KOTOR - Taris Review Ala Crappily Written

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...

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 believe it can be done.

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Isn't the other gang under Taris immediately hostile towards you? I'd be surprised if you could join them, and I really don't think you can...

Their leader isn't. In fact, he offers you a job with him... I don't know if you cna accept as I immediately refused. Have you tried to accept? If so, and he says garbage that you cna't be trusted and attacks anyways, that'll be a major bummer..

From your experience, does it approach more the BG experience (aka, all dialogue choices are divided in good answer, bad answer, witty answer, all leading to the same answer), or closer to Planescape (constricted roleplaying due to heavy story-driven gameplay)? More or less chances to roleplay?

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.

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That's exactly what I've been worried about. These must-do goody quests are so typical in Bioware games.

But the innability to refuse NPC's to join... is that for real? Seriously, just how much of an RPG can you have when you can't even decide who you travel with?

Dark side vs. Light side is where the role-playing comes into play

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So you mean the game is just all black and white? Can you alternate between the two? Can you just stay in the background and not associate with either?

RP: Hmm.. I guess it's a little of both. The answers are definitely of the Bg vcariety - good, evil, greedy, witty; but they don't normally bring you back to the same spot except in some cases (like the part with Bastila - you can't refuse to save her).

Greyhawk: It's not really must do because you are goody. It's must do because the storyline forces you to do it or else your character won't get the help he needs to survive. ie. Youa re only doing the good deed as it benefits you. I've noticed that in these enforced storyline arcs you don't receiev light side points just because of the variance in motivations.

Yeha, the npcs things sucks. However, it must be noted that when you join up with the various npcs it's usually because they ahve soemthing - like knowledge of how to break into a base - that you need so basically it's out of neccessity. Also, of note, after they do their deed, you don't have to have them in your actual party.. Still, I'd much have preferred their be ways things cna be done so you dint need them at least in kost cases. It's ok to have 'must have" npcs once or twice; but not always like it seems to be unofrimly so in KOTOR. Oh well, for me, they're interetsing enough to overcome that weakness.

No, it most certainly isn't all light vs. dark. Though; that is the overall theme; underlying is the shadowy espect of neutrality.

One example, as I stated above is the dueling ring. Per se, it's not neccessarily evil to enter a death match; but it's not exactly the goody goody way to do; so I can see how one who is trying to play a character playing the fine line would be motivated to enter it though you do receive dark points if you follow through with it. I refused it which made it impssoble for me to complete two quests. if you play the game, you'll know what i mean there..

What are your specs? I heard complains that 512RAM is not enough. What kinda card do you have?

I have 256 RAM which is the minimum requirment (512 being reccommended). My vid car is a 128 mg ATI Radeon 9200 se. I'm aware of problems with Radeon 9600s (as there's alreay a beta patch to address that). I meet all reccommended specs except the RAM where like I said above is just the required RAM.

Honestly, I think there's something wrong overall with the cutscne/vidoe code as that's where the problems seem to crop up. Now, instead of enjjoying cutscnees like I should be, I'm worried the game will screw up during them or just after. LOL Just a half hour agao, the game was crashing just because I was trying to levelling up my characters. You guessed... right after a semi long cut scene sequence occurred. Hmm...

Greyhawk: It's not really must do because you are goody. It's must do because the storyline forces you to do it or else your character won't get the help he needs to survive. ie. Youa re only doing the good deed as it benefits you. I've noticed that in these enforced storyline arcs you don't receiev light side points just because of the variance in motivations

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Without doubt a character will always run into situations where the character must make a choice that does not fit in with who the character is. The problem is that in my opinion such a situation occurs FAR too often in Bioware games (in Baldur's Gate the story just hated evil characters ). Most of the time a creative role-player should be able to find ways to avoid doing something that doesn't fit in with the type of person his/her character is, it's just a matter of whether the developers take their time to include multiple paths, or just quickly glue the whole thing together and go "Oh to hell with that, most people won't care anyways".

Are there a lot of these situations in KotOR, that require you to be a certain way just to advance the storyline?

I wouldn't say alot. Like I said, just the major quest on the first planet does this.. Also, the taking on npcs because you need them to do certain things to advance. ie. Only the robot has the ability to open the Sith base doors, and Canderous is the only way you'll be able to get to the Ebon Hawk (this is one of the cases I'd very much have wanted another way to do the quest in a different way as my character just doens't get along with his kind). Oh well.. Sometimes you must suffer.

And, oh, "you must gather your party to venture forth" is back; but without the greta vocie over. Oh darn. :D

OK, thanks

So essentially it'll still resemble BG2 somewhat - storydriven, with some choices, and fixed elements which will (probably) have different ways to reach them but are still not bypassable. Hmm. I'll have to play it, regardless

But i just have to say this... that NPC thing sucks :evil: I understand the necessity to have some characters (party NPCs) being highlighted, but that blows. Why not use the Planescape formula - present characters which might have some impact or helpful insight, but letting us choose wheter to take them or not? I mean, Morte was helpful, but we didn't need to take him. Same with all other NPCs as far as i remember. They were already evidenced by other means - interaction, and being given a specific sound set, for instance.

