Volourn
Pretty Princess
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2003
- Messages
- 24,924
I've just finished the first planet in this game. I'd like to share my thoughts on it - both positive and negative. There will be SPOILERS, so if you don't like them, RUN AWAY!
For ease of reading, or not, I'll use the old boring traditional method of different sections aka graghics, sound, npcs, etc., etc.,....
Anyways, here goes...
Graphics: Let's start with the easy one. The grapghics are as close to perfect as I think a game can get. Gazing around the city is a beautiful sight. The sewers are definitely a horrible place, and I can almost swear they smell too. Now, some have complained that the faces are overused; but I surely didn't notice this so no big deal. Thumbs up here. Way up.
Music/Sound/Voiceovers: The music is good; but its too low in the background. Needs to be louder; but overall solid soundtrack with your typical SW fare. The sound is top notch. Hearing a light sabre light up, or the parries that go on is great. The city also sounds very much alive. Voiceovers are good. Better than the majority of games out there. However, my biggest complaint are the repetive alien soundsets. Cute, and funny to start, they eventually just get old and boring.
Controls: Meh. I don't care for them. Theys eem clunky compared to other games. You can't even use the mouse to move. It's just there to click on options, and move the camera around. using the keyboard to move your character around is just plain annoying to me. Good thing the pseudo turn base combat occurs more calmly so you can take your time. Unlike NWN, it most definitely feels more hectic, and closer to tb thanks to the option of pausing at the end of each round. This option is a must half! Pathfinding is very good. It's a very rare occurance that either you or your companions get stuck on anything. YAY!
Combat: Combat is usually on the easy side; but there are fights that are challenging, and one that is very much impossible. I just used another option given to you to pass the battle by with less risk to my party. The number of combat options that one can use is not as many as NWN, or TOEE; but it blows most other crpgs away including the IE games. It is actually worthwhile to specialing in a one handed weapon unlikes some other games...Enemies are of average AI; but they sure do love their grenades. Your allies' AI does leave a lot to be desire.. They don't seem willing to heal themsleves, and mostly stick to just plain old attacks. It is a very good thing that you can just striaght out control them in combat (which I'm sure is th reason they didn't go any more in depth with companion AI). Combat is simply fun for the most part as the battles will kill you if you just rush in thinking nothing bad will occur. Another thing I like is you don't tend to fight a mass of enemies; it's usually 4-6 maximum.
Character Creation/Development: Solid; but not spectatcular. Skills are used a lot including ones dealing with computer, mines, and stuff. Very nice to have. Persuausion si good to have. As a solider, my persuade is "only" +4, and it came in handy; but there were times I wihs I had a better skill. There are LOTS of feats to choose from, and feats tend to have more powerful versions of themselves. There are many ways to make a useful character. Don't worry about your style too much as you should do fine with the help of your allies in any situation.
Story: It's good for the most part. On the surface, it seems to be another save the galaxy from the great evil which is typicl Star Wars; but under the surafce it's much more. Some questions are why is Malak so desperate to find Bastila, and what exactly is YOUR connection to all this. Only time will tell. Malak himself, from what you see in this part, is most definitely a sob; but the question is why did he fall from the light? Hopefully, time will share th answer, and it better be just because he loves power as that would suck...
I love Taris' twin main quests of rescuing Bastila and escaping the world. I really like the way you accomplish it to. That should remain a secret.
Role-playing: Ahh.. Want to be a scumbag? Want to be the knight in shining armour? Want to be the one who simply doesn't care? You can be; but to a point. It seems you must do certain things no matter - rescue Bastila, not refuse any of the npcs to join you, etc., etc. However, I guess that's acceptable in a story heavy game like KOTOR. That said, you still have lots of options available to you. You need to find a cure for a disease; but who do you give it you? A racist preaching sermons? Is your character a racist, or will you tell the old man to stuff it? Siths picking on some miscreants, will you ignore it or intervere? These are decisions that do have consequences.
One prime example is that seemingly you can join one of the two gangs on the planet. I only seemingly as I only chose to join one side; but I beleive it can be done. Also, of note, helping an alien out of a jam, will come back and show up in an unusual place later on. Also, disguises are a good way to get around as well. Try wearing a Sith uniform, and you'll see what i mean - it has both good, and bad consequences... I won't go into any ore detail on actual full fledge role-playing possibilities until I play a game a second time to judge what effects the variant choices have on the game's story, game play, and side quests.
NPCs: Ahh, this is the shining glory of KOTOR. I have never seen a game that has uniformly well written, and interesting npcs. Out of the 6 I now have in my party; only one is kind of bland; but it has a good exuse, it's just a silly robot. Bastila, Zaalbar, Mission, Carth, and Canderous all have interetsing historyies, and persoanlities. Their voices aren't annoying either - I thought Misison's would be; but no. Only T3-M4 loses on the interesting side bit; but you still get some humourous one sided conversations from them. If you want details of the npcs; let me know.
Other Tidbits: This game sin't even close to being ph@t lewt heavy. At leave 8, I have just over 2000 credits, and a defesne of 20; not exactly blockbuster. Lots of items; but nothng over the top. Uusally, in a agme, I'd have limitless supllies of heals and buffs; but nope not this one. I've even run my medkits down to 0 as I hadn't bought any thinking i;d find more than I need. that was almost a big misatke as I nearly died strictly due to that.
The game is definitely nearly linear in the sense to do the mainq uests there's usually a certain order of ding this; but the side quests and the variant ways of going about doing stuff helps this very much. Onee xample, is getting to the ship hanger - you can either hack in as a computer expert to the controls, or get the pass by rescuing the former planet who's in lock down for being a thief.
Dark side vs. Light side is where the role-playing comes into play. I wnated to beomce ultime dueling champ and collect on a bounty; but in the end stopped short of completing these quests because I'd have been forced to kill someone in basiclaly cold blood. Not good, indeed..
Mini Games: Pazaak - This game is extremely fun. Period. It's basically a modified version of 21, and I find it pretty addictive. It is totally optional.
Racing - This is a little fun time passer. Not too difficult; but a challenge nontheless. It's a must to do in the rescue attempt; but easy in that regard.
Space Shooting - Bah. I hate this mini game. It's even ahrd to tell whether you are doing well, or poorly as there's no indicator at all. You literlaly are shooting blind. Very short mini game so no biggy in the long run unless you fall for the same trap I did as explained in my bugs report.
Duel - Who doesn't like being the Champion Duelist? This is a nice way to earn some credits, meet some interesting folks, and practice your combat skills for when it really matters. Good fun.
Bugs: Not much here; but I did suffer from two apparant ones including a pretty big one. The first is simply the running animation repeating adnauseum. This either goes away on its own rather quick (within 5 minutes), or by just restarting the game.
The second is worst. When first entering the Ebon Hawk; the game crashes to desktop. This happened a lot of times ina row. It worked the first time; but I ahd died in the turrets, and then it started. I fixed it by only starting an old save from about an hour earlier, and it worked like a charm. Very annoying, indeed. I'd strongly suggest multiple saves which I usually hate the clutter; but oh well...
Length of Time Spent In Chapter: About 10 1/2 hours; but it surely felt longer. I think the game's timer is off a tad.
Conclusion: This is agreat,a nd fun game. However, if you dislike all of the other Bioware style games; you'll probably be best moving on and giving the game a past as it's very much a BIO game through and though. Any speciifc questions; don't hesitate to ask, harass, or flame.
Volourn...
For ease of reading, or not, I'll use the old boring traditional method of different sections aka graghics, sound, npcs, etc., etc.,....
Anyways, here goes...
Graphics: Let's start with the easy one. The grapghics are as close to perfect as I think a game can get. Gazing around the city is a beautiful sight. The sewers are definitely a horrible place, and I can almost swear they smell too. Now, some have complained that the faces are overused; but I surely didn't notice this so no big deal. Thumbs up here. Way up.
Music/Sound/Voiceovers: The music is good; but its too low in the background. Needs to be louder; but overall solid soundtrack with your typical SW fare. The sound is top notch. Hearing a light sabre light up, or the parries that go on is great. The city also sounds very much alive. Voiceovers are good. Better than the majority of games out there. However, my biggest complaint are the repetive alien soundsets. Cute, and funny to start, they eventually just get old and boring.
Controls: Meh. I don't care for them. Theys eem clunky compared to other games. You can't even use the mouse to move. It's just there to click on options, and move the camera around. using the keyboard to move your character around is just plain annoying to me. Good thing the pseudo turn base combat occurs more calmly so you can take your time. Unlike NWN, it most definitely feels more hectic, and closer to tb thanks to the option of pausing at the end of each round. This option is a must half! Pathfinding is very good. It's a very rare occurance that either you or your companions get stuck on anything. YAY!
Combat: Combat is usually on the easy side; but there are fights that are challenging, and one that is very much impossible. I just used another option given to you to pass the battle by with less risk to my party. The number of combat options that one can use is not as many as NWN, or TOEE; but it blows most other crpgs away including the IE games. It is actually worthwhile to specialing in a one handed weapon unlikes some other games...Enemies are of average AI; but they sure do love their grenades. Your allies' AI does leave a lot to be desire.. They don't seem willing to heal themsleves, and mostly stick to just plain old attacks. It is a very good thing that you can just striaght out control them in combat (which I'm sure is th reason they didn't go any more in depth with companion AI). Combat is simply fun for the most part as the battles will kill you if you just rush in thinking nothing bad will occur. Another thing I like is you don't tend to fight a mass of enemies; it's usually 4-6 maximum.
Character Creation/Development: Solid; but not spectatcular. Skills are used a lot including ones dealing with computer, mines, and stuff. Very nice to have. Persuausion si good to have. As a solider, my persuade is "only" +4, and it came in handy; but there were times I wihs I had a better skill. There are LOTS of feats to choose from, and feats tend to have more powerful versions of themselves. There are many ways to make a useful character. Don't worry about your style too much as you should do fine with the help of your allies in any situation.
Story: It's good for the most part. On the surface, it seems to be another save the galaxy from the great evil which is typicl Star Wars; but under the surafce it's much more. Some questions are why is Malak so desperate to find Bastila, and what exactly is YOUR connection to all this. Only time will tell. Malak himself, from what you see in this part, is most definitely a sob; but the question is why did he fall from the light? Hopefully, time will share th answer, and it better be just because he loves power as that would suck...
I love Taris' twin main quests of rescuing Bastila and escaping the world. I really like the way you accomplish it to. That should remain a secret.
Role-playing: Ahh.. Want to be a scumbag? Want to be the knight in shining armour? Want to be the one who simply doesn't care? You can be; but to a point. It seems you must do certain things no matter - rescue Bastila, not refuse any of the npcs to join you, etc., etc. However, I guess that's acceptable in a story heavy game like KOTOR. That said, you still have lots of options available to you. You need to find a cure for a disease; but who do you give it you? A racist preaching sermons? Is your character a racist, or will you tell the old man to stuff it? Siths picking on some miscreants, will you ignore it or intervere? These are decisions that do have consequences.
One prime example is that seemingly you can join one of the two gangs on the planet. I only seemingly as I only chose to join one side; but I beleive it can be done. Also, of note, helping an alien out of a jam, will come back and show up in an unusual place later on. Also, disguises are a good way to get around as well. Try wearing a Sith uniform, and you'll see what i mean - it has both good, and bad consequences... I won't go into any ore detail on actual full fledge role-playing possibilities until I play a game a second time to judge what effects the variant choices have on the game's story, game play, and side quests.
NPCs: Ahh, this is the shining glory of KOTOR. I have never seen a game that has uniformly well written, and interesting npcs. Out of the 6 I now have in my party; only one is kind of bland; but it has a good exuse, it's just a silly robot. Bastila, Zaalbar, Mission, Carth, and Canderous all have interetsing historyies, and persoanlities. Their voices aren't annoying either - I thought Misison's would be; but no. Only T3-M4 loses on the interesting side bit; but you still get some humourous one sided conversations from them. If you want details of the npcs; let me know.
Other Tidbits: This game sin't even close to being ph@t lewt heavy. At leave 8, I have just over 2000 credits, and a defesne of 20; not exactly blockbuster. Lots of items; but nothng over the top. Uusally, in a agme, I'd have limitless supllies of heals and buffs; but nope not this one. I've even run my medkits down to 0 as I hadn't bought any thinking i;d find more than I need. that was almost a big misatke as I nearly died strictly due to that.
The game is definitely nearly linear in the sense to do the mainq uests there's usually a certain order of ding this; but the side quests and the variant ways of going about doing stuff helps this very much. Onee xample, is getting to the ship hanger - you can either hack in as a computer expert to the controls, or get the pass by rescuing the former planet who's in lock down for being a thief.
Dark side vs. Light side is where the role-playing comes into play. I wnated to beomce ultime dueling champ and collect on a bounty; but in the end stopped short of completing these quests because I'd have been forced to kill someone in basiclaly cold blood. Not good, indeed..
Mini Games: Pazaak - This game is extremely fun. Period. It's basically a modified version of 21, and I find it pretty addictive. It is totally optional.
Racing - This is a little fun time passer. Not too difficult; but a challenge nontheless. It's a must to do in the rescue attempt; but easy in that regard.
Space Shooting - Bah. I hate this mini game. It's even ahrd to tell whether you are doing well, or poorly as there's no indicator at all. You literlaly are shooting blind. Very short mini game so no biggy in the long run unless you fall for the same trap I did as explained in my bugs report.
Duel - Who doesn't like being the Champion Duelist? This is a nice way to earn some credits, meet some interesting folks, and practice your combat skills for when it really matters. Good fun.
Bugs: Not much here; but I did suffer from two apparant ones including a pretty big one. The first is simply the running animation repeating adnauseum. This either goes away on its own rather quick (within 5 minutes), or by just restarting the game.
The second is worst. When first entering the Ebon Hawk; the game crashes to desktop. This happened a lot of times ina row. It worked the first time; but I ahd died in the turrets, and then it started. I fixed it by only starting an old save from about an hour earlier, and it worked like a charm. Very annoying, indeed. I'd strongly suggest multiple saves which I usually hate the clutter; but oh well...
Length of Time Spent In Chapter: About 10 1/2 hours; but it surely felt longer. I think the game's timer is off a tad.
Conclusion: This is agreat,a nd fun game. However, if you dislike all of the other Bioware style games; you'll probably be best moving on and giving the game a past as it's very much a BIO game through and though. Any speciifc questions; don't hesitate to ask, harass, or flame.
Volourn...