Malik
(4/20/04)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old
Republic (XBox)
From Bioware
For those unfamiliar with me; I
was (and still am) a hater of Microsoft. However, due to Star
Wars: KotOR, I changed my ways. Due to that, when this
was written, I was still in a state of obsession with all things
KOTOR. Enjoy.
This review originally was
presented on lazy.GEEKS (8/11/03)
Not often do I agree with the
majority of reviewers...however, for once I must agree with the reviews
of KOTOR. The pretty much say all that I could ever hope
to say about the game. Thus, I will review the game in a quicker
format and just say this; check out his masterfully written review
of KOTOR for the missing details.
Story
Having two story lines of light
and dark open a whole new realm to the Star Wars universe. Not only
that, but being set in a new time (a long long time ago, compared
even to Luke and Chewie) opens a whole new realm of SW. Especially
nice is being able to see some of the origins of what we know as the
mysterious Sith. This story is a true Star Wars fan's dream come
true.
Visuals
Besides the re-use of faces,
the graphics are astounding. Especially once you see some
lightsabers flying around. While this game uses standard RPG
elements, the use of animations to make it look more like an action
game (or even like a Star Wars movie) is what sets KOTOR apart from
all other RPGs I've ever seen. There is no slow down in battles as
you wait for your characters to prepare a new round. It just keeps
coming in fast and furious action. Oh yeah. It is as good as the
hype said it would be.
Audio
The sounds are great. The
lightsabers, blasters, and all the other weapons we have known and
loved since the days of Luke are hear with all their audible glory.
Best of all, the voice acting is wonderful...damn, and I'm
alwaysing going off about how voice acting is always bad in games.
The only downside at all for the voice acting is the repeated lines
by aliens. All Twi-liks (I know I spelled it wrong; I'm not a SW
fanboy) use the same 10 or so lines of dialogue over and over. This
means that an angry one will say the say audible line as a happy
one. That happens with all alien speaking, but it still sounds
really well acted. Like the acting in a SW movie would sound.
Game Play
When you first begin, the
controls will be quite unusual; since KOTOR plays more like a
Bioware PC game than a console RPG. However, after about 30 minutes
to an hour, it will become completely intuitive. This game is the
perfect blend of console RPG with a PC D&D RPGs rules and
controls. There is not much to say besides the fact that this is the
ideal for many RPG gamers. We geeks have found Nirvana in KOTOR. The
only downside to this game is found in two places. First, you have
to face some horrible loading times (walk in the wrong door and then
back track into the previous location...that's two 10 to 15 second
loading times...sigh...), but it's nothing worse than the average
console game. If the hard drive of the Xbox would have been better
used, however, the loading times could have been solved through
better cached memory. The only other problem is that, like most RPGs
on PC or console, this game is loaded with bugs. I suggest that any
new player checks out the bug FAQs found for KOTOR on www.gamefaqs.com
for any assistance in avoiding some major problems.
Putting those two problems
aside, KOTOR is a game play dream for RPG fans. The controls are
great, the battle system (think NWN and Baldur's Gate) is smooth and
works perfect in a console setting, the depth of character
development is great. The only possible changes I would add are
allowing multi-class characters (I would have liked to take a level
or two of scoundrel and then play as a scout until I became a Jedi)
or having a couple more classes to start off. The standard three
class systems (seen back in fighting games like Final Fight...fast
and weak, strong and slow, or middle of the road) are a little cliché.
Needless to say, having to option to be good, evil, or a little of
both makes up for all of these problems in a heart-beat.
Conclusion
This was brief, but any common
commercial review says everything I left out concisely and
precisely. This is "the game" for the Xbox. KOTOR is
the game that made me sell out to Xbox. The game play and story are
nearly flawless, and the visuals and audio only suffer a couple
minor flaws as well. I have to
give KOTOR a score of 9.8/10 (it
would have gotten a perfect 10 if not for the many bugs/glitches and
the repeated alien voice acting...want to kill the Twi-liks before
they can speak again). This is geek Nirvana.
Malik
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