Customer Reviews

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

5 star:		(415)
4 star:		(107)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

After only playing for 4 hours, I was totally taken in by this game. Star Wars fan or not, this game should please any XBOX owner. The story line is deep, so deep that you can be overhelmed by the amount of choices you have. The environments are stunning. The NPC's are a blast to talk to. There is so much to do in this game even in the first hour.

The learing curve is a little steep. I found that the turn based combat takes some getting use to. If you like the run in and shoot people kind of game, you may want to rent this first to see if you like the combat. Its based on D&D rules, +1, -2, hit miss stuff. I'm learning and its alot of fun.

You start off with a basic long blade. You have to work and spend time to become a Jedi and build a lightsaber. How long? I don't know. I can tell you that so far I've robbed some apartments, killed some people that had bounties on them, met a female Sith Solider at a bar. She invited my to a party where they proceeded to get loaded and pass out. Thats when I stole a Sith uniform and was able to go places where I normally couldn't. Now I'm learning the combat.

How good is this game? If you spend time with it, KOTOR will shine on your shelf and call to you when you walk by it.

WARNING: Your sex life may dimish with the purchase of this game.

Star Wars at its best!
Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) is the best RPG you will find on your Xbox, PLUS it probaly is one of the best games around on the Microsoft Console.

Story: 10 out of 10.
Absolutely awesome. KOTOR is well scripted, has great plot twists and gives you the possibility of roaming both sides of the power in the best way any Star Wars game ever did. Forget Jedi Knights, if you liked that game, you will LOVE this game.
Furthermore, KOTOR is the best thing that happened to the Star Wars franchise since "The Empire Strikes Back." In my humble opinion, this game would have been a great movie and is BY FAR a better movie than the last two we have seen at the theatre.

Graphics: 10 out of 10.
Yo-hoo, go along in this awesome graphics bonanza. The Star Wars universe is wonderfully recreated in many of its aspects. Cities are wonderful to visit and explore, character skins and movements are close to perfection. Jedi powers are rendered in the best way ever, giving you the uttermost feeling of wielding the force in all its forms and ways.

Sound: 10 out of 10.
Compelling soundtrack is well blended into your actions, passing from mellow to upbeat themes as the action gets more frenetic. Sound FX are incredibly well done.

GamePlay: 10 out of 10.
Behold, this is an RPG. So it's not a first person shooter or a beat'em up. Combat has been a sort of an issue for fans of the latest Star Wars games (such as Academy). The Bioware Combat system is however the BEST I have ever seen on an RPG. You get all possibilities of deciding your tactics, but there still is the action flavour to what is going on.

Other Cool Things:
1)You get a bunch of NPCs (non playing characters) who will tag along, All have their own background and powers. Furthermore, you can talk to them whenever you want, ask suggestions, info or opinions. Plus, they will be actively part of the story and sometimes you will see them chat or discuss with each other. VERY REALISTIC.
2) Character creation is well done, decently customizable. Plus, the game uses the basic rules of Dungeons & Dragons for attributes and power building, so any old time RPG fan will get in gear quite easily.
3) One of the NPCs that will follow you is a psicotic war version of C3PO. It curses and hates everything, plus he considers you a "meatbag." It's the funniest thing ever.
4) You get to travel around the galaxy in a retro style Millennium Falcon callled the Ebon Hawk. The ship is so well done you will think you're in a movie.

I'd go on, but there are WAY TOO MANY COOL THINGS TO THIS GAME.

Bottom line:
Folk, this game is Fanta-freakin-tastic. This is a MUST BUY for anybody.

For all you people that wasted your time telling others what its gonna be like, I will tell you what it is like. Ive played it, and I'll tell you this, its really fun, with all sorts of battles and lightsaber duels, ect. 9 out of 10 for gameplay, because it can get sort of hard sometimes. I'm not complaining though, and you wouldn't either after you beat Halo on legendary w and w/o co-op. Anyway, the sound is pretty good if you like star wars music. Graphics are really good, 11 out of 10. The game is look really realistic. To top it off you get to choose and customize your character, pick wether you want to be jedi or sith, customize your saber hilt, pick what color you want, and even pick what type, single blade, double blade, or one blade in each hand. The control system is ingenious. If you like real time games like star wars jedi knight jedi outcast you can pick to do it in real time. If you like traditional rpgs, like final fantasy series, you can do it to. And you can switch between the 2 all you want. Now to get into the game. Like all rpgs there is a considerable amount of dialogue, enough for you to consider throwing your controller at the xbox. But its worth it. You need to know what theyre telling you, trust me, i found out the hard way. You travel with 3 friends. In different worlds you can get different partners. In realtime mode they just fight alongside you, but in the classical rpg mode you tell them what attack to do and who to do it at. You can have droids, wookies, or jedi in your party. So now i rate it...
Graphics 11 out of 10
Music 8 out of 10
Gameplay 9 out of 10
All in all 9.5 out of 10

