Where LucasArts Went Wrong

LucasArts was a well-respected video game publisher for nearly three decades, but clearly not all of their decisions were sound. And to help resuscitate our memories about some of their biggest follies is this editorial on Gamemoir called “Where LucasArts Went Wrong”. A snippet from one of the areas we care about:

As it happened, The Force Unleashed 2 was nowhere near as good as the prior entry, critically panned across many forums and sites, with many follow-up rumors that the 3rd entry had been cancelled or put on hiatus. Near enough exactly the same thing happened with the LucasArts/Obsidian sequel to the original KOTOR, KOTOR 2: The Sith Lords. A massive amount of content was cut out of the game so Obsidian could reach LucasArts’ holiday 2004 deadline.

Upon release, many plot points were left unresolved, an entire planet was cut out, and the ending was more of a mess than the original Mass Effect 3. Having worked and been involved with modding KOTOR 2 on projects such as TSLRCM and M4-78, I know for a fact the climax of the game can never be fully realised as the game shipped before any coding or scripts or even context could be implemented.

Obsidian wished to release a following expansion pack adding in the cut content but were refused by LucasArts.

KOTOR 2 received mixed reviews, with many critiquing the messy story, and like The Force Unleashed 2, the series ended on a cliffhanger with the player not knowing what actually happened to their allies, or to be honest, what the hell had just happened!

The inability to create a coherent and well thought out story for sequels, specifically RPG sequels, will always lead to negative reactions and reviews. LucasArts at the very least, should have allowed Obsidian to produce an expansion pack.