I agree 100% RP. Not my first chocie of delaing with npcs; but meh. That said, I'm told elsewhere that npcs you meet later on don't have to be taken in. Also, of note, thanks to x-box spoilers, I know that you will evntually be able to kill some of the joinable npcs if you wish. Hhehehe.. Muahaha! Oops, I forgot. I'm being "good". Dark side welcomes me! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

And, that's why I said, KOTOR has strnegths and weaknesses; but it is very much a BIO game. If you like BIO games; you'll enjoy it; if not; good luck in wasting your money on other things..

It's good to see you basically liked the game. I thought it was fairly decent. The NPC thing didn't really even phase me as I really liked their personalities and the way they have their own backgrounds and such. Also the fact that some of them come with side quests that you can accomplish as well.

Greyhawk: You have to do the main quest on the first planet, yes. BUT, you can be an asshole doing it. So while the game IS linear in it's story, it's non linear in how you can approach situations and what order you do things in.

As far as joining the 'evil' swoop gang, you can to an extent, but I am not sure if you can enter the race for them. Didn't really go that angle since I love beating the crap out of that damn Twi'lek.

Hmm.. So, you can join them; but to a certain extent. I'll find out in my second game... maybe.. if things work out..

Volourn said:

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.

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I think the character system completely sucks. Going from ToEE to KotOR makes me pine for all the options that ToEE allowed me to do in character building. In KotOR, you basically have Feat Heavy Class, Skill Heavy Class, and Medium Guy. About the only difference between the skill points and feat rate is what skills you get penalties on. The really lame part about that is you can't multiclass at all either. Meh.

Yup, TOEE or for that matter any D&D game save POR2, blows KOTOR away in character creation. However, your skills sicne there's so few comapritvely, are used on a much higher percentage, I find. As for multi-classing, i find that funny. You say you can't; however the problem in my opnion, is that you are FORCED to multiclass (albeit the story dictates that; but still).

Amerestatistic said:

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 believe it can be done.

Click to expand...

Isn't the other gang under Taris immediately hostile towards you? I'd be surprised if you could join them, and I really don't think you can...

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You can. You can accept the job Volourn mentions, but in what was one of my biggest criticisms of the game way back when on my now-deceased Xbox, what follows doesn't play out dissimilarly enough for my liking.

Oh, and Taris was easily my favorite location. Easy on the eyes, and it felt more developed than the others.

A couple points-

Volourn, you can move with the mouse. Its weird, and some what clunky, but I find it works better than the keyboard mapping. Fairly simple though- hold down the right mouse button, then click (and hold) the left and off you go. Just move the mouse left or right to manuever.

For people worried about having to take the NPCs. Well, yes. And no. I'm not sure about all of them, but there at least 4 (probably 5) must go with you. On the other hand you can just leave most of them in the ship. I've used the droid all of once, and two others, never. One or two will have to come with you for stretches. But there are reasons for it.

Saint-P. There are differences in the skill and feat rate for the classes. It isn't a huge as it is between a fighter and a rogue in D&D, but its definitely present. The scoundrel has twice the skill points of a soldier, and since the Scoundrel's class set is more useful... well. (though I find the scouts skill set to be the most useful. Computer and repair are king.)

Volourn said:

Yup, TOEE or for that matter any D&D game save POR2, blows KOTOR away in character creation. However, your skills sicne there's so few comapritvely, are used on a much higher percentage, I find. As for multi-classing, i find that funny. You say you can't; however the problem in my opnion, is that you are FORCED to multiclass (albeit the story dictates that; but still).

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Yeah, I didn't like that much either. But if you pick one, figure out you don't like it, you're stuck with it basically.

Voss, hmm, I'll have to try that out; but yeah; it sounds very clunky. Sp, true; but with both the manual, and in game help, you should be able to figure out which Jedi class is best for your character.

Quick question: does anybody else think it's extremely annoying when you are being told "hey, look, your buddy Garth look like he has something to say. why don't you talk to him"? What is it, kindergarten? I can handle talking to my party members, I'm a big boy. That's the main reason I'm turning toward the Dark Side, I can't stand that idiot

HAHA. He IS an idiot. That's the beauty of it! Don't trust me? Trust the fact I'll hit ya with my light sabre, boy!

Anyone else here think star wars completely sucks in general?
I wouldn't play a Star Wars game period..
The final nail in the coffin for Bioware to me was them making Star Wars games-
If it matters, George Lucas is also a complete pompous asshole.