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a truly spectacular video game that fully realizes the Star Wars universe better than any recent property, debatably including the last two films. While the path and story you take is largely linear, the way you can go about it is what truly separates KOTOR from other bland RPGs. Add in a vivid realization of the Star Wars universe, the best voice work in any game to date, and smooth controls and Bioware has itself another winner. The only noticeable flaw the game has lies in its graphics. While the worlds and ships you visit are full of spectacular vistas and sharp detail (notably the Sith world of Korriban), the game is susceptible to slowdown during both cutscenes and gameplay. KOTOR's huge successes only highlight this imperfection more noticeably. As sound goes, KOTOR is simply astounding. Voice actors put in literally thousands of lines that make for a truly cinematic experience. The fact that almost all are delivered with conviction and passion make it even more realistic. A nice touch is that the game also features separate languages and accents for different races. But what really puts the clincher on the package is the gameplay. with combat controls that flow nicely and the ability to queue up multiple actions in combat is handy. But the main draw of the game is that you can choose to be a light or dark Jedi. Both paths are exciting and original, especially because you can do some really vicious things as a Dark Jedi. Also, the story is good, there are many many side quests, and all the parts work to form a cohesive whole. Bioware and Lucasarts have truly outdone themselves.

Ok, I got this game a few months ago, and refrained myself from reviewing it until I beat at least one path. Here's the scoop:

Pros:
-choose your path
-no button mashing
-incredible gameplay
-loveable characters
-great, and I mean great, immersive plot

Cons:
-the graphics were nothing to drool about
-music is only ok, nothing special
-interface confusing at times
-barely any tutorial (I got used to everything very easily though, so no biggie)

For those of you who want a step by step breakdown, read on:

Gameplay- 98/100
Incredible. To put it simply, this game is easy to play, yet hard to master. You can choose the shortcut, or the hard way. The interface is the only thing that isn't amazing, however I was quickly able to figure out it's controls. As far as combat goes, I loved it. If you want to perform each punch with the press of a button, do not count on this to be your game, because it is automatic, turn based fighting. This makes it easier on you to heal yourself without being repeatedly hurt. Ok, enough explaining. On to graphics.

Graphics- 87/100
Good, but not "ooh," "ahhh," standard. If I saw anyone who wasn't from the stone age googling over these graphics, I would wonder about them. However, this does not hinder the gameplay. Nothing is slurred or choppy. The people and environments are nicely crafted, but nothing special.

Sound- 80/100
One word. Repetitive. Not that it isn't interesting the first few times, but after a whole game, I was still hearing some of the same music from the very beginning. As far as the ones that don't get stuck in your head for years because of repetition, they are great.

Plot- 99.5/100
The .5 is because of the incredibly small amount of cheesiness. The rest is amazing. Purely amazing. You need to wonder if the writer was a genius. The end is predictable, but very well scripted. Each world has turns that you definitely wouldn't expect. I absolutely loved the story, and its characters. Oh yes, did I mention the characters? I've grown to love a few special of them. Take 6 or 7. First, there's Mission Vao the T'wilek and Zaalbaar the Wookie. Then there's HK-47, the loveable assassin droid. There are countless others that I could list but for fear of ruining the story.

Difficulty- 99/100
This game is great as far as difficulty. I had one problem, which was shortly remedied. Not saying that the game is wimpy, it's just not going to make me pull out my hair out of anguish. Overall, the game is easy to learn, hard to master.


OK. THE VERDICT: Average those out, you should get 92.7. Add my fun factor (7 pts), and you get 99.7. This game is great. Absolutely great.

I picked up an Xbox and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Its by Bioware, the guys that made NWN. KOTR is a RPG (theoretically w/downloadable add ons eventually too, via the Xbox online thingy) and it is AMAZING.

You start off with just one guy, a typical soldier of the republic (although you can pick from 3 character classes, scoundrel, soldier, or scout, with different emphases on skills, feats, and combat ability, and later 3 different types of Jedi classes...) and can get it looks like 9 other characters to join you, although you are limited on how many can group with you at once. Its based on the D20 system, but smoothly adapted to StarWars. You have feats, the standard DnD attributes, and skills, as in 3rd Ed. DnD. They added MANY new skills and feats for the SW world, and a TON of force powers also, all smoothly integrated into the D20 character system.

