Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Rating:
Summary: As good as Star Control and System Shock!
Review: Knights Of The Old Republic is a GREAT adventure game. It's reminiscent of other great video games like System Shock 2, The Longest Journey, and Star Control 2 & 3. The characters are interesting, the combat is interesting, the quests are fun... it's just a great game. It's a good value, too: I just finished it, and it counted my time as something like 60 hours.

Rating:
Summary: A game to bolster your expectations of console ports.
Review: Well, there goes fifty hours of my life. No, wait... Close to one hundred. I had to see the dark and light side endings, with completely different characters.

Oh, well. It just went by so quickly.

The nitty-gritty: Knights of the Old Republic is a role-playing game with a system based on a variant on the 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons Rules. This means it's mechanics will probably be easy to pick up for anyone who has ever played ANY role-playing game, paper- or computer- based, as all owe some debt to D&D. Its divergences are in its Star Wars setting: instead of fighters with swords and wizards with spells, expect Soldiers with blasters and Jedi with Force Powers; instead of dwarves and elves, your party will feature a Wookie, droids, and a Twi'lek. It has a pause-able real-time combat system, meaning that the player can pause at any time to issue orders to his or her party members. When the game is unpaused, the characters will proceed to launch attacks, use powers, etc. at a rate of about one set of maneuvers every three seconds. This makes the fighting flow fairly well, and it's pretty, if not particularly believable. The graphics have an attractive, rather stylized look to them, somewhat comic-bookish, though I doubt that was the particular intended effect. This is just a way of saying that while the game looks good, don't expect photo-realism: it isn't there.

So, why the high rating?

Largely, the story. I wouldn't call myself a hard-core Star Wars fan; I've groused about the recent films with the majority, and didn't realize that the Mandalorians were same race as the original trilogy's infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett until I read it somewhere much later. That said, there is an incredible amount of dialogue here, and it's a credit to both the writers and the voice-actors that I wanted to hear it all through, at least the first time (reading the subtitles and skipping ahead is an option, so less patient players need not worry.) There are moments of melodrama, moments of humor, and plenty of time to get a sense of who the characters are and why we should care about their ultimate fate. This sense is not absent for the player's own character: though something of a cypher in the beginning, the player has a chance to get a strong sense of who this person is, and who he or she should come to be. You will probably revel in your character's power (I know I did), but it isn't just the assemblage of stats and skills, the endless drudge of leveling up so common to other RPGs; it's the sense of your increasing ability to make a real difference in what's happening on the various planets and cultures you visit.

The most significant downsides: The combat is frequent; if you don't learn to enjoy it, you will find the game tedious. Though the battles are largely strategic, there are purely arcade sequences which are, to some extent, unavoidable. I found them a pleasant diversion and a fine addition to the multitude of different tasks your character undertakes, but my wife found the turret-gunner segments overly frustrating. Fair warning. Plotwise, the game at several occasions resorts to what is sometimes called "magician's force": there appears to be a choice, but there is none. Specifically, there are portions of the game where a villain uses force powers or trickery to paralyze you or members of the party: though in combat all such events result in some "behind-the-scenes" dice-rolling to see if a character escapes or resists their fate, these instances are automatic and unescapable, usually to allow someone to be captured to advance the plot, or allow a villain to escape, or force the player to face a dramatic confrontation on their own. I found this a little frustrating on occasion. ("Oh C'mon. I have the "force resist" power active, and I'm kicking his butt. Just let me have at it!") Such techniques to keep the plot on track are pretty common in games, but makes parts of a game that emphasizes choice seem unnaturally constrictive.
Lastly, the "dark side" choices aren't exactly subtle. You're either a basically decent person, ultimately, or a complete psychopath. Like I said, the script made me care about some of the characters, and the things you must do to follow a "dark side" ending were actively painful to me. I suppose arguably that's a testament to how well written the script really is, but I'd always imagined the dark side to be more subtle and seductive. How many people would really follow a philosophy that seems to amount to "You'll wield your power to do whatever you want- until someone else more powerful, who is also doing whatever they want, kills you." More emphasis on the freedom and individuality briefly touched on in the "dark side" philosophy would make for a more interesting game.

