Come to think of it, you are thinking that all Star Wars Episode 1 games suck. I admit they suck, but this one is good!
Gameplay Visuals are great. The missions in this game are vast and well developed. There's no extreme blood and gore in this game like other hard core shooters. When you strike an opponent with your lightsaber, you don't see any mutilated limbs or severed bodies. The enemies do have some strategies such as surrounding you and attacking from all directions or sniping. The ability to use the Force and your lightsaber are great aspects in this game. There's also some missions where you get to fight the Jedi Masters in the Jedi arena. The replayability is good, you can replay missions to earn medals or just for fun action. The two player mode will also provide some great excitement. An improvement: add some blood. This is another Hack N Slash game produced by LucasArts. I hate Hack N Slashes, but, this one is no exception.
In the game, the story is pre-episode 1 and then Epiaose 1 missions start in the middle of the game. Sure, some levels are plain trash, that LucasArts just made up themselves, but, this game is bull fun! But, there is a thing that is bothering me. I should have added this to the Gameplay section, but, the force meter usually drops out when you use force attacks a lot. I say, think again, LucasArts. Does the force work like this?
Anyway, back on to the track. The story pre episode 1 is, you have discovered some secret gangster activity going on at the lower levels of Courascant. Obi-Wan must battle some Black Heth thugs, made up of Rodians, Weequay, Gran, Aqualish and those thug sort of trash. You ffinish them off eventually, when, you find out that the thugs have been giving weapons to a species of animals called Jin'Ha. The Jin'Ha wear anti-lightsaber sort of armor, but, you then find out that they have been giving cortosis to Assasin Droids. The Assasins are made to kil Jedi, with NO thought. And, this is where Episode 1 really begins.
Looking at the graphics, you look like that you are staring at an Dreamcast game. Even the game, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith had tons of better graphics. Obi-Wan looks like a clay model and there are lots of silly glitches in the game. The mediocre graphics are not pleasing and the glitches don't blend well with the bad looking cutscenes. The water however, looks surprisingly real, and the shadow effects can only be done on XBOX. The meat of this game is not the graphics, yet that is what the eye first sees. But, the water is the only reason why I gave the graphics a 3/10.
The audio was a usual 1998 game, even though Obi-Wan was created in 2001. The sound in Obi Wan is DD5.1, some above average musics. The sound effects are pretty good, but the voiceovers in cutscenes needed alot of work. It's hard to clearly find the problems when you have the stereo up so loud however. Some of the background noises you hear are really creepy and makes you feel like you've actually traveled there. The AI is good too, they will call out for assistance rebel fighters and other personnel, and actually ask for ur aid. Their voices aren't that bad either. Overall, the sound and audio sort of sucked.
The replay value was a bit on the line of attrocious. In 2 player, there are lots of glitches. Here is an example;
1. When any player dies, they sometimes die standing up.
Well, isn't that funny. But, we are on the replay track here, so, let us not get out of line. Obi-Wan supports a multiplayer mode, called Jedi Battle. You simply pick a jedi and fight against a friend.
Some levels are simply addicts, that you will find yourself addicted to them for a while. Levels such as Valuable Assistance, or Battle Royale, once you have gotten the hang of it.
Buy or Rent? I don't know. Depends if you like Star Wars or not, or, depends on your graphical standards. But, if you are a Star Wars fan and fear dead bad graphics (which is strange), you better off leaving it on the shelf or renting it. If you are a Star Wars fan, and dont give the crap about graphics, you will find yourself buying it. If you fear graphics and hate Star Wars, it is most likely for you to leave it on the shelf.
Obi Wan is a good game, but it's a little short. Had it not been for the overall golden multiplayer mode this would have scored lower. However u can also collect medals, and perfect the levels to get all the medals, including finding exploration markers long after your done. A working code to get Darth Maul would really make this title awesome, hopefully someone finds it soon. But otherwise this is an absolute blast in multiplayer, one of the funnest games alive and if you dont own anything, you owe it to yourself to buy this game. In fact if you dont own an X-BOX, you would be smart to buy one and pick up this game , as it represents what a Matrix game could truly be like on a console and both rock hard a**. So go out and get this game, what are you waiting for!?