do you need to play kotor 1 before 2?

[Samaron]

as title says.

[ThePlagued]

nope. because kotor 2 has absolutely nothing to do with the original.

[Bluharvest]

As said above, it's in the same universe, but it has enough of a time gap that it shouldn't matter.

[Amoose]

The time gap isn't that big, (3 years), however the time doesn't effect it at all, the only thing that will matter is Revan's story in game (If you haven't played kotor1 you will have to make it up)

[DeathClaw]

Not really. It might help to play part 1 because some of the characters from part 1 is in part 2 (briefly for some characters). but not really necessary to enjoy part 2.

[ZETA6]

well kotor 1 2 and the mmo are all at the same time all going forward in that order. you can just read the lore for the first game if you dont want to play it. kotor is one of those games where you can just read the lore never play the game and still know all of what hapend just as well as if you played the game. at least for me that worked.

[I AM BAYTOR]

You should. You don't have to, but you really should.

[scifidude79]

Originally posted by ZETA6:

well kotor 1 2 and the mmo are all at the same time all going forward in that order.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is 300 years later. I wouldn't exactly call that "at the same time."

[Hydrosk]

You don't have to but somethings will make more sense if you have played 1 one first. You could always read up online to catch up on the plot if you don't want to play the first one.

[Nirvash]

Playing the first game helps alot if you enjoy the deeper ends of the stories and continuity. There's even a part in the beggining that lets you establish the context based on the first game. So if you played dark in the first, you can pick certain options that match those choices in the second game, tying their consistency together. Similarly with light/ambiguous alignments.

Other than KNOWING things though, no. You can play this independantly of the first.

[SpasticBiscuit]

i played kotor 2 first on the original xbox and i would say it made me have more appreciation for the series. It made me want to explore the prior events in greater detail so when i played the first I knew what to expect but nothing was really spoiled.

[Terra]

Originally posted by scifidude79:

Originally posted by ZETA6:

well kotor 1 2 and the mmo are all at the same time all going forward in that order.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is 300 years later. I wouldn't exactly call that "at the same time."

TOR is also straight up a bad game whose existence should be scoured from the face of reality.

Like Devil May Cry 2.

Anyway, it certainly HELPS to play the first game, but it's not required. You'll pick most of it up by osmosis - though the conversation with Atton where you pick the ending of the first game will be a bit weird. You also might not appreciate how KotOR2 is basically a deconstruction of the "Star Wars" plot, while KotOR1 was a celebration of it.

If you have time, I'd say play KotOR1, but if you only have time for one, there's no real problem.