All in all, a great game (and no, I really don't begrudge it the hundred hours of my life.) If you see only one Star Wars movie this decade... It should probably be this game, instead. Really.

Rating:
Summary: Modern Masterpiece
Review: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a fantastically engrossing game. The visuals are everything you've come to expect from the Star Wars universe, the story is unexpected, and it all meshes together in interesting ways.

Mechanically, the game is rather simple. Based on a simplified set of d20 (pen and paper RPG) rules, even a cursory knowledge of how the system works is enough to grasp the benefits and limitations of different feats and bonuses you acquire. Without some knowledge of the Star Wars d20 game, however, the rules can be rather confusing. There are a few bonuses in the game (notably the Light Side and Dark Side mastery bonuses) which are completely undocumented.

It might seem strange for me to say, however, but that lack of documentation doesn't really matter so much. There are no 'bad' feats to get, and the beauty of the d20 system is that it easily scales to match the level of the party.

Therein lies some of the storytelling beauty of this title. The quests - and even the main plot - are very open-ended. If you have a list of places to go to, there's no prescribed order in which you need to visit them. The difficulty of each seems to scale, so no matter how early or late you visit these places, the challenges are appropriate.

While few of your choices change the actual plot in any way, they all affect the storytelling. Encounters happen when they are appropriate to the story, not necessarily based on where you are, so no matter how you play, the story unfolds as though that was exactly the right way to play the game. Allowing the player so much control over the telling is a very rewarding experience.

Side-quests and party interaction give the game some replay value, as it's interesting to see how different non-player characters react to the choices you make and influence events. And, of course, there's always the choice of going light or dark side, which changes the way you play pretty significantly.

There are a couple minigames. I don't understand the obsession with games inside games lately, but the ones in KOTOR are both unessential and not too difficult, so it doesn't detract from the game, and gives you something to do between bashing baddies.

Bioware added a great feature that I, at least, have not seen in CRPGs before: the transit system. From any 'safe' area, you can go to your hideout instantly, then transit back to where you left. This lets you swap out party members, build item improvements, and swap equipment between members. Unfortunately, there's no point-to-point transfer. I've found myself using force sprint just so that I don't have to spend so long running through empty screens I've already cleared. It'd be nice to be able to click on a cave on the transit map and just go there, assuming I'd been there already.

The game is not without its problems. Two that I've had are just random lockups and crashes to desktop (probably one every 8 hours of gameplay or so), and the infamous 8s bug. Every once in a while, when trying to level up a character, all their attributes will record as 8, which robs you of valuable skill points. If you save before doing the level-up, though, you can exit the game and come back in to fix it. Another problem I have on my system (2.8 GHz P4, 1 G ram, but only an FX5200 in it) is that explosions cause a massive framerate drop. There are options to turn off a lot of graphical bells and whistles, but nothing to put in low-quality smoke and fog effects.

Don't let ending this review on a down note dissuade you, however. The game's fantastic, and I'm currently on my third time through it.

Rating:
Summary: Borefest
Review: After being dissapointed with Neverwinter Nights, I hestitated to buy another Bioware game, but my sons persuaded me. We tried, we really tried, to play this game. It looked good and started out okay, but quickly got very, very boring. Basically, you just run around, up and down the same corridors.

After an initial frenzy of play, all three of us just slowly stopped playing it. After a few weeks, I did a quick poll and then uninstalled and sold it.

(During the game, you are supposed to earn light or dark points. By the time I stopped playing, I realized I was still exactly neutral. My oldest son, who was trying to get on the dark side, ended up going toward the light side.)

Rating:
Summary: Ahhhhh.... NO!!!!!! This is terrible
Review: Graphics are really good. A 3D world. Then the fight game system comes into play and you can not believe what you are seeing as you square off against the bad guys in 3rd person mode only for the sequence to turn into final fantasy as you strike a blow and the enemy strikes blow and you total the damages and then you progress onto the next scene like that and...

