In Peragus, none of your choices have any visible effects, be it dialogue or gameplay. There are some choices that have a lot more drastic effects though, like skipping the cantina, or betraying Gadon. The outcomes are pretty binary, and some of the rewards you can't really take advantage of until later (alignment points), but they are there and vary in rewards. You already can deal with Largo and Dia before even leaving the apartments. Don't you dare go in another order, or even skip levels! Technically, the Administration Level is built like hub level that connects all point of interests, but the quest design doesn't take advantage of it. You have the option to verbally refuse going through either of these areas, and it probably would have been more interesting if you could have stood your ground. You do not actually accomplish anything going through the Mining Tunnel and the Dormitories. On the other hand, Peragus is painfully linear and full of padding. This aspect of freedom of choice, the ability to chose which way to go, is very dear to me and keeps repeating playthroughs fresh, even though the only thing I do is to do things in another order. So while the reductive view is that you go from A to B, there are actually a lot of venues between the points that you may want to do, not want to do, or postpone to your liking, search thoroughly or go fast. In the Undercity there is a fast way to Zaalbar that barely takes ten minutes for the returning player (or the lucky), or you can search around and do battle for XP. In the Lower City you can directly go to Gadon for the papers, then proceed or you can do the bounty hunting side quests and/or loot the two optional apartments (I personally get Zaalbar first before I return to the apartments). Likewise, the following areas are built similarly. A returning player can directly go for the uniform first. A first-time direct player may first come across the roadblock that is the elevator to the Lower City, for which you need the uniform from the Northern Apartments to proceed. If you skip the cantina, you will instead see the Sith 'interrogate' a Hidden Bek spy. In fact, the choice which way to go actually has a bigger effect than most people realize: If you go to the cantina first, then you can befriend the plainclothed Sith and be invited to a party. While that doesn't seem to be big on the surface, I appreciate that the game allows me to chose whether to get sidetracked by the Duel Ring or not.

Your real first choice is whether to head towards the cantina or whether to go the right way. Your first barrier is the elevator to the Lower City.

Linerarity is one of the most common criticism, but I think that that is a very reductive observation. And not only whether you want to be a douchebag or a cooldude, although that is also a feature.

Kotor lower city apartments