A Long Long Time Ago, A Game Just Like This Has Been Made
Written: Nov 23 '05 (Updated Nov 23 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: This was definitely intended for Star Wars fans. The ability to make moral choices.
Cons: Buggy, Worlds (which seem huge) are not as massive as expected. Everything seems like Deja-Vu.
The Bottom Line: Although I don't think this game deserves the full 5-Star rating, I am being nice. The game is a marvel to go through, reminiscing about Star Wars Movies of old.
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| emmit_brown's Full Review: Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic for Xbox |
Star Wars, a name that is on top of the mark with gimmicks; from toys to video games, from clothes to even toothpaste, has once again made it’s way to the Xbox with the help of, once again, LucasArts in the attempt of making the perfect game. Some of their attempts were great (Rogue Leader, Jedi Outcast, and Battlefront), while others were just plain horrible (Star Wars: Obi Wan, Episode I Racer, Bounty Hunter, all SNES renditions of Star Wars, Star Wars Arcade, All PSX Versions of Star Wars, the list goes on). I guess you can say, that as many outstanding and noteworthy games LucasArts made, there was always three duds tagging along behind. But that's a good thing, I mean at least they are not nearly as terrible as IJN (If anyone remembers that company).
Anyways, getting back to the subject, LucasArts probably felt they had to redeem themselves from having made a few terrible games, and probably decided that they should put their "revolutionary" caps on and brainstorm for a game that will be remembered in a good way, instead of a horrible way. So, they invented a game in a territory they had not been familiar with before - the RPG genre. They, with the help of BioWare, have made a game that has made it stand as one of the best RPGs I have ever played. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has not only redefined the way we play RPGs, but have actually studied the Star Wars history to make a game that fits perfectly in the Star Wars timeline. Making it a game that both RPG and Star Wars fans will enjoy.
Gameplay: 5 (out of 5)
So you are this guy (without a specific name) who meets up with a soldier named Carth aboard a ship that is ambushed by soldiers working for a Sith Lord who is part of a planet named Taris. After escaping the ship, you are sent to search the undergrounds of Taris; without knowing that you will be taking your first step into an epic journey that will bring you through 7 planets and 3 space stations.
I can say that the game is huge. It is not so far as huge in how large the worlds are, which take maybe 10-30 minutes to brisk through easily. But, everything you have to do, between quests, interrogations, and stopping wars is enough to lengthen the game from what would have been maybe 10 hours to beat to 40-50 hours. What the possibilities in the game is huge, I will not lie about that. You are at first given the option to be human or alien, woman or man; and from there, you choose you own path to follow. You could be either Jedi or Sith through gaining Light or Dark powers, through moral choices, or through deciding which side you want to follow. There is much dialogue in this game. Nearly a book and a half worth of dialogue was written (and voice recorded) to add the seriousness of the threat the Sith have over the Ragnor System.
The battle system is something new; which was derived from Balder's Gate, ShadowRun, and Planescape: Torment - yet it is enhanced in so many ways. In Knights of the Old Republic, whoever you choose to fight with (which is in a group of three) can have the choice of live action or pausing to end a round. With the "R" and "L" triggers, you can choose between which enemy you want to attack and thereby (with the "x" button) you can assign up to a series of five moves at once (between attacking, healing, defending, using items, and blocking). I found the way the commands were made to be very intriguing. Yet, the only problem I had was when I switched between the characters of my team, my previous characters commands were erased and the person planned his actions through automatic AI. I mean, it is neat that the other characters are AI, but I wish BioWare would have made it so that the player can assign each character with commands. But, oh well, they did all they could do and I still like Knights of the Old Republic a lot.
The Leveling-Up system is also interesting. They took what was done in Diablo 2 and Buldar's Gate and expanded it. The Level up system is split into five categories: Attributes (a system in which you can raise the Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Constitution of your character), Skills (a list of talents that you choose for your character to master in; whether it be computer skills, stealth, persuasion, etc.), and Feats (the combat abilities that range from how powerful your person can be in force powers, light sabers, and blasters). The Level-Up system is not nearly as deep as Diablo II (where you could level up to 99) and not nearly spread out as neatly defined as Diablo 2 (which each character could level up to their own type of abilities), but it is still deep and using Dark Force powers is still a great blast of fun!
In the game, you will get up to a 10 man team (9 people who come later that ranges from an X-Sith agent, to a Robot, to even a Wookie). The process of leveling up is also neat, which allows each character to gain the same experience points (even if they are not used in battle) allowing them to all level up at once; which saves a lot of time leveling up each character. It makes the game less tedious and that much more of an enjoyable experience.
