This really does sound a lot like how my characters both approached HK-47 in-game:
His red-eyed devotion to evil helped frame the wonderful paradox I created. The artist formally known as Revan the Butcher was now helping Twi’lek strangers pass dance auditions. HK-47 was expecting murder, force-choking and vengeance – instead, he got the Light Side Dalai Lama. A man who cheerfully crossed time and space to rehome Gizka. Looking back, it must have been an special flavour of hell for HK-47. He knew Revan when he was the Dark Lord of the Sith. It was like the worst kind of jock reuniting with his childhood bro, only to discover he’d started an organic Kombucha bar called Teasy Lover.
As you may have gathered, I tend to run what Jack in Mass Effect 3 called Queen of the Girl Scouts characters. And I must admit; I enjoyed annoying HK-47 with that. Particularly since I was also aware that I was still killing ridiculous amounts of people anyway, only they were bad so it was all OK. So it should have been OK with HK-47, too. A shame that it wasn’t…
Moe Lane
PS: Yes, of course I played the fan-repaired version of KOTOR II. I have some experience, thanks.
Regrettably, the closest thing available is still Star Wars: The Old Republic, which generally went over kind of ‘meh’–and tended to feel like it was designed to waste my time, rather than to entertain me. (Wasn’t really what I wanted for a KotOR follow-up, personally: I wanted something like a co-op campaign, not an MMO.)
Also: light side for life.
If I were supreme overlord of the console universe in 2005, there not only would have been an KotOR III, the Xbox 360 would not have launched until it was done (and I mean really done, not KotOR II done).
And I always left HK at home when I could, both for practical reasons (it’s always better to have an all-Jedi party if you can, and even if you can’t, HK just isn’t better than the meatbags at anything of consequence) and because I’m also in the camp of playing lead characters in Bioware RPGs like paladins …
The thing is, there is a difference in how ‘evil’ playthroughs go in Knights vs. Mass Effect.
Mass Effect Paragon and Renegade is not really good vs evil, but rather John Wayne vs Clint Eastwood. Hero vs. Anti-hero. Paragon is when you are always doing the right thing, even when no one is watching. Renegade is doing ‘whatever it takes’ to get the job done, if it sidles over the line (the council decision in the first one, which if you take the ultimate Renegade choice is really the only time in the series I think that truly has an evil choice) then so be it.
KoToR is different in that good vs evil is John Wayne vs Snidley Whiplash. Bioware made a conscious choice to not just show evil as ruthless and self-centered, but also to show it’s petty, small, and mean side. IIRC, there is a point at the very beginning where you literally can beat someone up, steal their lunch money, then throw them to the wolves. As a buddy once said “With the Dark side, you are actively looking for little old ladies to push in front of speeders.”
I can always understand people exploring the Renegade option in the Mass Effect series. You are still heroic, just ruthless about carrying out what you see as right- Paragon and Renegade are two sides of the same coin (Superman Vs. Batman. or more properly, Superman vs Rorschach.)
I always have trouble seeing how people can enjoy playing the Dark side in KoTor- as the few times I tried it, I just felt slimy.
The last time I tried to play a character doing deliberately bad things was when I did the Dark Brotherhood questline in Skyrim for the first, and ab-so-f*cking-lutely only, time.
As to Paragon/Renegade… I was so looking forward to renewing my let’s-berate-the-reporter relationship in ME3. Always fun – until she starts breaking down in front of me because clearly her parents are probably dead now or something and DAMMIT, BIOWARE, THIS IS ME HAVING TO SAVE THE COUNCIL IN MASS EFFECT 1 AGAIN EVEN THOUGH I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO WATCHING THEM ALL DIE FOR THE ENTIRE GORAM GAME.
Sorry. Even after all this time, it still kind of rankles.
Yeah, my attempt at a Dark Side play through floundered when not kicking puppies gained you too many light side points and I just ended up sort of gray.
John Wayne vs Snidley Whiplash- exactly!
I played most pure Paragon in Mass Effect you could, but still pushed the council in front of the proverbial bus. Sorry, but they had already shown they wouldn’t defend Humanity. I wasn’t going to risk every sentient species in the galaxy on “they may have learned their lesson”.
IMHO it was the height of folly and recklessness to allow them to continue when the downside of being wrong was the extinction of all known sentience.
I absolutely, totally get that. But… the bastards had gotten on the Destiny Ascension. I heard the tightly controlled damage reports from that asari navigator – the tone you hear from somebody who figures that she’s already dead – and… I just couldn’t do it. Screw the Council; I was there to save the Ascension. That was my first Total Immersion Event in that series.
Best. Game moment. EVER.
That entire sequence is done about as well as could possibly be done in a video game. The music, the tension, the dialogue. Lance Henriksen riding in to save the day. The backdrop with the fight going on in the council chamber.
Perfectly placed and paced gameplay with cinematic moments. See this Naughty Dog? This is where you combine movie making with gameplay!