Mod Review: KOTOR- 'Brotherhood of Shadow: Solomon's Revenge'

 There are worst fates than death.

It's been a very long time since I've sat down and spoken about my thoughts regarding a mod, but it's been so very long since I've played through a huge mod that wasn't another Bethesda title addendum. And that's obviously because Bethesda games naturally lend themselves to mod creation with their accommodating engine and easy-to-learn creation tools. Trying to match the scale of a big Skyrim mod on any other game is like an uphill struggle where the entire climb is a constant overhang- it just ain't happening. But then there are always those who will push themselves through the trials and tribulations, and the more beloved the initial property is, the more likely those people are going to be inspired to come out of the woodworks. And it doesn't get more beloved than Knights of the Old Republic.

I recently did a full playthrough of KOTOR in memorandum of the game that was before it's memory is entirely washed away by the action-adventure remake dangling on the horizon, and seeing as it might be one of the last go-arounds that I give it, I thought it only fair to play that highly rated huge quest mod which people always rave about; 'Brotherhood of Shadow: Solomon's Revenge'. And much of my attraction came from sheer amazement at the fact that yes, this is an entire meaty questline added into the framework of a 2003 aged game that really doesn't feel like it has the sort of versatility to accommodate for that. But coming out the otherside of a ten hour playthrough (yes, the mod took me ten hours- it's that substantial) it's hard to convey just how utterly impressed I was with the scale that Silveredge9 was able to accomplish. The mod took this creator 3 years to complete, by account of their own FAQ, and the results are humbling. On the mod page you can see it advertised as a KOTOR expansion pack, and it certainly has the heft to justify that title.

The entirety of this mod, which is technically two narratively connected mod questlines bought together, is designed to place itself during the final act of the game where all the big secrets have been revealed, so from this point onwards I'm going to proceed with a SPOILER warning so that I don't have to go all 'he who must not be named' going forward. In it's size it essentially acts as a bloat to the later half of the game allowing the player to really ingrain themselves in the identity of Revan as they explore the war he perpetrated and the lives he effected along the way. Even more crucially than that, however, the mod serves as a vehicle to tell the particularly long and draw-out storyline of this mod's OC, a pale Twi'Lek Dark Jedi called 'Shadow'. (Which is also why the mod needs to happen in the last act of the narrative. Shadow takes up Bastilla's spot in the party selection screen.)

The way that the first part of this mod, Brotherhood of Shadow, works is largely by reusing and changing existing maps from the base game and throwing in new textures, new NPCs and a few new models in order to create a new storyline. Conceptually simple but elegantly performed. You'll certainly noticed the reused areas, the appropriated sound tracks and how every NPC seems to shun Galactic basic, (so that the existing in-game alien speaking sounds can be used instead of having to go and find actors) but this mod manages to successfully remix them into the deck of a new ship called the Orion, and explore a intriguing and mysterious enemy who is visually and conceptually arresting, totally not like anything we'd seen before KOTOR and much more fitting in line with the lovingly created Sith Lord weridoes from Knights of the Old Republic 2. Choosing that ponderous slightly-unsettling void theme from the prison box area to be the theme of 'The Brotherhood' was a truly inspired choice too; it makes you feel like you've stepped into an alien world space, totally beholden to their laws and playing to their pace once they seize control of the narrative. In story alone, I think this first part of the mod is fantastic.

But then we get to the gameplay. Now I understand how it is; a mod creator is not a tried and tested game developer who has teams of feedback and second opinions to help them fine-tune the fiddlier bits of design such as balancing. We just have our ideas about what sounds cool and what we felt should have been in the original game. I imagine our Mod author here found KOTOR to be too easy, probably felt that KOTOR II's decidedly tougher edge fit better and wanted to bring that to the first game. But let's just say that in trying to make a 'challenging' experience, this mod crosses over into eye-brow raising difficult curve territory right fast. First off, the mod deprives you of your party. In a party-based RPG- they remove everyone else. Then the mod conjures situations that will make you question if this was even designed with the hardest difficulty (what I play with) in mind. Basic enemies with eerily high stat sheets, boss fights in narrow corridors with minimal prep time. And on the later end there are encounters that I can't even begin to defend and to me can only be the result of someone who lamented the fact that KOTOR is an RPG and not an action game. Putting the player in a circle of sword wielders to be cut to death expecting the PC to be built to the exact specifications you've designed your PC is a frankly amateur design faux-pas. (I'm lucky I invested in a least one CC, because that is absolutely not a given in a free-form RPG like KOTOR.)

