them handle a Kotor 3.

    • reply
      August 5, 2013 10:00 AM

      I would have loved this sequel. Sounds like they could still fit it in before the MMO.

    • reply
      August 5, 2013 10:17 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      August 5, 2013 10:25 AM

      That sounds far far better than what we got. No KOTOR 3 is one of the worst gaming tragedies.

    • reply
      August 5, 2013 4:49 PM

      I wish they could have made a KOTOR3. Yeah, KOTOR2 was a mess but I found it to be a much more interesting game. They did things with the Star Wars universe that I haven't seen anything due prior to or hence and I also liked the game mechanics more. The story and characters as well. KOTOR1 wasn't bad by any stretch imo and certainly had far more bug testing and QA put into it, but it feels kinda of generic and bland compared to KOTOR2 to me. Especially in hindsight when it feels like BioWare keeps making a variation on the story and those characters over and over and over again.

    • reply
      August 5, 2013 5:01 PM

      SIGH why do they even bring this up unless it's got a fuckin kickstarter attached to it !?@#!?@

    • reply
      August 5, 2013 5:10 PM

      "Hey guys, we're going to dangle this carrot in front of your dead horse so you can cry yourself to sleep tonight!"

      • reply
        August 5, 2013 5:22 PM

        exactly. KOTOR 1 when we were rooting through korriban and the old tombs, everyone was like O_O .
        now they are just shitting on us.

        I still can't believe they didn't even release one game on the current consoles. it was the xbox original only. then abandoned for SWTOR. wowwowowow.

Hello, Meet Lola