Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

"Star Wars the way we wanted it to be made..."

Introduction

Star Wars nuts around the galaxy have raved about this game. Never before has any Star Wars game been considered “great.” We all remember Obi-Wan, that game with Playstation graphics and a terrible battle system. We all remember Rogue Squadron, which was great, but didn’t give us a lightsaber battle. Heck, some of you may even remember Super Star Wars, with the respawning enemies and a battle system that was downright weird.

Sure, we have to remember all of those Star Wars games, right? Well, possible not, I am betting that some of you know about Rogue Squadron, but none of the others. Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic will not be one of those fallen games. It is just…. Amazing. You have an exhilarating feeling after playing it, and it will easily take up your life for a couple weeks. Yes, this is the game that will make Star Wars nuts want to watch episode VI a thousand times and laugh, saying “I could of killed Darth no sweat.”

Gameplay: 10

You have the option of making the game very difficult, or a cakewalk. This makes it fun for you, as if there is a frustrating boss that you can never “beat,” you can just turn the difficulty to easy, beat the boss, and put it back up to what it was originally at. Another “fun” thing about this game is the light and dark choices. You will find yourself begging to see what would of happened if you chose something different, or did something different. This makes the life of this game huge. The first time through, you can play the game being a light goddess, always helping others. The second time through, you can be a dark devil, cheating, lying, and killing. We are talking 40 hours through the game once. Not to mention going to harder places first, and choosing a different class.

What really makes this game so darn fun is the character’s dialogue. You will find yourself cracking jokes, calling someone an “old man,” and just having a fun time. Namely, HK-47, a robotic companion, calls humans “organic meatballs,” and uses the phrase rather often. You can response to this in anyway you like. On another occasion, you are trying to get into an academy. You can call your friends “slaves,” which will, in return, give you a very funny response from Jolee. These things make this game fun, and very enjoyable.

You can explore an allotment of worlds, which are beautifully colored and huge. Some of these worlds have ancient caves, which have not yet been explored yet. Some have beasts that need slaying. Some even have a popular sport called Swoop Racing, where one races on a swoop bike for the fastest time. Of course, you can compete in these events. The winner will get a load of money, which can be used to buy things. Item-wise, Star Wars is packed with weapons, armor, crystals, and anything else a Star Wars nut can think of. The game has an arsenal of items, already, and will come out with new items when they get Xbox Live up. This makes the game detailed, and enormous. Overall, the overview of this game is fantastic. Not only is it hilarious, fun, and long, but it also has huge worlds with unexplored territory.

Battle System: 9.5

Star Wars: Knights of the Republic has a pretty basic battle system. I am told that it is a 'd20' system, which is what they used in the Dungeons and Dragons series. To most people, who happened to come across this video/board game, you would already know how the system plays. Basically, the roll of the dice determines how much your attacks hurt. It is very rare that someone gets a high roll. Anyways, you do not see these rolls because they are ''under the hood.'' Meaning, if you press start you will go to the pause screen menu. From here, if you go to one of the tabs it will tell you all about your rolls, how much was subtracted, gained, lost, et cetera.

This system may seem boring, and when I bought the game I had my doubts. I was never really into the D&D system. In fact, I did not even know much about D&D at the time (and still don't), just the fact that some obsessed students in my class played it incisively. What makes the system intriguing is the “under the hood” aspect. See, if you do not press pause to see what you rolled, the game is like any Final Fantasy, where how much damage you took/dished out is on the screen. So, you can either see what you got, or just battle. This makes the battle system great in my book.

Rather then regular attacks, you have force powers. These powers are gained by level up, and can be used in combat or on the regular field. Some for powers are popular, like force push, which will throw the opposition back, hurting them in the process. Others are new to Star Wars, like destroy droids. Some are devious, like force storm, which will electrocute a ban of enemies near you. These force powers lower your force gauge. Once the force gauge is depleted, you cannot use any more powers until it regenerates enough.

