Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Editor review
Strategy games, first-person shooters, and finally a roleplaying game
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The Star Wars universe has all of the elements that would make a great RPG. Memorable characters, an epic setting, and events that could provide stories for several games, yet it has taken over two decades for an RPG to be produced. I'm sure you Star Wars otaku out there could yield millions of excuses, but it won't be necessary since the wait is finally over. Lucasarts has teamed up with the CRPG veterans at BioWare to bring forth Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Unlike most of Star Wars games that are floating around out there, it doesn't focus on the popular events depicted in the movies; instead, it's based on a completely original story set 4000 years before the Skywalkers. During this time period, two major factions are in power; the Republic and the Sith Empire. These two sides are at odds with each other and you are caught up in the middle of it. You play as a Republic recruit on a crucial capital ship assigned to protect its precious cargo: a Jedi by the name of Bastila. If you're up to date with your Star Wars lore, you'd probably know that all of this was before the Jedi were near extinction, so what's with the strict security measures? Bastila possesses the rare Jedi ability of Battle Meditation, which inspires nearby troops to fight with more ferocity and efficiency. As expected, the ship is attacked by the Sith Fleet and you are forced to evacuate. Fortunately, you land on the civilized planet Taris and you begin your search for the missing Jedi. The story will toss some interesting curves at you, which should please both RPG and Star Wars fans alike. Players of Baldur's Gate and other BioWare RPGs will probably find KOTOR's gameplay to be familiar, but its complexity may scare way the casual gamer. Character progression, for example, is a tad bit more intricate; in most games, characters are just pretty faces, but in KOTOR, they are made up of several statistics. Each character has their basic stats such as Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma which affect several aspects of the character's performance. Along with the basic stats, each character also has skills like Computer Use, Security, etc, which determine your effectiveness in performing these actions. Lastly, a character can also possess feats or special abilities. Some of these feats include Dual Weapon Fighting (finally!), Implants, and Critical Hits. All of these can be improved or gained once you level up. Experience is gained in the usual manner, either by defeating enemies or completing assigned quests. Once you level up, you are given either stat points, skill points, and/or feats. This adds a lot of customizability to your characters and allows you to focus on a certain area of expertise. With all of these statistics, it's obvious the combat isn't simply hack-and-slash; instead, the game uses a variation of the D&D 3rd Edition rules and battles are played out in a way that can be described as quasi-turn-based. It isn't exactly turn-based; once you encounter a combat situation, you can run to the action and then each character must wait for his or her turn to act, much like the Final Fantasy series' Active Time Battle system and the time required to act is dependent on a character's Dexterity stat. During each round, a character can either attack, use items, perform feats, or use Force Powers/Weapon abilities. It's a bit easier than it sounds and you can actually just leave the leveling up to the computer, since an Auto-Level feature is provided for those who aren't interested in the numbers. I'm sure you noticed the word 'knight' in the game's title and it lives up to it; players will be able to become Jedis. Up until this point, only Lucasarts' FPS game Jedi Knight allowed you to become a Jedi, but KOTOR takes it to the next level. Three classes are available for the aspiring Padawan: Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, or Jedi Sentinel. Each class has its own unique abilities that give it an advantage and a disadvantage over the others. As you go up in level, you will be allowed to learn new Force powers, like the fan-favorite Force Lightning and Mind Domination. Needless to say, you will also be able to wield a Lightsabre (or two, if you excel in two-weapon fighting) and you can customize it to your favorite color and add special features to it. The game also puts the player into moral conundrums, allowing you to choose the path of good or the path of evil. Your alignment during the course of the adventure will affect many things, including your party members' opinions as well the ending. In addition to pursuing the main quest, you can also tackle several side quests that you may receive from the world's inhabitants. I'm pleased to say that these quests are very involving and do more than simply give the player more game hours. On top of that, you can also try climbing up the ranks in swoop bike racing or if you prefer to utilize a bit more strategy, you can play the Pazaak card game. It's safe to say that there's no shortage of things to do in the Knights universe; the game can easily take up forty of your valuable hours. One noteworthy feature that is evident of the development crew's PC roots is the save-anywhere feature. The only time you are restricted from saving is during cutscenes; heck, you can even save mid battle! Since the game is only being released for the XBOX and PC, you can expect amazing visuals and the game certainly doesn't fail to deliver. Knights has to be the best looking RPG I have ever played, edging out even Square's own Final Fantasy X. You're probably shaking your fist at me for saying that, but on the average, Knights has the upper hand. During the "high-detail mode" in FFX, the graphics reach CG-like quality and Knights doesn't compare. However, the "high-detail mode" is only during cutscenes; we're stuck with the lower quality textures and models during combat or travel. With Knights, the detail level is kept at an eye-pleasing medium; the textures and character models remain constant, regardless of the setting. On top of that, Knights' graphics engine provides subtle details on your characters when you equip items. If you wear steel armor, you can see the gleaming plate it on your character, so on and so forth. There's nothing more pleasing than seeing your characters as they really are! If they're all steel-clad barbarians, I expect to see a party of shimmering hulks! Despite the fact that the engine sometimes chokes (usually when there's a ton of action going on) and the frame rate drops to a crawl, this feature alone gives it the edge against Final Fantasy X. The sounds are of typical Star Wars fare; complete with lightsaber sizzles and blaster squeals. There's not much to say about the music either, except that some of the tunes used in the movies are featured during certain game sequences. The voice acting isn't too bad either, but it is an American game, so the dialogue naturally lends its self to American voice talent. The alien voices, or sounds rather, will often repeat a few times in the same conversation, but it's not that bothersome. Though the game can be pretty short (my adventure lasted about 21 hours), every minute was as enjoyable as the last. Knights captures your attention with its popular setting and manages to keep it thanks to its solid gameplay. If you own an Xbox, you need to own this game because I have a feeling this'll be one of the best RPGs the system will ever have. | |||||||||
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