Contributed review by Grimshade
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Publisher: LucasArts
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Size: 1
DVD
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Developer: BioWare
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Xbox.com
Section: Yes
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No. of players: 1
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Live
Enabled: Yes - Downloadable content
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Guests: No
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System
Link: No
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Hard
Drive: 3504
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Custom
Soundtrack: No
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Dolby
Digital: Yes
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HDTV: 480p
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 Choose your freinds carefully, you never know when you'll meet a Dark Jedi. |
The
game is set 4000 years before the rise of the Galactic Empire. The
galaxy is in the midst of a fierce war between the seemingly overwhelming
forces of the Sith and the frail Jedi order. The end seems inevitable
for the Jedi as most have either died or turned to the Darkside.
Hope is found when a young Republic recruit is discovered to have
a mysterious link to the Force. Whatever path the recruit takes,
as well as the fate of the galaxy, is in your hands. What's it all about? This is an action/ rpg game. While it is somewhat linear as to the main quest and story direction, the game does give many ways to customize your character. The fun for the game is in your choices of play: You can choose to be a Jedi or a Sith. You are also able to choose which type of Jedi you are. |
 Is it something I said? |
Graphics - The graphics are really cool. There are some areas that are darker than others and can be difficult to see without adjusting your TV or graphics options. The cinematics aren’t the best, but are much better than many other games I’ve seen. The background animation really adds to the feel of the game. There was a lot of time spent toward customization, each type of armor or weapon looks distinctly different. The animation on explosions is excellent, once a grenade is thrown you know exactly what type it is. All things considered the graphics make the game very easy to get wrapped up in. |
| Sound - This is one of my favorite aspects of the game. The background effects add to the environment. You can hear doors open in the distance, sounds of bustling spaceports, living forests and the sounds of waves as they crash on shore. Weapon fire, explosions, and destruction completely serve to lose one in the scope of the story and the Star Wars galaxy. You will need to adjust the sound controls in the game options as I’ve found several times that the music overshadows the dialog and you'll miss what is said. You can turn on subtitles, but the game loses its cinematic feel that way. |  Developing Force powers is an important part of the game. |
 Meet new creatures that want to cuddle... and rip off your arm... and your head... and your... |
Control - If I could change something about this game it would be the controls. The game allows you to basically start a battle by pressing one button. Here you can sit back and watch it unfold or direct the characters to attack or move a certain way. Moving in battle can take some time to become comfortable with. Once you are acquainted with the buttons, and the appropriate time to press them it can be quite enjoyable. However, in battle, you will never have complete control as once you set your group to attack or switch between them, you don’t have control over their melee actions. |
| AI - This is truly excellent. Each battle is different. The soldiers will attack differently each time, and the Sith/Jedi will use varying Force powers each time you face them. Even your party will act differently each time. I’ve fought many battles where I was about to use my Force ability to heal the party only to see one of my characters taking the initiative to do it first. You can control how your party reacts in a battle by turning on the scripts telling them to act as a grenadier, force/support, or general actions. I’ve never found a need to change that as the party always does what I needed it to. |  Swoop racing is a great way to make some extra money quickly. |
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Replay value - I’ve played entirely through this game about 25 times (I’m not exaggerating). Even though there are only two endings for the game, one for the Jedi path and the other for the Sith, each game can be played so differently. There are so many side quests, and most of them have different ways to complete them. Even the main quests can be done in varying order, and you could play the game repeatedly and discover new things about the game. What I found especially cool was that several of these quests explain much of the Star Wars galaxy that hasn’t been dealt with before. Then there’s Pazaak and the Swoop Racing. It may be a good idea to save a game just to play Pazaak endlessly; it certainly beats Solitaire on the PC. Swoop Racing is another aspect that is quite fun. Both of these are entirely unessential to the story and can be avoided, but its worth it to take the time to play these. |
| This is in addition to the fact that you can play the game as a Sith or a Jedi, and each choice you make takes you down each path further. You can customize your character with varying skills, traits, and powers in a way that your next character is vastly different than they were in your last game. Not only can you customize your main character, the game allows you to customize the rest of your party as well. Combining the graphics, sound, AI, and game play value it is one of the best games I’ve ever played. The set-up of the game and all its components make it almost as if I were watching a Star Wars movie. | |
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Downloadable Content - Yavin Station: There is only one section to be downloaded for this game. It takes 1552 blocks for it. The downloadable content adds a decent side quest for the space station above Yavin. The cinematics for arriving and departing are similar to all others in the game as to quality. Along with the side quest it adds a few NPCs for interaction. One of these guys lives on the station and sells a few items that I’ve found to be fairly useful. You’ll need to have a good amount of money to deal with him, though, or be fairly good at Pazaak to lower his prices. The side quest itself should be started fairly soon after leaving Dantooine as it takes awhile for all NPCs to show up. At the completion of the quest the NPC you’ve dealt with will sell you two lightsaber crystals that make beating the game so much easier. They alter your saber’s color and change many of the properties of your other crystals. One makes your saber orange and the other turquoise. Oh, and one more thing, make sure you pick up all the loot on the ground! Those guys carried a lot of money…. |
Download and use the Yavin Space Station patch. The lightsaber crystals found there are impressive and aid so well in the final stages of the game. Play around with the Force powers and put points only in the ones that you know you’ll use. Every time you level up, or land on a planet, talk to each crew member. The reason for this is that it opens up side quests. Use the workbench frequently as you'll find upgrades to armor and weapons constantly. Lightsaber crystals are extremely vital to your melee combat abilities and should be examined carefully as to choosing which is best for that particular lightsaber.
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Hot
Asian women holding the extremely heavy Xbox say: - Do you have any idea what's going to happen to our street "cred" when they find out we've been promoting Xbox, and playing an American-made RPG. * Yeah, we'll probably be kicked out of the union. - Damn, back to filming more episodes of Dr. Bukkake. |
 There's always room for some good old-fashioned arcade action. |
...and
finally...
HD
Usage(for the obsessive-compulsive in you):
KotOR takes up a total of 3504
blocks,
or 54.7 megs roughly, on your Xbox's hard drive. It breaks down like this:
1. Settings
- 352 blocks(5.5
megs)
2. Saved
Game – 1600(25.0 megs)
3. Downloadable Content: Yavin Station – 1552(24.2 megs)
KotOR screenshots were borrowed from the game's Official
Site and Xbox.com.