Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

The Good
The 3rd Edition D&D works flawlessly in this game. The developers clearly took their time considering all the amazing breadth available in 3e but selected that which would most augment how they wanted the game to work. It IS boiled down, probably to increase accessibility to multiple audiences, so D&D purists might have issues with only 3 character classes and 3 jedi "occupations", as well as only having a couple dozen feats and spells. That said, it is my opinion that the distillation of complex (and even confusing to me) D&D rules down only helps the game and never hinders it. Graphically it is excellent, though recent releases such as DX:IW or Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell look better.

Environments are unique, expansive, and immersive. Visual effects are extremely well done (a great example is the Jedi Guardian's "force jump" ability). Player models are reasonably well varied, though by the end of the game, you've seen them all...twice.

The sound is excellent throughout. I recommend playing it (as I do all games) on a good set of expensive stereo headphones and discarding speakers all together. The original score (thank you!) is compelling and suitable in all the environments, and the sound effects are great. Voice acting is superb, probably the best voice acting I've heard in any genre.

Plot is compelling, though I recommend playing the game for at least 1.5 hours at a time, or it can feel disjointed, simply because there are a multitude of tasks to complete, and each takes time. There are numerous, non-fetch sidequests to do. KOTOR really stands out in the quality of its sidequests, which are not numerous, but are well designed. Be prepared for puzzles in the main plot line and on the side. I had trouble with them, but they're likely only of average difficulty. What I'd say makes this game so much better than just about any game i've played in the past 5 years is the small things. Like how in cutscenes your facial features reflect your force alignment. Or the way fight-scenes look almost like action games, but are based on your basic die-roll. Or the relationships the NPC's in your party develop. Or the way you can customize your lightsabers. Or The moral flexibility that occurs throughout the entirety of the game (excluding certain key decisions). I could go on.

The game is fundamentally excellently designed and executed, yet it's the minor additions that really make it stand out. I can't stress this game enough.

The Bad
Blasters are underpowered, especially against jedi. Repetitive facial models for NPC's. Not enough lightsaber colors! Inability to engage in unprompted violence against NPC's.

The Bottom Line
A must play. I refer any people considering this game to read PC gamer's review or the one on gamespot.com.

The Good
This is a game that has it all: a great story about love, hate and deception, a fantastic cast of characters, a well-written, well acted out dialogue, interesting locations and satisfying weapons and equipment. If you're a fan of the Star Wars universe and want to play an involving RPG then look no further, this is your dream come true. But even if you're just looking for a great RPG you're not going to be disappointed. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic delivers. It even has somewhat pretty graphics!

The Bad
Unfortunately this game is full of bugs. No show stoppers, but irritating little ones like sometimes your characters stats gets stuck after being reduced by a dark jedi. No fun. Other times one of your characters just stops moving in mid-combat and just stands there and takes a beating. No fun either. And if you play the game for a few hours on end it is bound to eventually crash. Not at all fun. And lastly the controls.. who was the genious that thought up the mouse-look function of KotOR?! It's a game in true 3D but you're only allowed to look left and right (if you want to move at the same time)!

The Bottom Line
This game is so much fun it hurts. Really, it does. You just don't want it to end, but after around 30-40 hours it will. Its strongest point is definitely the story. it has twists and turns you just can't foresee and all the great side quests and sub missions really make you come back over and over again. A neat feature is that you can play both sides of the coin: you choose for yourself if you want to be a light jedi or a dark jedi. Lots of replayability in this one!

The Good
First, the graphics are pretty good. People will move their lips while talking, the terrain is nicely detailed etc. Next, the amount of interaction is pretty food. You'll always have a ton of dialouge choices when you talk to characters, (which will have a signifigant effect on your force alignment and how other characters act). Next, there is a ton of weapons, armor, grenades etc. that you can get.

The Bad
Well first, this thing is a total memory hog. It takes up 4 Gigabytes which is more than 20% of my hard drive! Next, the game is very buggy. Sometimes it can lock up, others it will get a player "caught" on a wall. (Although patches have helped). Sometimes, using the force to persuade people is kinda boring. You just click on it and if you are good enough, you succeed. If your character doesn't have the required stats, you don't succeed. This lack of skill based gameplay for parts of the game is somewhat disappointing. Next, this games runs quite slow unless you have at least 1.4 GHZ processor Which I don't have:( Finally, combat is somewhat lackluster. You just arm your weapon and tell him to attack (although admitadly, there are moves you can do that change the stats of your attacks) and he'll attack the same way 50 times in a row (or however long). They all seem to have only a couple animations for attacking. Finally, the planets can seem a bit disappointing. You can explore through a whole planet in a little less than several hours. The fact that every planet has 1 city and everything around it is barren wasteland is kinda disappointing.

The Bottom Line
This is a pretty good game, but don't believe the hype. It's not a game that will change your life.