Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic

[Unstoppable]

So I got this game on Ebay for 10$ or so. Man what a deal, and what a great game from 2003. (Game of the Year) Who has played this great game? It's got similarities when you are in conversations to Deus Ex.

[Redface]

More like who hasn't ?

[SneaksieDave]

Me! Not a big fan (of SW). Not even a small one, actually.

[Komag]

I tried it on Xbox a few years ago, never got into it (but I could have, just somehow didn't happen). I might try it on PC on day (for the higher res mostly)

[Unstoppable]

The game grows on you. The more you play it the better it gets.

[STiFU]

I didn't like it at all somehow. I don't know why. I like RPGs and I like Star Wars, but to me KOTOR was boring...

[Unstoppable]

I didn't like it at all somehow. I don't know why. I like RPGs and I like Star Wars, but to me KOTOR was boring...

 

How long did you actually play it for? Also how far did you get? Did you talk to many people and learn about them?

[Domarius]

I keep hearing how awesome this game is, to play from start to end. I intend to get into it, it's one of the games that runs awesomely on my old computer.

[Subjective Effect]

The game grows on you. The more you play it the better it gets.

I certainly hope so. I stopped playing early on as I found it dull. I'll have to go back someday.

[sparhawk]

Never played it. Is it a shooter or what?

[STiFU]

I like RPGs and I like Star Wars[...]

It's an RPG...

 

I played it quite a bit actually. But I lost the interest. All my friend considered it to be awsome though, so my advice to everyone would be to give it a try. Maybe it's just me having a weird gaming-taste... =)

[sparhawk]

Is it a real RPG or s shooter disguised as an RPG?

[SplaTtzZ]

It is a proper RPG, in the sense that there is character creation, dialogue, a skill set, leveling etc. and it has semi-turn based combat (similar to Baldur's Gate). In fact the game was made by the same company who created Baldur's Gate; and I believe its built from a pen-&-paper based rpg module.

 

But yeah I actually found myself liking it quite alot; though I don't think its as good as Mass Effect. The storyline builds up quite well with some interesting plot twists, and the dialogue is quite polished (1000 times better than The Witcher anyway) as are the combat animations and graphics which are quite good for an rpg. If you see it for 10 bucks like Unstoppable did thats a pretty good deal and I'd pick it up.

[Arumakani]

Excellent game. So much better then Mass Effect. ME was good, but tried too hard I felt to be as epic as Star Wars.

[Unstoppable]

You move around in third person and whenever an enemy shows up the action pauses so you can switch between party members and select attacks.

 

Here's a guide if you ever need help but the game is not that hard on normal setting.

http://www.gamebanshee.com/starwarskotor/

[Komag]

Almost all reviewers of Mass Effect say that it's a major step up from KOTOR, meaning that as great as KOTOR was Mass Effect is just that much better. I'm sure a few people will disagree, but I'll take near-reviewer-consensus' word on it for this one.

[Vadrosaul]

The combat is manageable, but isn't really exciting, and tends to get derivative after awhile. Essentially you click on what kind of attack, ability or item you want to use and wait until the enemy dies. There isn't an extreme amount of fighting when you're in the field, so it doesn't get too annoying like it can in some RPG's.

[Arumakani]

Almost all reviewers of Mass Effect say that it's a major step up from KOTOR, meaning that as great as KOTOR was Mass Effect is just that much better. I'm sure a few people will disagree, but I'll take near-reviewer-consensus' word on it for this one.

 

 

The onnly 2 places I believe to be any good with reviews are ntsc-uk and EDGE magazine.

[oDDity]

Even I've played it (several years ago) I remember I actually finished it, which means I must have liked it.

[Unstoppable]

Even I've played it (several years ago) I remember I actually finished it, which means I must have liked it.

 

OMG Oddity says he likes a game. Wandering if you have ever played Bioshock?

[Nyarlathotep]

Worse. I'm going to have to complain about a game instead of oDDity. (By the way, I just checked outside; it is indeed raining fire.)

 

I found KoTOR to be an excellent example of why I think standards have lowered in RPGs. I found it to be exceedingly linear, short, and bereft of meaningful choices. You were stuck playing Lawful Good or Chaotic Stupid, with only small variations between. Where's my chance to play as a complete bastard and make people suffer? I want to break their minds, not engage in wanton (and generally counterproductive) slaughter!

