Knights Of The Old Republic

Well, I've been playing this game for a while now, and it's interesting to see the kind of progression my attitude to this game has taken.

For those not computer-game savvy, KOTOR is a game set some thousands of years before the events of the Star Wars prequels. You start out playing someone who's not a Jedi, but has a strong affinity for the Force - and, surprise surprise, later in the game you get to become a Jedi and start doing lightsabre arse-kicking.

Since it's what computer gamers call a 'role-playing-game', and it's based on the d20 system (d20 Star Wars! Blasphemy!), there are some inevitable comparisons with Neverwinter Nights. NWN has a more detailed ruleset, and has more than one camera view. (In KOTOR, it's groundlevel right near your character. You can rotate the angle relative to your character, but that's it). The ruleset thing is fairly bleh, but the camera is the only thing that bugs me about KOTOR in comparison - though seeing some of those backgrounds, I can see why the programmers set it up that way - either that or set up signs saying 'WARNING: tiliting the camera to look over this balcony will BREAK YOUR COMPUTER.' Oh, and NWN has a *much* better inventory management system. Though it's harder to work with the bunch of people you pick up along your travels. KOTOR has *much* better fight animation, however. In NWN, if your character uses a special attack, all that looks different is a little bit of text that pops up above your character. In KOTOR, your character *does* something different - flipping, taking aim, overloading the weapon.... all sorts of stuff. The ranged combat isn't precisely breathtaking - people stand there and take potshots at each other - but the melee combat's a thing of beauty. People parry, duck, lock weapons, kick each other... it's great. :)

I was a little disgruntled at first, as well, when the game basically seemed to be dungeon crawling. Go along, kill the monsters, rescue the treasure, blah blah blah. But, well, that was before I got a lightsabre. :)

And now I'm in the end stages of (my first) game - I've just maxed out my character, and it's clear she's come a long way. Not too long ago, it seems, it was 'Oh, three Dark Jedi... this'll be rough.' But a couple of levels ago, I ran into two Dark Jedi and a Dark Jedi Master, and whipped the shit through them handily. A rancor, which near the start required a Plot Bennie(tm) to kill, I can now kill before they have a chance to react. (If you ever play this game, I recommend the Force power Master Speed. A lot.) Hell, I even nearly beat the main bad guy when I ran into him until he got away by a Plot Convenience(tm). Admittedly, I was very much pounded upon, but still... the end is not likely to be that easy.

I think I'm going to go a Dark Side guy next time, just 'cos I can. I figure get a nice red double-bladed lightsabre... mmm... carnage. :)

It should be noted that even when I was being disgruntled, the first session of play stole seven hours of my life barely without me noticing. Evil, evil game, so it comes heartily recommended.