Solomon's Revenge marks the second mod in the collection, and this is when the scale explodes into truly mind boggling territory. Practically all the naked limitations that were present in the first mod have been entirely leapfrogged. Not only is there voice acting, pretty good voice acting at that, but there are custom maps! I can't even comprehend how that was achieved- and a lot of them look great, a couple in particular look genuinely incredible! I think it was about now when I started to note the author's writing prowess which, apart from one early typo (wrong version of 'To', I do it myself all the time) was seriously good. It was confident and expressive, and whilst I could tell that KOTOR II's standard was sort of the aim, especially in some of the later 'weighty' dialogues, I think the quality doesn't quite reach that high. But that, in turn, brings it pretty neatly in line with KOTOR 1's standard anyway, so what I'm trying to say is that it fit. The character felt strong, the narrative grabbed my attention, and I pondered the story of the central companion, Shadow, for a while after the credits. If only it all wasn't so self indulgent.

Now again, trust me when I say that I absolutely understand where the 2009 author of this mod is coming from, but I'll bet even they, when looking back at this script, can cringe and concede: "Yeah this goes on about 50 pages too long." The basic idea was to tell this sweeping narrative that, occasionally through your eyes and sometimes through the eyes of a third party, would tell the story of events leading up to the Jedi civil war. Fair enough. But this game lingers to the point of having flashback scenes for every single significant event mentioned in the timeline, all of which are playthrough sections with that signature questionable difficulty balancing and a regular hijacking of your personal agency. In that way, this mod actually reminds me a lot of those beginning 8 hours of Knights of the Old Republic 2, in that everytime you think the game is going to open up and give you your freedom, it seizes the narrative for another highly orchestrated procession of scenes. Not that I expected some Bioware sized second game area out of this mod, just the freedom to play the character I'd built throughout the game would be nice. (The flashbacks regularly switch out the player character, which is very impressive technologically because I didn't even know KOTOR 1's engine could do that, but still rather annoying.) 

Shadow, or the other 5 names you're going to know her by at the end of this thing, is the protagonist of this tale, not really the player. And her story is surprisingly engaging given she's the only member of the main cast without a proper voice actor. (She's voiced totally through pre-packed alien grunts) However, self indulgence raises it's head as nearing the end of this story her scenes of personal revelation, specifically through flashbacks and back-and-forths with Solomon, drag heavily. Conversation and argument points are stated and restated until they're bleeding out of your ears, battles inexplicably reset themselves several times over, and the final monologue stabs at your patience as an ostensibly dying man embarks on a mile-long monologue to make Shakespeare blush. For the final hour and a half of play I was begging for it just to end, as the mod had entirely outstayed it's welcome. Yes, that might have coincided with the absolute flurry of enemy-spam boss fights hosted one-after-the-other with inane mechanics even worse than KOTOR's vanilla Malak fight, which was such a shame after the mod featured one truly fantastic finale-feeling boss fight at the head of this unsolicited boss royale.

All that being said, though the presentation was flawed and the plot far too lingering, what was actually accomplished was incredible. We get to see the Taris promenade turned into a battle zone, (with rather questionable tactical cohesion considering both armies are literally standing in front of the other and blasting) we get to face Mandalore in a one-on-one duel set in a strikingly epic bridge that looked to be a custom map, (Loved the design of Mandalore) and we even get a glimpse of the ancient conquests of the original Infinite Empire. All that is rather haphazardly wrapped around a decently written overarching plot with characters that I'd personally consider to be memorable. So would I recommend this Mod for a KOTOR lover? Absolutely, I think it's a total must play! But would I say the same for a newcomer trying out KOTOR for the first time? No, it's too unevenly constructed, and unforgivingly balanced for that. And would I play it again? Maybe... it depends what I would do with the mod on a second playthrough. I know there are two paths, good and evil, and I am curious as to what would change for the second path, but I also don't know if the frustration and bloat is worth enduring again just to see the other side of the narrative. Still, a very impressive mod overall and certainly worthy of it's legendary title in the Star Wars KOTOR modding community. Let's call it a B+ in my arbitrary, largely meaningless, rating system. Seems apt. Oh, and the 'plus' is because the mod does what Bioware failed to do and gives the player the chance to earn and wear Revan's robes. At least the author knew what the fans wanted there.