tool
19th Jul 2003, 01:34 AM
Well its finally here, after many delays and long waits, the much awaited RPG from Bioware and Lucas Arts, Knights of the old republic has been released for the Xbox, and the PC version is just around the corner.
KOTOR uses a modified version of the latest Dungeons & Dragons rule system. For those that have played Baldurs Gate or Never Winter nights will know what to expect. You can play the game in real time, or a sort of turn based mode, I have found so far that real time combat ends up being better, and that pausing the game to make moves isnt really needed, its just nice to have though.
Besides your main character you can have two other people in your group, and a total of 9 people will join you, and you choose which two people you want in your group while you play.
The game takes place over 4000 years before the start of Episode 1, during a time when there are many Jedi's in the galaxy, but war and chaos is quickly destroying the Jedi's, and the Sith are looking to destroy the light side, and the game starts off with the Sith about ready to complete their goals.
You start off as just a soldier for the republic, and from there the story line shines and finally gives Xbox owners the RPG they have been waiting for. I dont want to spoil it, but its a great story that puts even the first three star wars movies to shame, and i'm sure George Lucas is jealous of the amazing job Bioware did with the story line.
There are also many side quests to complete to, and you can choose between the light or dark side, and each side has a different ending. In total doing everyting would take about 150 hours.
There are also some fun mini-games, including pod racing.
The graphics are what you would expect from the Xbox, amazing looking. The detail on the enviroments is very high, and the game uses some very high detailed textures that look clean and crisp, this game is comparable to Unreal Tournament 2003. Things like water, fog, and steam use pixel shading to give them a very realistic look, and when you run through the tall grass the grass will move around, and even moves around when there is wind.
The towns and cities you explorer are of course the best looking parts of the game. Hundreds of NPC's walking around, anything from small one story buildings to huge towering skyscrapers with an unlimited view range. No fog and enviroment pop ins here like what you would see in Turok 1 for example. KOTOR pushs the Xbox to its limit and still maintains 30 frames per second outside, and 60 frames per second inside.
The animation, especially the combat animation is fun to watch and is very realistic aswell. Although during the cut scenes the movements of the characters were a bit odd looking, but its been this way in all video games, I just wish there will be a time when this doesnt happe anymore.
Surprisenly to the load times are very short, which is a huge plus.
The PC game Mafia pretty much set the standard for voice acting in a video game, well KOTOR has taken its place and set a new standard for great voice acting. The acting is perfect, and what you would expect from a movie.
Theres so much more to touch on, KOTOR is an amazing RPG that was worth the long wait. If you own a Xbox and have been dieing for an amazing RPG that matchs the quality of the RPGs that have been released on the PS2 then well here you go, this is it.
KOTOR does have its problems though, but they are minor annoyances, such as the targetting system, and your characters on rare occasions getting stuck in each other and not able to move, you gotta fiddle with the movement controls to get them unstuck. There have also been talk of glitchs where the game crashs. KOTOR does have support for Xbox live so hopefully a patch will be released to fix these problems. It only supports downloadable content though, no online play.
In my opinion KOTOR is probably going to be the best RPG this year, and is for sure one of the best games this year. It has a great gameplay system, and great story line that keeps the player interested, and it flows along at a great pace and in a way where the player wont get lost easily and will always know what to do.
Tool gives KOTOR a 10/10. :tup:
KOTOR uses a modified version of the latest Dungeons & Dragons rule system. For those that have played Baldurs Gate or Never Winter nights will know what to expect. You can play the game in real time, or a sort of turn based mode, I have found so far that real time combat ends up being better, and that pausing the game to make moves isnt really needed, its just nice to have though.
Besides your main character you can have two other people in your group, and a total of 9 people will join you, and you choose which two people you want in your group while you play.
The game takes place over 4000 years before the start of Episode 1, during a time when there are many Jedi's in the galaxy, but war and chaos is quickly destroying the Jedi's, and the Sith are looking to destroy the light side, and the game starts off with the Sith about ready to complete their goals.
You start off as just a soldier for the republic, and from there the story line shines and finally gives Xbox owners the RPG they have been waiting for. I dont want to spoil it, but its a great story that puts even the first three star wars movies to shame, and i'm sure George Lucas is jealous of the amazing job Bioware did with the story line.
There are also many side quests to complete to, and you can choose between the light or dark side, and each side has a different ending. In total doing everyting would take about 150 hours.
There are also some fun mini-games, including pod racing.
The graphics are what you would expect from the Xbox, amazing looking. The detail on the enviroments is very high, and the game uses some very high detailed textures that look clean and crisp, this game is comparable to Unreal Tournament 2003. Things like water, fog, and steam use pixel shading to give them a very realistic look, and when you run through the tall grass the grass will move around, and even moves around when there is wind.
The towns and cities you explorer are of course the best looking parts of the game. Hundreds of NPC's walking around, anything from small one story buildings to huge towering skyscrapers with an unlimited view range. No fog and enviroment pop ins here like what you would see in Turok 1 for example. KOTOR pushs the Xbox to its limit and still maintains 30 frames per second outside, and 60 frames per second inside.
The animation, especially the combat animation is fun to watch and is very realistic aswell. Although during the cut scenes the movements of the characters were a bit odd looking, but its been this way in all video games, I just wish there will be a time when this doesnt happe anymore.
Surprisenly to the load times are very short, which is a huge plus.
The PC game Mafia pretty much set the standard for voice acting in a video game, well KOTOR has taken its place and set a new standard for great voice acting. The acting is perfect, and what you would expect from a movie.
Theres so much more to touch on, KOTOR is an amazing RPG that was worth the long wait. If you own a Xbox and have been dieing for an amazing RPG that matchs the quality of the RPGs that have been released on the PS2 then well here you go, this is it.
KOTOR does have its problems though, but they are minor annoyances, such as the targetting system, and your characters on rare occasions getting stuck in each other and not able to move, you gotta fiddle with the movement controls to get them unstuck. There have also been talk of glitchs where the game crashs. KOTOR does have support for Xbox live so hopefully a patch will be released to fix these problems. It only supports downloadable content though, no online play.
In my opinion KOTOR is probably going to be the best RPG this year, and is for sure one of the best games this year. It has a great gameplay system, and great story line that keeps the player interested, and it flows along at a great pace and in a way where the player wont get lost easily and will always know what to do.
Tool gives KOTOR a 10/10. :tup: