Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Short overview sentence that summarizes the review goes here.
Introduction
The gaming galaxy has been plagued over the years with numerous Star Wars titles that have ranged from poor to damb right atrocious. Things have looked up abit though in the last few years, with The Clone Wars and Bounty Hunter giving the Star Wars name at least some credit. Looking at the poor quality of Star wars games in the past, I don't blame you at all for thinking "oh no, not another Star Wars cash-in", I too thought the same thing when I first heard about this game, but Knights Of The Old Republic is something a little bit special compared to the drab of previous years. Lucasarts have tried there hand at pretty much every genre out there to try and find a formula that works, from beat-em-ups and racing to 3rd person action and strategy, but Knights Of The Old Republic is the company's first attempt at an RPG. Is there such thing as a decent Star Wars game? Can western based developers create an RPG good enough to rival the eastern delights of Final Fant!asy? All these questions and more will be answered right here.
Graphics
Surprisingly, KOTOR is nothing to really shout about to be honest on the graphics front. In game visuals are pretty average based on today's standards and if your looking for a game to show off the Xbox's visual power then there are countless other titles out there to suit your needs. Saying that though, the game is still no slouch and you'll still be treated to some fantastic movie sequences and cut scenes. Infact the game should really be credited for some of its visuals. Even when staring across vast expanses of city skyline, there is absolutely no pop-up to be seen anywhere. All of the game worlds have there own different enviroments which are all recreated perfectly in the game as you'd expect, which gives gamers the full experience and really makes us grab a sense of where we are. Character models are very well thought out and they do look pretty good even at a close up view. Camera angles are also generally pretty good in the game, and unlike other games in the! genre you will never lose your bearings due to shoddy camera work. Each weapon and item in the game is also rendered perfectly in the game, so many of your favourite items from the star wars films will be included in the game. Considering the number of different weapons, clothing items and NPC's you utilise during your adventure, its quite staggering that Lucasarts were able to design the whole lot to a high standard every time.
Unfortunately though, there are one or two major areas for complaint graphically. Naturally as you progress to different worlds, you will encounter many different species of people and aliens. Unfortunately, pretty much all the aliens in the game look exactly the same, and its not much better for the humans. For example, there are a very, very large number of the Twi'leks in the game, but apart from colour and clothing there is nothing to define individuals at all. You will also find that humans will only have a limited number of different faces, so you'll seemingly be bumping into the same people over and over again. Considering the amount of effort put into the rest of the game, its slightly disappointing to see that there wasn't more care put into the NPC's models. This is still a decent game graphically and you shouldn't be at all put off by some slight mistakes here and there.
Sound
Most importantly of all, KOTOR sounds just like Star Wars should. All the different types of blaster rifles, lightsabers and grenades will all make the same sound affects as you'd expect them to make if you were watching a Star Wars film. All the correct Star Wars musical score is in here, so you wont find any cheap imitations like in some of the previous Star Wars titles. Everything from the doors and ships engines to blaster fire and alien dialogue is perfect in this game. You truly would have to actually watch the films to beat the quality here. No Star Wars game has ever been a touch on this before.
Without a doubt the most impressive aspect of the sound is the voice acting. Every single character in the game (yes.. ALL of them) can have something to say about anything. After every bit of speech in the game your character will be given the option to reply in a number of ways. For every piece of dialogue you choose for your character, there will be a fitting response from whoever it is your talking to. Chatting to drunken louts on the street could get you into a fight, while you might need to do some serious persuading if you are collared by Sith Troops for misbehaving in some way. Its not just humans though that have super accurate dialogue. Every alien in the game will speak his species standard language, and you will be able to understand what they are saying thanks to subtitles at the bottom of the screen. Wookies will roar and growl like Chewbacca, droids will beep and bleep like R2D2 while all other aliens such as Twi'leks, Hutts and Greedo's will all have there ow!n language. The level of detail in the voice acting here is draw dropping. You have to hear it to believe it.
Gameplay
KOTOR is essentially still an RPG, although look away for a second and you could miss the fact that it is at all. It looks, feels and in many cases plays like an action game just like so many others on the market. Combat is played by using a new and initiative system which combines both real time and turn based gameplay. When you enter combat mode, you will be able to pause the game and arrange your strategy just like in a typical RPG such as Final Fantasy. You can queue attacks or moves, switch characters or choose which attacks you want to launch and at what point. This is an optional way of going about things, and some people may find the real time form of combat more fun. The real time element comes in at the same time as combat mode. Instead of pausing the game and queuing your attacks, you can just activate an attack in real time without faffing about with turned based strategies. While in combat mode you can still move around freely at any point, just like in the norm!al game. Your team mates while under the control of the computer will automatically attack any enemies they encounter, so you wont need to worry about the safety of your team mates while you go off to kill some monsters.
Star Wars is an RPG, and so many RPG elements are still in the game, even if at many times they are totally hidden from view. Characters gain Experience Points (XP) for doing various things throughout the adventure. Defeating opponents, gaining access to new areas or performing certain mission based tasks will award you with XP which will eventually add up to "level up" your characters. When levelling up you can advance your characters attributes in many ways including adding new moves, force powers or abilities for your character to use. Naturally, the more you level up, the more powerful you become.
KOTOR also allows you to choose which side you want to align yourself with. At the start of the game you will be on a totally neatural balance, but even from the first conversation in the game you can start to shape your alliance. Deeds such as saving peoples lives when they are in trouble, defending and being kind to your fellow teamates and doing the quests set by the Jedi Council will all earn you "light" alliance point, which will ally you on the side of good. Killing people without real provocation, being rude to your team and lying your way through Jedi school just to get some free training will all earn you dark side points. As you progress through the game, the side you decide to ally yourself with will eventually have a huge bearing on your adventure. Equipment wise, the game caters for all types of players so you can emphasise your allegiance to the max. Players fighting for the good of the galaxy against the Sith might want the standard Jedi robes with a single bl!aded blue or green lightsaber, while those pursuing a dark path will be able to acquire black "dark Jedi" robes and a red double-bladed lightsaber, Darth Maul style. Everything you could possibly ask for is here.
Lastability
KOTOR boasts without a doubt the biggest and most expansive game world ever seen on the Xbox to date. The huge and immersive single player game will have you playing for literally weeks on end. Aswell as the main story of the game, there are also various mini games to try your hand it through your adventure. Swoop-bike racing is a sort of primitive version of pod-racing which if you succeed in, can earn you a nice little income. KOTOR even has its own card game known as "Pazaak". If you ever get bored of playing along to the set storylines then the massive game world has hidden treasures to be found everywhere you look, and its almost impossible to run out of things to do on some planets. This game will have you hooked more than any other Xbox game to date. Prepare to loose sleep while playing this game.
Overall
In short, Star Wars : Knights Of The Old Republic is a truly essential purchase. Its without a doubt the biggest, most involving game on the XBox to date and will keep you playing for months. Initiative new gameplay elements, impeccable sound and some pretty good graphics make this one of the finest games of the year, and a worthy contender for game of 2003. We've finally been given a genually great Star Wars game, and lets just hope there's more to come of this quality.
FINAL SCORE
90 %
