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BadWolf's Knights of the Old Republic (XBX)
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| [January 13, 2008 08:29:58 PM]
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GAMEPLAY
This time I played for something like 45 minutes. It was a more frustrating experience than the first. I spent most of the time walking... and walking... and walking... I was still a little lost for a while, and the setting was starting to all look the same. In short, the novelty had worn off. I just wanted to get to more plot, but mostly I found bits and pieces. Then too, I began to hear the same bits of dialogue from multiple characters. Most of them have the same things to say about the Sith.
Also, it was getting a bit harder. Eventually I got into another area... and immediately got killed. I could probably have avoided it, but by that time I was kind of frustrated, so I quit for the day. This time I was playing alone, and it was kind of a different experience. I mean, there were fewer distractions, but I found myself taking it too seriously.
On the plus side, one of the major characters is shaping up into quite the interesting fellow. He has a troubled past, and it was interesting talking with him and trying to get him to tell. I also flirted with him. I'm playing a female character, and I wonder if he would flirt with a male...
DESIGN
My impression is that especially when this came out, it was rare to find a game where one could be a villain, especially one with as many options as this one. Even this early in the game, the number of possible choices is staggering - in every significant dialogue there tend to be about three options. Sometimes it's good, evil, and somewhere in between, others it's confrontational, submissive, and noncommittal/diplomatic. It must have been a huge task to write and record all the material for this game, though I don't know how long it is. Even so, there's a high degree of repetition.
This game suffers from the same problem as most of its genre - a large percentage of play time is downtime, getting from point A to point B or figuring out what to do next. Also certain areas look mostly the same as each other, such as the various corridors on the ship in the beginning, or the two Upper City sections. There are a certain number of interesting decorations and such, but few small objects, and the same textures appear on most buildings, though I do like the curvy architecture.
An interesting thing this game does is that it raises issues around trust. You don't know much about your character or your companion, and he frequently points this out. A lot of the characters you interact with are not entirely on the up and up. The setting contributes to the tone as well - it's a technologically advanced city that's clean on the surface, but under enemy control. Rumors of dangerous gangs and rebels below abound, and the visitors are restless about the blockade that keeps them there.
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| [January 13, 2008 06:19:57 PM]
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SUMMARY:
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is an RPG set in the Star Wars Universe, long before The Phantom Menace, while the republic is still strong and the Sith are just starting to conquer Republic Worlds. You control any character in your party, including one, a human, that you create, in and out of battle. Battles are in real-time, but mostly automatic. One of the selling points of the game is that it is fairly open-ended - you can choose to be either good or evil.
GAMEPLAY:
I didn't take the game too seriously, in part because someone was playing Katamari Damacy in the background, and that music is infectious, though after a while it began to conflict with KOTOR's own music. The named characters, aside from the main character, have voices, and I found the acting a little over the top. It wasn't enough to detract from the game, but the effect was comedic, and not always intentionally so. Also, the characters are very long-winded, especially the aliens, and this grates on my nerves sometimes. I find the alien languages ludicrous.
So far the story hasn't been too complicated, but I've already seen opportunities to choose the dark or light side, such as choosing whether or not to beat up a group of drunks on the side of the road, and if I should rescue an old man from a sort of mob boss come to collect on a loan. I'm not all that attached to the characters yet, thoough.
The controls are pretty straightforward, and the tutorial is pretty thorough (to the point of redundancy, though you can skip a lot of it). It is nicely integrated into the game, which I liked. However, I would have liked battles to be less automatic and more dependent on player input. What can I say, I like button-mashing.
So far, after a little over an hour of play, I like this game, in spite or perhaps because of the comedic moments.
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BadWolf's Knights of the Old Republic (XBX)
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Current Status: Stopped playing - Got Bored
GameLog started on: Sunday 13 January, 2008
GameLog closed on: Friday 25 January, 2008 |
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