Brotherhood of Shadow

Ah, Knights of the Old Republic (Or KOTOR, for short). I don't think this is a game that needs any introduction. This is most likely the widest known Star Wars game to ever exist, and is considered by many to be one of Bioware's finest games. So it's only fitting that with such a well known game, we review one of its most well known mods...

Author: Silveredge9

Brotherhood of Shadow: Solomon's Revenge (I had to bend over backward to find a working link strangely enough, it was always readily available on FileFront in the past).

This mod is, in reality, two mods released together. And, since each is so big, I'll be reviewing them separately. This is for the first one, Brotherhood of Shadow (Which must be completed in order to move on to the next one) and its sequel, Solomon's Revenge which will be the subject of my next review. The mods become playable only after a certain part of the story is completed (Which I won't spoil in the event of anyone reading this review never having played KOTOR. Earlier this year I introduced two friends to it who had never played it before and they were blown away). This part is, oh, a bit over halfway through the game and you end up having an open slot in your party that, normally, would go unfilled for the rest of the game.

Instead with this mod, after having a spot open up, the player is tasked to go to Korriban to find a smuggler with a job for them. After a bit of sidequesting that takes you to Tatooine you have the option of throwing in with the crew of the ship called Orion to help keep them safe during a long journey through pirate controlled space. Accepting this offer, though, precludes you from continuing on with the main quest until you complete it so beware. And half of the mod can take several hours. It may seem even longer though, since there are no new gameplay mechanics to pique interest (In fact, it could be said that the gameplay is simplified since, for whatever reason, you leave all your party members on the Ebon Hawk and go through this completely alone, robbing you of party play). So this mod intends to stand tall on its story.

Anywho, you're whisked off to the run down vessel and spend a few minutes meeting with the crew and getting to know them before the ronto scrag (That's Star Wars speak for "Horse shit") hits the fan. My personal favorite is the put-upon and overworked Duros mechanic whose favorite hobbies are drinking and cursing.

But, as is inevitable, trouble finds you and things go south pretty quickly. The antagonist, the head of this mysterious "Brotherhood of Shadow" has seemingly appeared from nowhere and overtaken the ship with his mysterious cadre of Lightsaber wielding goons, and there's something not quite right about him. It's up to you, being the protagonist, to put a stop to whatever he's planning and save the ship.

I'll end the plot summary there for those interested in discovering it for themselves and just give my thoughts on it. Once it gets going it gets interesting, and while it carries on for just a little longer than it should it's overall satisfying. Plus you get some pretty swank loot from the whole ordeal, which we all know is the true goal of any half-decent RPG.

Now for the companion, the reason this mod was made. She's a Twi'lek Dark Jedi named Shadow, and former servant of Revan, the Sith Lord who kicked off the current war raging through the galaxy. Since his betrayal by his apprentice Malak she's been wandering the stars in search of a purpose since she no longer has a master to serve and decides to throw her lot in with you after the crew of the Orion gets their life-force juiced out of them by the Brotherhood.

She has quite a lot to say about her former master and the previous war fought against the Mandalorians, giving insight on how she, Revan, and Malak all fell to the Dark Side at the end of that conflict. For people who enjoy the lore of the Old Republic there is plenty to dig through, from her accounts of being a Jedi, fighting the Mandalorians, and serving Revan before Malak bumped his master off. And, like all Twi'leks, she dresses like a stripper. Hell of a culture, am I right?

Here's the downside: She has no voice actor.

Now let me specify. She's voiced, alright, and after a while you'll be wishing she was silent. But here's the thing: The mod author didn't bring in someone to actually voice her lines, and instead recycled the alien language that most of the Twi'leks in the main game speak. And Shadow has a lot to say. So you'll be hearing those same three or four lines of alien dialogue lopped continuously, over and over and over again until Jabba the friggin' Hutt dies of starvation. And then still more after that.

In fact, every character in this mod suffers the same problem. That looped alien dialogue can only be heard so many times before you'll beg for the option to stick a Lightsaber through your eardrums to make it finally stop, and in this mod that is all you will be listening to. It's maddening. Even the human character speaks it, making him the only human in the entire game not to speak in English, and it is jarring. Perhaps it would be easier to swallow if Shadow herself had actual voicing instead of this, since she's more or else the main character of this mod and especially the next, but by the Force this alien speech is enough to drive even the most patient of players to the Dark Side.

That's the only real downside of Shadow and the mod, but it's kind of a big one. And it's a problem that persists through the sequel as well, though thankfully to a lesser extent. My recommendation? If you go for this mod for the loot/lore/companion, just mute the dialogue and read the subtitles. Doing away with that damnable alien speech goes a long way to making the mod much easier to play.