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Sir Whompus's Knights of the Old Republic (XBX)
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| [February 8, 2008 08:00:40 PM]
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GAMEPLAY:
After another 2 hours of gameplay, I feel as though I actually am starting to understand the game now. The plot, although cliche, has well written dialog definately gives you a look at Star Wars from a non Jedi perspective. They acted like stuck-up know it alls who have the "best" solution for everything... and quite frankly, it annoyed me. Even though the Jedi powers help you... it just wasn't worth the preaching I got for doing slightly shady things, as my character tended to do.
After last time, I was worried about the fighting system in the game. It seemed to me that it was far to simple, where you hit a button and could walk away for a few seconds as you slaughter whatever was in front of you. The Force powers in the game did not help to fix this. Although they are more interactive, they didn't flow as well as they should have. You almost needed to pause to use them effectively, which took away from the cinematic style of fighting that was keeping me entertain.
Although I don't expect KotoR to play as an action game, after all of the hype I had heard, I would have thought that there would be a more interesting and engaging battle system. While it does have a good plot, interesting characters, and a fun light/dark side meter that gauges your actions, the game is a fun experience, but one that had been to hyped for me. I find it hard to say "boy, that was an amazing game" when it seems so poorly put together in comparison to other Bioware games. I almost feel as if they just said "It's a Star Wars game, we don't have to work that hard", and that is disappointing.
DESIGN:
The level design in KotoR is fairly standard with the exception of two things: terminals and droids. In most buildings, there is a security system that you can "spike" (hack) into using a computer use skill and put security to your advantage. You can blow up power circuits to kill guards, turn off automated defense systems, and sometimes even hack the security droids to fire at everything they see (including one another.) The droids were also an interesting addition by allowing you to repair damage droids that lie around the world, usually in abandoned areas that are filled with enemies. Repairing them gives allows you to unlock special containers with items, with was a nice change from the usual, boring chest.
However, the battle system was lacking. The "magic" of the game, the Force, was not able to be used in a fluid way. You could only have one aggressive force power and one passive on your hot bar at any one time. It made switching in the middle of a fight hard. The other thing that bothered me was a lack of any real physical abilities. There are a couple, by which I mean 2 one for range and one for melee, and that is really pathetic. I love RPG story lines as much as anyone, but a good story line doesn't excuse you from create an interesting battle system. It looked amazing, but looks don't count for much when the play is repetitive and boring.
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| [February 8, 2008 05:50:00 PM]
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SUMMARY: In KotoR, you and your party use a combination of melee, ranged, and force attacks to defeat the Sith. The leveling up style, similar to D&D, gives you great flexibility over what your characters can do.
GAMEPLAY:
As I opened up the character creation menu, I knew that this game was developed by Bioware. Their RPGs have a distinct feel to character creation and leveling up in general. However, while I have loved every game from Bioware that I have played, it was disappointing to see very little innovation in how their games play. In fact, it seemed like they didn't put much effort into this game. There were only 3 options for classes, and very little character personalization, but I ignored it and decided to just try out the game.
Within a few seconds I was thrown into combat with my stealthy character. I decided to see if melee was actually viable without being a lightsaber wielding jedi. And, to my surprise, I found it was. I would sneak up behind the enemy, and start hacking away. After the first few fights, I decided that I would try out the long range attacks, but found that they just weren't as fun.
Most of my enjoyment from both was taken from watching the fight animations... which I found disappointing. After clicking attack there was no real control of the battle besides making sure to use medpacs when needed. After playing games like Baldur's Gate, which give access to classes that can cast magic, it was boring to just sit there and watch them fight. The only upside was that it looked very cool... hopefully, when I start getting Jedi characters that battle system will be more interactive.
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Sir Whompus's Knights of the Old Republic (XBX)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 5 February, 2008
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