Every interaction with an npc is voice acted, and the voice acting is the best I have ever heard in any game. Hell, the acting is better than in the Episode II movie, and while that isnt saying too much, its still a first for a video game, and very impressive. The conversation choices are quite varied and actually in most cases offer real choices of what to do in KOTR, unlike most games. Athough the game so far is very linear, I expect it to branch out somewhat in the future once I complete some training I am currently taking care of *ahem* It isnt giving too much away also to say there are good and darkside powers and that your "force alignment," which is altered by being nice or mean, effects how much it costs to use the dark and lightside powers...methinks a whole other branch of the plot/game is unlocked by going over to the darkside.

The lightsaber effects (which you don't see right away, they make you wait a long time, heh) are unbelievable...when you use your flurry extra melee attack... dayum...they got the hum right, the blurring light effect when you go nutty with the swinging...its all there. The sword fighting choreography and animation are by far the best ever in a video game...much better than Jedi Knight 2. I won't give away how you get a lightsaber or its color etc, but I will say that it is customizable via...well, without giving away too much...powerups, and may change color/power/characteristics based on how you play the game, your class, your darkside/lightside sensitivity, etc...

I will get my computer fixed and get back into SWG also hopefully soon, but so far KOTR is a much better experience. The overall quality of the game and especially the script/writing is AWESOME. Also, did I mention that with the upgraded AV pack, the Xbox outputs 480p, 750p, and 1080i (if you don't know what I'm talking about, just suffice it to say these are the 3 main HDTV formats), as well as Dolby Digital and DTS in 5.1 surround??? I dont have a HDTV, but my TV does have component inputs and I got the upgraded HDTV/component/5.1 surround AV pack, and it does looks sharp, with really rich color. The sound is great, its like going from a VHS tape to a DVD, the 5.1 encoding is awesome, especially for caves and space scenes. I like my eyeballs in my head where they belong, so I haven't even contemplated what KOTR looks like on an HDTV...

Also, as a last note...you meet a little dude who looks like Yoda...but he's not Yoda, he's just the same race, with a somewhat similar but unique funky little voice, I love it! I think this is the first time in SW you meet another of Yoda's race, dunno what it is called. Hopefully we find out more about them, whatever they are called ALSO!!!! I won't give spoilers, but there have been tantalizing hints about what the "Sith" really is...or I should say...were...not was...were. Figure that one out. Haven't you always wondered precisely what the "sith" is??

It is not a good idea to start playing Knights of the Old Republic if you have other things to do or if you're behind on your sleep schedule. This is the sort of game that sucks you in and compels you to keep playing long after you really should have gone to bed.

The graphics are decent, but nothing to write home about. The control scheme is simple but effective. But where this game really shines is in its storyline. Multiple interlocking ministories weave around the main tale, the saga of your character and his struggles to retrieve the Star Maps and defeat the Dark Lord Malak, while coming to terms with... well, I won't spoil it. Play the game and love it.

The Star Wars universe translates very cleverly into an RPG world. Feats of skill mesh more or less seamlessly with Jedi powers allowing amazing flexibility in character development while remaining controllable. The game does suffer from a mild lack of balance: Jedi characters are so much more powerful than non-Jedi that I rarely interacted with the rest of my party once I had it full of Jedi. But this is a marginal defect in a stellar game.

The game supports content download via Xbox Live. As of this writing there is no extra content, but I hope Bioware gets some up soon. This game left me hungry for more, and I'll be first in line to buy the sequel.

XBOX finally has the must own RPG fans have been waiting for. This game is so good it rates buying an XBOX if you don't already own one.

The game starts out with you as a soldier who is a last minute transfer to a doomed ship. From there the game moves through several plot twists and choices that expertly move you toward either the light or dark side.

The cut scenes and cinematics are some of the best I've ever seen. And the dialoge is some of the sharpest in any RPG. If your a Star Wars fan some of it seems like stuff Han Solo would say. I especially recommend taking Jolee on the Korriban quest for some good laughs.

Gameplay is spot-one and done from a 3rd person/over-the-shoulder view. Lightsabre and force power combat are excellent. Fighting is quick yet very controlled (reminds me of a slower Diablo II style). Leveling up is easy, however I recommend manually choosing your force and feat powers. The computer sometimes makes poor choices when you auto-level.

To conclude: Every quest and side quest moves the story along to your ultimate choice of the light or dark side. I played the darkside route and it was great. I got a solid 43 hours of play. The game left me wanting more, but I definately got more than I paid for. This is the way RPGs should be done. 5/5 Stars! MUST OWN!

If you're anything like me, you squirmed in your seat and grumbled aloud as Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman affected onscreen romance during the last cloned movie. Maybe you muttered oaths about George Lucas and reached into your box of beloved jujyfruits for solace--only to find that greens were all you had left. Like me, you'd been duped into giving up your cash for something just because they slapped the Star Wars tag on it. You weak-minded fool.

