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Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic Review |
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Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
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While the RPG selection on the X-Box is limited at best, it's fair to say this is probably the best one out to date. The game takes place four thousand years before the time of the movies, setting up the background story for what has been happening in the Star Wars universe before what we've all seen. As in the current Star Wars saga the battle between the Republic and the Sith is raging, as worlds are sent into turmoil as the two sides battle it out. The Jedi and their council are the driving force behind the Republic, as the Dark Jedi are also the leaders of the Sith empire. Basically it's the same scenario taking place four thousand years prior to the films, the constant struggle between good and evil.
Just as any other RPG starts you get a choice of three nifty character types, it's pretty basic, you can choose the warrior who is strong and has a lot of life, the in between guy who's skillful and stealthy, or the character that's based almost completely on force powers and has weak combat skills. It's not all that important who you pick, just make sure you'll be comfortable using the advantages and disadvantages of each, or just build the rest of your party up in the opposite way as your character.
I'll keep this section relatively short, because I don't want to give anything away. Here's the story, you wake up in the barracks of a Republic ship that's under attack from the Sith fleet, with no choice but to evacuate and crash on a nearby planet. The city you land in is complex, filled with Sith troopers, citizens, and all kinds of aliens. It's here you will meet the first character you can party with, the two of you need to find a Jedi that also escaped the destruction of the Republic ship and find a way to get off the planet. However the city and it's neighboring territories are massive, and the only way to earn the money or gain access to restricted areas is to talk with the people all throughout the city and help them, or hurt them if you choose.
That's the big aspect of this game, the actions you choose to take when dealing with all the people you meet along the way will influence your side of the force, if you are quick to help those in need then you'll gain light side points, which allow you access to the light force powers when the time comes. If you would rather choose to betray and murder those whom you meet along your path then dark side points are rewarded to your character, and you'll be given access to Dark Jedi powers. The words you choose will also affect how certain party members interact with you, if you choose to follow the dark side i would recommend you not surround yourself with light side party members, or you'll get tired of their constant bickering, choose the dark side allies who will push you further toward the dark side, or vice versa.
While building your character you'll notice that you level up after a set amount of experience as in any other game, but what's different in this game is the four tier system of character building. Character building is broken down into Skills, Abilities, Feats, and Force. Skills and Attributes. Attributes define the most basic level of the character, including strength, wisdom, dexterity and so on. Next is Skills, skills allow you to persuade, stealth, use computers, repair droids, use demolitions, and break into secure areas, to name a few. Feats are similar to Abilities in that you don't get the chance to upgrade them as often as Force and Skills. Feats allow you to fine tune your character and place him into the role you want him to be, by becoming more effective with weapon types, configurations, and special attacks. Then of course comes Force, this is everyone's favorite category, this section contains a huge amount of force powers you can learn, but be sure to pick a role and stick with it. Force powers allow you to perform all the classic moves like the light saber throw, lightning, persuade, and the force push as well as many more.
As you can see the character development process is by no means simple, and I doubt you'll get it right the first time through. Although that's what's nice about this game, even if you really aren't all that good with RPG's and don't understand the various techniques to use when building a character, you have the option to allow the game to level up your character for you and choose all of your abilities. I however would not recommend this, while you won't by any means build a bad character, you'll be very far from the best.
Items, I won't get too involved with this because it's just one of those things you've got to play and learn on your own. Equipping items to characters is similar to all RPG's, you're given two shield slots, two weapons slots, a head slot, a glove slot, a belt slot, and a slot for neural upgrades. While you travel world to world you'll encounter a vast amount of different weapons and armors. On top of being able to purchase better items, you're also able to craft upgrades into your items, such as placing bonus crystals into the hilt of your light saber to increase damage, or mesh underlays for your armors to increase dexterity or defense. All weapons and armors can be upgraded, you just need to find the parts necessary for upgrading them and make sure you use them in the most beneficial way possible. While I have not tested it out to be certain, I've also heard that through X-Box live you're able to download all kinds of new and improved items to keep the game fresh.
Combat is a little different then in most games, it's got more RPG than the regular real time RPG, and less real time than a the regular RPG. It's real time, turn based, which means you have complete control of all your characters and can move them around, flee, change targets, or use any weapons any time you'd like during combat. Though, if you are doing hand to hand combat, your strike against the enemy is turn based without ever stopping between rolls. This means there is many times a delay before you can use special items twice in a row (a few seconds) or before you can use an advanced strike. If you engage in regular combat, then it's up to your character's ability to attack and defend themselves. So instead of just rushing right into combat and hitting the “A” button to swing over and over while you jump around in circles (obi wan), you'll need to think out what you're going to do ahead of time, then give the orders to your characters to destroy the enemy in the most efficient way possible. You'll also learn how to switch tactics on the fly if you learn your initial plan isn't working as well as you thought it mite. One important note to add is that at any time during combat you can pause the game, to give your characters additional orders.
