Down with the Sith

I gotta say, much as it was the last system for me to pick up this generation, I am so digging the Xbox Kinda wish I'd gotten it a bit sooner, but eh,no I can pick up all the games I wanted from the past for cheap.

One of the games I picked up so far is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I gotta say, barring some quibbles, this is one good game. It's fun, engaging, and well put together.

We'll go over what it does right first. KotoR is an RPG. You control up to three people and have them run around a battle field fighting and casting spells in fandom-real time. As is similar to other games in this style, as your character progresses, they gain points for new abilities and powers, all of which lays out in a grid of sorts. The progression system of points for levels is a good way to do things. It was done similarly in X-Men Legends, and I felt it really gave control over the character. You can mold them as you like.

The other big innovation of sorts is the inclusion of being either good or bad. This is the Star Wars universe, so trying to walk the line of either good or bad is a nice touch. As the game progresses, you'll encounter various quests and side quests that can, at times, give you Light or Dark Side points. These point, for the Jedi, effect how their powers work. Light Side powers work better when used by a Light Side Jedi, and similar for Dark Side shit.

All of that is fine, but unfortunately, the game just isn't deep enough. It's long, don't get me wrong. I dumped 40 hours into it the first time, and I'd bet that even a seasoned pro would drop 20 hours minimum every time. Sadly its very linear. There are about 4 major worlds you hit during the main part of your quest. You can choose where and how to go about doing these four worlds, but each world has a very linear plot line attached to it. You go down, you have to do this fetch quest or find this person, the world progresses a little. There's a nice depth of quests, but they are all fetch/Fed-Ex quests or talk to this person kind of deals. Everywhere. There are quests that span multiple worlds, but again, same stuff even here.

Worse yet, the game caps you at 20 levels. There is no leveling up beyond that point. I wasn't even finished with the next-to-last world when my characters hit the cap. I'm not a power gamer, but I'd like to have been able to continue building these bumping characters I was working on. Maybe a New Game + feature should have been put in. It just makes playing the game again that much less enticing, since I can't get all the things I want for a character, I have to pick and choose and limit myself. I know, it becomes a bit about skill, but it's an RPG! You should be able to run around and kill shit in one hit eventually. It's a rule.

The story itself is decent. Feels right out of the Star Wars universe. Hell, it even plays out a lot like a movie, so they get points for that. It is a bit linear as well, but what else are you supposed to do when the basic plot is "find the big evil and stop it at all costs." I will give em credit, there is one really good twist which picks the story up just that much more.

KotoR is a great game, no doubt. One of the Best of All Time... maybe not, but it was quite fun to play. Especially for a (at this point) 20 buck game, you can't go wrong with fun.