... if we wanted Final Fantasy we would have bought Final Fantasy.

This gets 1 star for that reason. This is not a Lucasarts game (notice how it is hyped by another developer AFTER you install it) So unless you love FF and are prepared for it here, then avoid like the plague.

Rating:
Summary: Best Game Ever!!!
Review: I had high hopes for this game and was really looking forward to playing it. Unfortunately, from the moment I loaded it to the last cut scene (which I just viewed ten minutes ago), this game has been nothing but a disappointment.

From a technical perspective, it's simply horrible. I have a fairly high-end machine (Dell Inspiron running at 3+ ghz, 2 gigs RAM, 9800 Radeon video card, etc.) and I still experienced difficulties; there were lag issues, video did not play properly and CONSTANT crashes.

On the surface, the gameplay would seem to have potential: your affiliation and actions--light or dark--affects the storyline of the game. Unfortunately, it really doesn't. Only the most superficial story arcs are affected by what you do. Some powers and weapons are light-side or dark-side specific, but you rarely need to use them (if at all) so it really doesn't matter what side you choose. Related to that, the game is very linear and must be completed in a certain way in most instances.

Some miscellaneous rants:
(1) Your player is limited to running and looking in a single plane: no jumping, crouching, looking up, looking down.
(2) The weapons upgrade system is incomprehensible and it's impossible to tell what, if any, effect it has on your arsenal.
(3) Keeping track of your inventory (which can get huge--another goofy design choice) is cumbersome.
(4) The battle system is ridiculous: it's turn based and totally artificial.

Unfortunately, I could go on, but I think you get the picture. At $5.00 I might try it, but don't pay a penny more.

Rating:
Summary: A Spectacular Game
Review: This game is a true Star Wars game, lots of action, romance, mystery, exotic settings, and, obviously, really big explosions. I must admit, I do like the Star Wars movies a lot, but this game isn't set during the times of the movies, which adds a somehow better enviroment. You come to understand things better, things make more sense, and mysteryies are explained in the movies.

Gameplay; superb. I played this game over at least six times, each with a difference that made the game harder, more fun, and ultimately worth the money. Light or dark? Soldier or Scout? Consular or Gaurdian? The combinations are near limitless. The only downside to this part of the game is that things become repetetive after re-playing them and the semi-drag of getting to the ending, because the ending is 100% worth doing it all over again. The action is more or less turn based, with you deciding what the character will do next, shooting or slicing. The variety of weapons, grenades, armor, head gear, energy shields, implants, and ultility belts are endless, and some that are with the right gear can make you an extremely dangerous threat.

Now for the worlds and characters. Some of the worlds are boring, but with definite highlights, and some are extremely fun and full of actio. This gives it a nice blend of exotic enviroments, for some of the planets (if you know anything about Star Wars) you will instantly recognize them. Each has their own mysteries and are definitly worth finding out. Your allies you work along side with bring an aspect of the game that a normal FPS game wouldn't, it sometimes envokes emotions through your characters, which can sometimes be the wrong one. Throughout the game you will run into nine potential companions, what you choose to do with them is soley in your hands. Whether it's that wisecrack HK-47 or that stern Mandolrian warrior you will be destined to have hilarious remarks exchanged between you and another companion or two companions battling it out. Nonetheless, they all have unique (and sometimes very needed) skills that help you finish the game.

The epic storyline; superb. Keeping this short, the storyline is basically this: You and the failing Republic are up against the newest, baddest boys the galaxy can conjure up (the Sith). You can either fight the good cause, or inherit the deadly power of the dark side. You travel to several planets, discovering an ancient, powerful, artifact. So on and so on, you come to one of THE best end game sequences I have ever seen, full of explosions, action, and lots and lots of little lasers flying back and forth.

This game has good graphics and is certainly one of the best RPG games ever. I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes science fiction, Star Wars, or action.