 

Having said that, I will still say that it was quite a good game. I was not much of a fan of the combat system, but I will admit that it was about as good of a translation of D&D mechanics into a real-time environment that you can get. While the story itself was merely an above-average (for Star Wars) story, it was very well presented (the dialogue, while limited in options, was excellent). Despite that, I don't think it stands up to the same high standards of Balder's Gate, Fallout and Planescape Torment.

[oDDity]

Having said that, I will still say that it was quite a good game. I was not much of a fan of the combat system, but I will admit that it was about as good of a translation of D&D mechanics into a real-time environment that you can get. While the story itself was merely an above-average (for Star Wars) story.

 

Ha! You're joking right? All the Star Wars plots were cheap, predictable, good guys win, space opera, mass market trash.

Anyway, give me a list of games where the story isn't a silly, unbelievable ripping yarn, and I'll give you all my money.

[Unstoppable]

Pfft. Star was is anything but cheap opera trash or mass market whatever. To put it simply when I was a little kid I picked up the VHS and saw a guy holding a sword. It said Star Wars. I didn't understand the movie that much but I understood the core beliefs.

 

Friendship, honor, being a good person, and fighting for what you believe in. Sure beats the teenage movie crap available in theaters today.

 

Star Wars a long with Lord of the Rings are the best trilogies ever made on film. They touch on the core believes of friendship, hard work, honor, doing the right thing, and other stuff I can't think of at 5 am in the morning.

 

George Lucas I believe sold his house or took out two mortgages to make that movie. Plus it was a disaster before it even hit the first screening. He almost died of stress as well as the doctor told him he needs to stop stressing out.

 

Lets just say the first Star Wars was the farthest from "Mass market trash" it could possibly be. It is to this date a huge risk. George Lucas pretty much put every last cent he had on the line.

 

After the first screening the audience gave a standing applause. Then when it hit theaters it was a phenomenon.

 

Any way Star Wars will always have a special place in my heart. It deserves a lot of respect at least from me because George Lucas made the movies the way he intended to make them. They are the type of movies you can show your family and children and they can see what the real world is like.

 

Especially in Revenge of the Sith. If you haven't seen it then you should because it just goes to show what happens when you go down a bad path.

 

So that's that. I love Star Wars.

 

Oh yeah one more thing Oddity. You should at least play the Bioshock demo. It's free and 20 mins of your time toward a game that has won dozens of awards can't be that bad can it? I think it's worth your time.

Edited March 7, 2008 by Unstoppable

[oDDity]

I have played the demo. Same old, same old crap. Nothing to see here, move along please...

 

The real sci-fi fans at the time hated Star Wars, and called it exactly that - cheap mass market space opera trash. It dragged the sci fi genre back 30 years, and spawned a plethora of cheap imitations, it made sci-fi massively popular, but dragged the general quality of it into the gutter.

If Star Wars had been released as a book, it would have read exactly like a 40's Sci Fi yarn, published in Astounding Stories! or something.

Cyberpunk was a backlash against that sort of Star Wars trash.

[Nyarlathotep]

Ha! You're joking right? All the Star Wars plots were cheap, predictable, good guys win, space opera, mass market trash.

That's why I said it was above average for Star Wars. I never claimed that Star Wars had great plot.

 

Anyway, give me a list of games where the story isn't a silly, unbelievable ripping yarn, and I'll give you all my money.

I could make mention of games with excellent story, but they all make use of some sci-fi or fantastic element. I could mention Planescape Torment, for example, but that is high fantasy, and therefore "unbelievable." While I'm aware that games without any fantastic elements ought to exist, the most likely category of games to be such I am completely unfamiliar with (visual novels/eroge).

 

Simply put, games lend themselves well to transporting you outside of your norms. Nobody wants to play a video game about a fat slob who does nothing but play WoW (although, ironically, a god game about said fatty could be fun diversion--think Flash game). If the settings (any sci-fi, fantasy) or situations (Rainbow 6, Splinter Cell) aren't at least somewhat unrealistic, then the goals of the characters/the characters themselves are unrealistic (Hentai). Even the bard himself knew this; every one of his stories features something unusual, and often his characters bear little resemblance to his audience (kings, princesses, psychos, et al).

 

I'll admit that few games with good story exist, but that is not inherent in the medium. Rather, it is inherent in how storytelling is approached in general. You see it in the games industry, in Hollywood, even in literature. Don't be original; just rip off whatever the fuck is in style this second.