But a la Han Solo in the first Death Star assault, Knights of the Old Republic has emerged to give us...a new hope. Actually, to say the game came out of nowhere is a definite exaggeration; Bioware has long been known for making outstanding and deep role-playing games, but they have outdone themselves with this first console effort. The first element that separates this game from not only other RPGs but Bioware's previous efforts is that every line of well-crafted dialogue is spoken, and voiced by outstanding actors. Interaction with the many characters who join your party is important and every party member has an interesting back-story that you can draw out of them as the game progresses. Your party members also interact with each other in interesting and somewhat unpredictable ways. In addition, some of the back stories of party characters involve quests and intersect with the game's main quest.

The RPG elements are incredibly deep and balanced. You can customize your character in nearly every conceivable way and develop him/her as you see fit. The feats development tree was one of my favorite elements. Also, you almost always have a number of choices as to how you want to handle a potential quest. You can be the darthest of the darth or Gandhi in a Jedi robe or walk a path somewhere in between. These choices have an impact on experience, money, items and can open or close other quest branches and affect the way people in the world interact with you. For example if you win a swoop bike tournament, everyone in the respective city will be buzzing about it. I am anxious to see how things are different if I play the game as an evil dark lord pawn instead of as a morally ambivalent Jedi.

The combat is also fantastic and stays fresh and involves the perfect level of difficulty. As with the other great Bioware RPGs, there is an important tactical element to the combat. If you simply let your characters rush into battle without guidance, they will not survive the difficult encounters. While combat is turn-based and can be frozen at any moment to allow you time to give numerous commands to your party members, the actions are carried out in the most convincing real-time execution I've ever seen.

While I've only had an XBOX for a couple of months, I found the graphics to be outstanding. Every world felt unique and had terrific detail, including ambient audio and visual effects like water lapping the shore, trees swaying in the breeze, wandering around, etc. The character models looked terrific (I found Bastila to be particularly...ahem, saucy) and the light saber and blaster fire seemed straight out of the movies.

There have been a few minor gripes made about the game, only one of which I found to be legitimate. The first gripe is that the frame rate takes a nose dive in hectic battles and other random sequences. I never noticed this--or perhaps I was so possessed by the force that everything seemed to move in slow motion for me--so I didn't notice. Another gripe has been that the Jedi characters are far too powerful for non-Jedi. I didn't find this to be the case except possibly at the very end of the game when high-level Jedis have so many powers its tough to keep them out of your party. The one legitimate gripe is that you cannot equip characters while on your ship. This is an annoyance since it's your starting point for every new world you explore.

These smallest of flaws do not affect your overall enjoyment of the game. It is a rewarding, balanced and well-crafted game the folks at Bioware have put together and it would be a shame if any XBOX owner missed it. Go on and buy it, meatbags.

I have never had the patience for RPGs. I figure this would be my last hope. I like Star Wars games so I figured if I fail to like this game then I would know for certain that I will never like RPGs.

At first it took some getting used to unlearning what I have learned from playing Jedi Outcast. The first two hours were spent figuring out the gameplay and wondering whether any of this could really be any fun. Frankly it wasn't fun because I was too engrossed with figuring out the gameplay.

BUT! once I figured it out, I couldn't stop playing the game!!!! It is so incredibly addictive. I keep telling myself, "I'm just going to walk down this one corridor and I'm going to quit and make dinner." -- Dinner finally got made, 4 hours later!

Pros:

Graphics is spectacular. Worthy of the Xbox's capabilities. The images you see on the web site is what you get in the game.
There is great facial animation when your character is engaged in a dialog. They switch camera views throughout a dialog sequence. These are all typical camera techniques from TV and movies but rearly get put into RPG dialogs.
When you run thru a field, the plants part and then slowly fall back into place. Not necessary but a beautiful addition.

Voice talent is superb. Even when the aliens speak in alien tongue you can tell from their intonation when they are speaking positively or negatively.

Very easy to learn interface, even for a non RPGer. Tutorial weaves perfectly into the game.

Which brings me to the 3rd major pro- the game has a very engaging storyline and quests that seem to fold well into the overall storyline. Some quests are not required but do seem to make sense in the overall storyline. I will probably play this game from the beginning again so I can try fulfilling those quests that I missed.

Gameplay is essentially turn-based but it means it frees you up to manage each of your characters during combat. This is important if you are to win against a strong opponent. The interface will let you chain a sequence of actions by using the X button. This is not in the intro tutorial but is in the manual.

Cons:

Seriously addictive. I have logged 9 hours and I only just got my lightsaber.