Rating:
Summary: Eh...
Review: I read the reviews, and I know KOTOR II is coming out soon, so I wanted to see what all the hubbub was about. I bought a used copy at the local video game store--one that had that fancy "Game of the Year" gold medal on the box. I guess I should have been more wary, because this game just doesn't do it for me. Granted, I have not gotten very far, but I don't really feel like trying to GET any further in this game.

Some background: I have recently been enjoying the First-person shooter type games, enjoying Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and Jedi Academy. Jedi Academy has comparable graphics with what I believe is a much more intuitive interface. I know I am comparing two vastly different types of interfaces, but I have also played my share of RPG's on the computer as well. I grew up playing the old TSR Dungeons and Dragons games like Eye of the Beholder, and the best RPG EVER made, Bane of the Cosmic Forge. Now that was an RPG you could understand right off.

KOTOR's combat system is real-time, yet requires turn-based strategy. This makes for a very confusing experience. It's also frustrating when it almost plays like a first person shooter, in that you have to keep clicking on your target if you want to continue to attack, or if you want to change actions, pause the game and issue new orders. In Bane of the Cosmic Forge, combat was not real-time. If an RPG is to work, it needs to be a true role-player. That is, you must have complete control over your players actions and be able to make decisions when it's your turn, and not lose that turn just because the game rushes you.

The graphics are so-so. This game was released in 2003, so I know I have the benefit of the gorgeous environments Doom and Half Life have brought us more recently. In all, maybe this game was good when it came out, as far as graphics goes. As far as game play and interface, Bane of the Cosmic Forge, which came out around 1992, offered much better control of your character. For those people who claim to be die-hard RPG'ers, I submit that computer RPG's were, and should continue to be, based on real-life RPG's where players have total control and adequate time to make decsions on their characters' actions.

In all, I think I may try to play through to becoming a Jedi and see if the game improves. Otherwise, this is going in my "mistakes" pile, and I'll continue to wait for a good flight sim like tie-fighter to take advantage of today's graphics technology, or for another Jedi Knight Sequel.



Rating:
Summary: This is a really great game.
Review: I really got my money's worth with this game. It had a genuine Star Wars feel (Like the original Darth Vader type Star Wars not the pathetic Darth Maul type of Star Wars).

The graphics in this game were stunning. The game had an excellent master plot, countless interesting subplots and the character development was first rate.


The game was so expansive that it seemed to go on forever. I played this game for weeks and loved every minute of it. I was sad when it was over because the characters had been so enguaging and they seemed so believable.


I think the game accomplished what it was trying to do. It provided an enjoyable gaming experience that was suitable for everyone in the family (It did have a couple of curse words in it but nothing more than the "D" word). It's was like being one of the characters in the movie. It was nicely done.


The plot was good enough to have been a feature film. In fact, they would have been better off making this into a movie instead of that pathetic, no storyline, travisty known as "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace".


I played the PC version of the game and didn't have any problems with the gameplay or the interface between the keyboard and mouse. The PC version was very playable.


It took a while to get used to the idea that how well the characters fight is based on health and force levels. When an enemy is sighted you choose what type of attack and what weapon to use then you let the characters fight. You end up trying to manage the characters health while they are fighting. At first I didn't like not controlling the characters while they were fighting but as the weapons and options increased it became really fun trying to keep them alive by giving them stimulants, shields or by using the force while they were fighting.


I hope there will be other Star Wars games like this one. This game was a real winner and I'm sure that all other Star Wars games will be compaired against this one.


This game gets my highest rating..... Perfection!


Rating:
Summary: THE RPG for the Ages
Review: This game takes the fun and statistical awareness of Dungeouns and Dragons, and the brillience of Lucas's Star Wars franchise and molds them into a cohesive, enthrawling and entangling web of a story...the you get to participate in. The experience is awesome and shold be played by all geanra of gammers just for the expereince. Lets hope KOTOR II has half of the great qualities of the first.