I surprisingly deep and interesting story-driven RPG. Worth a look.

User Rating: 9 | Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic XBOX
By TaCoDuDe | Review Date:
Going into Knights of the Old Republic, I wasn't expecting much. Star Wars games usually tend to not be very good, and the ones that are most definitely are not RPG's. But once you get past the "OMFG, a good Star Wars game" stage, you'll a surprisingly deep and creative RPG. First, the game's strong points. The combat system is one of the best I've seen for an RPG, ever. At first glance, it looks like it is real-time, but in reality, it's a cleverly disguised turn-based system. You and your opponent will take turns hitting each other, but it moves very fluidly, and is interesting to watch, what with all the blocking and parrying going on. It does look a bit odd when your blaster equipped character repeatedly shoots the floor when firing at a target 2 feet in front of him, but that's a minor gripe. At the outset, you'll only be able to blindly hack or blast away at an enemy, but you'll soon gather a multitude of abilities (called feats), and later on when you become a Jedi (woot!), you'll get force powers (magic). These are all very designed, ranging from special attacks, to stat-boosts. You'll have to be careful using these, as some have a negative impact, like lowering defense for the next turn. The items and armor are well designed, and are actually visible on your character

The game starts off with a tutorial on a ship that is under attack, this section is relatively short, and does a good job explaining gameplay mechanics. Your ship will crashland on a nearby planet, and you start your adventure. The most interesting thing you'll notice is the brilliant dark side/light side aspect. Some of your actions toward different situation will give points that push you toward either dark or light side. This has effect on the story, your appearance, what items you use, and what force powers you'll choose. The developers did a good job of making this more than a gimmick (here's looking at you, Fable). After this intro planet, the game opens up, and gives you a choice of several planets to visit. You can leave at any time and go to another, which is good, since several spots on some planets are difficult for lower level character.

Lastly, the story is amazing. It starts off pretty standardly, but you'll get into some deep stuff, with some shocking twists coming mid to late game.

Now for the bad. First off, there is a 20 level limit to characters, which may not be a big gripe to some, but you must be very careful when distributing attribute points and feats, as you dont have many chances to go back and fix mistakes. Also, th NPC's look very bland, and, in true RPG fashion, most only have one line of speech. You'll also hear some of the alien languages start to loop. The beginning of the game is a bit lengthy and tedious; it takes too long to get off the intro planet in my opinion. Also, I found the game to be a bit too easy.

The graphics are a bit weak. Everything is passable, and some things, like the fighting, are even great. But generally, things don't look terribly good. This shoudlnt keep you from playing the game, however.

In conclusion, I've covered the main point sof the game here. I skipped some things, but they're all good, so no worries there. If you're a fan of Star Wars, fast paced RPGs, or are a first-time RPG player, then you would be doing yourself a favor by picking this game up.

Other Helpful Reviews for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Load Comments (0)