Having the approximate willpower of a ferret on crystal meth, I plopped down US$50 last Saturday and purchased Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic for the Xbox. This prompted the Missus to make the following comment:
"For someone who slags Lucas so much you sure give him a lot of money."
I tried to intelligently rebut this statement, to no avail. And even if I could, what would be the point? She's right. In my defense, LucasArts still makes damn good video games.
Does that excuse my blatant hypocrisy? Probably not. I will say this, however: if the two prequels had been as entertaining as KOTOR is, I'd still be an unapologetic fan. It's the best SW-related game since Dark Forces. And it's more than enough to make you forget the abomination that was Star Wars: Obi-Wan.
These updates will divulge what most would consider "spoiler" material from the game, so read at your own risk if you're playing at home.
You put the game in, and get a nice trailer showing tons of crap. Figuring prominently is a Dark Lord of the Sith who looks like helmetless Vader without the glint of humanity, he's decked out in swanky red armor. There's also a female Jedi Knight who looks to be a central character. We see several pitched space battle scenes, a doomsaying Yoda lookalike, and some pretty groovy lightsaber fighting clips. Then we get the famed opening scroll, which tells us Darth Malak (the aforementioned Sith Lord) is fighting against (and kicking the crap out of) the Republic and the Jedi Order.
The character generation sequence is a breeze...if you've played D20. If you haven't, the learning curve may frustrate the hell out of you. I'm also always for greater variety of faces and body types when making my computer game character, but I picked the guy with the soul patch just because, well, I've never seen a Jedi with a soul patch. I made him a soldier (versus a scout or a scoundrel) and named him Diablo Azul.
I suck at names, but even that was better than Nute Gunray.
You can play a female, but I have to wonder how the romantic subplot (more on that later) would play out if you were.
One complaint I heard about the game from someone last weekend was that you don't start as a Jedi. I, for one, like the fact that you have to advance as a regular character before you can acquire Jedi feats and powers. It made the first part of the game more enjoyable. You also meet new characters that you can add to your party (you can have no more than two companions at a time, however).
The first section is very Halo-esque, giving you practice in movement and combat as you try to escape your doomed ship, the Endar Spire. Once on the Coruscant-like planet of Taris, you're tasked with finding the missing Jedi Knight Bastila, who crash landed as well and has since disappeared. All this is essentially prologue to the meat of the adventure, but it gives the player time to goof around: conversing with the locals, dressing as a Sith trooper, playing cards, and beating the crap out of all who oppose you. Eventually (hopefully) you free Bastila (the hot Jedi babe from the prologue) and head to Dantooine, the home of a sort of Free French Jedi Council.
I'll save Dantooine for later, but these are my initial impressions:
- LucasArts has gotten a nice mix of dialogue and action, even if the famed Force pretension is still there. You get reminded of the importance of your mission a bit too much, though it helps to keep you on track (avoiding the fate of similar games like Morrowind.
- They give you the option of turning subtitles off ("for a more cinematic experience"), but considering half of the game's dialogue is in Shyriiwook, Twi'leki, Ithorian, or Huttese, I wouldn't recommend it.
- Two weapon fighting is the way to go, not just for extra attacks (and because no self-respecting Jedi uses a blaster), but because it looks freaking cool
- I have yet to find a use for Pazzak, a blackjack-like card game, except to waste time. I assume it led to something vaguely interesting, but I didn't want to bother with it
- Nice pacing, information is doled out with becoming repetitive (as often happens in FRPG video games), with nice hints of the main plot
- Your job, aside from all-around bad ass, is also counselor. If you go too long without talking to your fellow party members you'll get a message along the lines of "Carth seems preoccupied, perhaps you should talk to him." Frankly, Carth can kiss my shiny Jedi ass. We're trying to save the freaking galaxy here.
- Rancors is so stupid
A note on Force points: I desperately wanted to just go full-on Dark Side but it really makes the game harder (which seems the opposite of how it ought to be, yes?). People are loath to offer assistance, and your companions constantly bitch at you. I've noticed in later stages this seems to change, and the Dark Side answers are often the ones that yield easier results, so we'll see. Right now, Diablo is pegged in the middle of the scale.
More to come.
Apparently if you play a lady you get to get jiggy with Garth. As if a woman could ever find *him* interesting.
In fact, most of your group seem to be constantly whingeing... although I just gt HK-47 and he's awesome, although in a fight I prefer to have another Jedi.