Now for the raw meat of the game, what this game comes down to is a series of decisions. Each decision you make as you pass through the game will slightly effect the overall outcome of the game, and will change hundreds of minor aspects of the game and a few major aspects as you play. In this game you'll find six or seven entire planets complete with complex cities and outer territories. The purpose of going to each planet is in search of a certain item (I don't want to give anything away) and on every planet you'll have to interact with friends and enemies alike to be able to find what you're looking for. To gain the trust of many of the species of each planet you might need to perform a task for them, or perhaps you could just kill them and take whatever it is you want by force, it's your choice. As you work to the light or dark side certain opportunities will come up that will be beneficial to the growth of your character that you won't see on the other side of the spectrum.
Many quests aren't quite so straight forward as in other games, there are usually several ways to complete the more difficult quests, giving your character the opportunity to use the most of the skills and abilities you've built up. Throughout the entire game you'll probably encounter somewhere in the area of 100 separate quests that will force you to use your character to the fullest, whether it's by thinking through a murder mystery, hacking apart Dark Jedi, sneaking into a facility undetected, solving a puzzle, or finding lost objects and returning them.
There are also a variety of side games within the overall game that you'll run into along the way. One is a card game called “pazaak”, this game is a variation of 21 or blackjack, as you travel you'll come across all kinds of pazaak players that are willing to bet all of their credits that they're the best. Another way to earn credits would be to become a bounty hunter, and search down and kill people for a hefty reward, if you're not into that then you can always hunt wild game and sell the trophy skull plates to the local hunting lodge. These are all good ways to earn credits on the side, but the most effective is swoop racing. Swoop racing is similar to pod racing except on a straight track, you need to hit boosters and dodge objects on the track to get the best time, but it will come down to a fraction of a second. While you're on the swoop racing circuit you might also run into a few side quests that will give you additional experience.
The levels in this game are simply amazing, each planet is different from the last. There are desserts, deep forests, oceanic, volcanic, grasslands, industrialized, and tropical planets, each with it's own city, and native species. All of the levels are extremely detailed right down the the blades of grass that part as you walk through the wilderness. The levels are also scenic, the buildings and wildlife give a great feel for what type of environment you're in, if you're on top of the walkway in the industrialized planet you're surrounded by massive sky scrapers, people walking down the street, and space ships humming by over head in every direction. However in the deep forest, you'll find yourself surrounded by a dark eerie untamed wilderness, with no life except for wild animals running through the background and climbing around in the elevated trees. Each and every planet, city, and wilderness area was perfectly designed giving you a feel for what you should expect from each one.
The graphics are great, everything is very detailed, it doesn't look like they left a single thing out, which every now and then is slightly annoying because when you get into enclosed areas that have way too much going on like the cantina for instance, you'll notice a slight chop. This isn't a big deal at all because once you see the level of detail given to each creature, character, and object in the game you'll be glad they took the time to add all of it at the price of not running 100% smoothly all of the time, and this almost always takes place in non combat situations. The game features the classic Star Wars adventure type music, that alternates depending on what's happening in the game, if you're making a long trek across the desert then the music is simple and calm, but once a battle begins it picks up to an up beat battle song each world also has it's own music that helps to accent the place that you're in.
While I've rambled on about nonsense for about three pages here and have made this the longest review I've ever composed, this only scratches the surface of the interactive world inside Knights of the Old Republic. What I've described is the most basic aspects of the game, there is an ongoing storyline throughout the entire game that is well worth keeping a secret. This game, in a single run through will guarantee at least forty hours of game play, and the beauty is, once you beat the game, you can go replay the entire game feeding on the power of the opposite side you chose the first time through. That about wraps it up, this record setting game in first week sales on the X-Box has already ranked itself in at the 16th highest rated game of all time according to (gamerankings.com). Seeing as I know that old man Lucas is on his computer right now camping on the XBC main page constantly refreshing waiting for this review to go up, I wont break the streak that has it's overall rating set at 95%. So release a sigh and take a deep breath George, anyhow if you enjoy Star Wars, RPG's, or both you must get this game.
Review By: Travis Parrott
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