Graphics: 8.5

Graphics don’t make the game, and that is true here. Knights has vivid and detailed worlds, but they are not graphically enhanced enough. Sure, we all know that Tatooine is going to be mostly desert, but can we get a cactus or something to make the ongoing desert not exactly “ongoing?” The characters are detailed fully head to toe. You can choose from a lot of faces for your character, but only a handful seem to be “good.”

Most of the time while roaming through towns, you will see people with the same face. Sometimes, there will be two characters next to each other that look exactly alike, making the game a little unrealistic. The realistic-ness comes back with huge worlds, of course, but it would have been nice if they put a little more thought into the faces. Another downside is that the enemy soldiers, the Sith, wear a uniform that covers there whole face and body. I do not know if this was suppose to allow the games creators to make less faces, but it really did not work.

One of the worst aspects in this game is the glitches and framerate. Sometimes the game freezes, and you will have to load up your last save. And then, when you load up your game, sometimes it freezes at that exact same area inevitably. You will then have to do something else, such as fly to another planet, before trying to do what you originally wanted to do. Other times, the game starts to go in slow motion, where you walk a step, the game freezes for a second, and then you walk another step. These things might steer you away from this game, but they shouldn’t. You can easily get around this problem with multiple saves. It still would have been nice if they fixed some of the glitches, though.

Story: 10

What makes this game so good, so realistic, so nice, is the story. At the beginning, you get thrown into a video game, not who you are, or what you are doing. By the end, you will be waiting for more. Knights is just that good. You also feel like you accomplished something, because of some revelations and whatnot. The story is golden, and they should make a movie on it.

First off, you have freedom to say what you want to say. The game doesn’t automatically give you a good guy/bad guy response, they let you decide what you want to say. And the responses to what you say are hilarious. At one point in the game you will have to call your party members “slaves” to get into an academy. Sometimes you can call Wookies walking carpets. Heck, you can even lie to the Jedi counsel if you like. This is what makes this game golden.

Second off, there is the actual story of the game. This story, at first, is nothing to brag about. You have to rescue someone, become a Jedi, and then go on a basic RPG quest. Don’t you remember the Zelda story theme, which was where you had to go to a lot places to get something? This has been used in a lot of RPGs, including this one. This is the only really “bad” part of the game.

Finally, there is the revelation. By the end of the game it feels like you actually accomplished something. The game has a lot of unexpected twists and turns. By the end you will be screaming as to “why she done it,” and “why you didn’t know it.” These twists really make the game enjoyable and not frustrating. That is what a story is meant to be.

Audio: 10

BioWare, the games producer, compiled all the greatest music in the Star Wars movies, and put it in the game. One word to describe the music would be “breathtaking.” It is absolutely wonderful. It gets you into the game completely. Gets you pumped up for a fight. The planets have music that fits their theme. An example would be that you are not going to get water music in Tatooine, because it is completely desert. You would get it in Manaan, because that planet is made up of complete water.

Characters voices fit their bodies completely. There is rarely a time where you will ask why they picked a voice for a person. The heroine does have a British voice, which is weird at first. You will get used to it as time progresses, and after a planet you will be completely used to how she talks. The main character, or the character you control, does not speak at all during the game. You just choose the options of dialogue you have on the screen, and other characters will respond to it.

When you first play Knights, you will realize that what other characters say is on the bottom of the screen. This was planned so that you could turn the music off and read it. However, you will find yourself reading what the character has to say as they read it aloud. This is a pretty cool factor. Overall, the audio is excellent, consisting of great voice acting and music.

Controls: 10

Nothing wrong here, the controls are excellent and all buttons seem to be in the right place. The camera automatically switches view when you run another way, which I great. Another option is that you can control the camera, if you like you. You can even use the camera to steer the character in the right direction, which I tend to do from time to time. The games producers made no mistake in this category.

Final Verdict: 10

This game is wonderful, and is enjoyable to play. It really shines in a lot of categories. If you like Star Wars, get this game in a heartbeat. Even if you do not have an Xbox, it is a wonderful purchase and well worth the price of both an Xbox and the game. If you do not like Star Wars, rent the game and see if you will like it. This game will most likely turn you from the “dark side” and make you like Star Wars. In short, this game I a great purchase and a breathtaking experience.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/28/03, Updated 07/28/03