And, the most noteworthy part of the game, is going to the familiar planets illustrated in the Star Wars Trilogy. Most planets in the movies is in this game (along with a few, newer, worlds). Within the planets are infestations of famous aliens and enemies that have been snatched up from the movies and added to the game, along with newer types of species. The enemy list, in comparison with the Trilogy, is so precise that I have got to say, "Whatever you have seen in Return from the Jedi, Empire Strikes Back, or A New Hope, that you wanted to kill or interact with, now is your chance to." Knights of the Old Republic is like a tourist vacation through the history of Star Wars before Vader came to town.
Bioware also included a card game called Pazaak; which you could gamble against others to gain money. I didn't find the game that engrossing. The style of play, see who reaches to twenty-one without going over (blackjack) but you can use special cards to raise and lower the numbers. I found gaining money from the card game just as monotonous as the card game itself.
The major problem I had with the game is that it copied from other ideas that were previously used. For instance, it took the ability of planetary travel (which originated in Star Flight and Phantasy Star IV: End of the Millenium), much of the underground environments and battles are reminiscent to that of ShadowRun, the Pazaak card games were taken from Final Fantasy VIII and were replaced with numbers (I still prefer what FFVIII had done), and level up system seemed too familiar. But, they still managed to make a comfortable game. A game, which although had it's own amount of derivatives, that was an experience unlike most other RPGs I have played.
Graphics: 4.25 (out of 5)
I found the graphics to be very well rendered and the colorization and lighting effects are superb. Yet, the NPC models have more clones of themselves than all the clones in the Star Wars Trilogy movies. I am serious. For every skin they made of a human, or alien, citizen (which I can say was around 20 types of skins), Bioware duplicated the skins by the thousands in the attempt of making a living universe. But what they did was made a colonization of clones, which (at many times) one will notice an NPC talk to a NPC that looks exactly the same.
But, the rest of the game is gorgeous, with the swaying of grass, the flowing of waterfalls, and the explosions of planets are rendered in high quality cinematics and imagery that it all seemed almost lifelike (well, enhanced X-Boxlike). Yet, as great as the planets look, there are a few of the maps made that looks exactly like the worlds found on Phantasy Online Episodes I and II. I don't know if it is a coincidence or not, but even the underwater planet of () looks exactly like the water shrine in PSO II.Another gripe I have is that there is some slowdown here and there, a few jaggies, and some glitches. But as meaningless my gripes are, everything looks superb.
Sound: 5 (out of 5)
The sound is the main thing I really liked about this game. Most NPC models are voice animated (some of which will have conversations with you for nearly the span of 10 minutes). The sounds of battle is amazing; where the clashing of light-sabers, blasting of blasters, groans of injured teammates, and whines of fallen enemies all blend together in such an amazing sequence that it's sound quality is just as good and chaotic as is found in Star Wars movies. The music, which at times is low-orchestrated catapults into a grandeur orchestra as you engage battles. All the familiar songs and sounds from Star Wars movies are here, and then some. There is nothing wrong with the sound department here.
Replay: 4 (out of 5)
By the time you've reached the end of the game and have put in between 40-70 hours the first time through, the game is worth playing through a second time. Maybe there were vital choices you made in the first game that you want to see the outcome in the second go through, or you would want to see what it would have been like if you had chosen the other path (of either Jedi or Sith), or maybe you would like to go through the planets in a different order. The choices are there for you to partake. And beyond that is content you could download from online sources by the use of X-Box Live. Yes, there is replay value here. But, after the alternate path is chosen the second go round; I didn't find it worth going through the game a third time. But hey, 80-150 (much-less 40-70) hours is not that bad a length of an RPG. As I said, the worlds aren't huge, but what you can do in the game is astronomical and puts justice toward the Trilogies of Star Wars.
Overall: 4.5 (out of 5)
Although Knights of the Old Republic has it's bad issues, it has tens more times that are excellent. I would definitely recommend this game to Star Wars fans and would more so stress RPG enthusiasts to give this game a try. You won't regret it. Bioware, although you accidentally stumbled here and there, you've made an outstanding game once again and gave the industry of LucasArts a new hope in gaining a second chance. LucasArts, congratulations, you've once again made a masterpiece of a Star Wars game. Let's just hope there are more like this one is store for us players later on in the future.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
emmit_brown
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Member: Craig
Location: Louisiana
Reviews written: 68
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Animal Crossing: Wild World - Name: Link, Town: Hyrule, Friend Code: 5197-5388-5959. MarioKartDS code: 094549-160211
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