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