Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox, 2003)

This is one of my favorite xbox games, and that's saying something (I own about 40). 5 years after it came out its graphics are still no where near being out-dated (there's one view in particular on a tropical island that's absolutely breathtaking). Being able to choose the light side, dark side, or anywhere in between is fun, adding drastically to the replay value, along with being cool (you can easily beat this game 3 or 4 times and still have fun beating it again). The force powers you get are fun and look awesome, the story is deep and meaningful, and has an awesome ending (especially if you're evil). The many weapons, armor, side games, and allies that you can control are cool too. In my opinion it's even better than the second KotOR. 9.5 out of 10, if you don't have this game then you are definatley missing out.

That's pretty much what you'll be asking yourself throughout the game, because for some reason Bioware saw fit to reuse the same character models over and over again...everywhere. Normally this isn't the end of the world, but I noticed that paired with the cloned models, the majority of the dialogue(especially alien) was exactly the same and didn't fit with what was actually being said. You know something is wrong when your Wookie counterpart Zaalbar grunts and groans for for nearly a minute just to say three words. You'll find yourself constantly skipping through mountains of dialogue because you've heard it all a thousand times before, they really needed to individualize these characters some more. Don't believe me, talk to a few Twi'Lek's...you'll become a speed reader real fast.

Another thing which kinda chapped my ass was the swoop bike races. I found it more frustrating than fun seeing as how the developers left you with little margin for error (especially in the 2nd and 3rd tier/rounds). You also can't upgrade your swoop bike, even though that's what most of the other NPC do. But to be honest, even if you could upgrade your bike, the real question is: Would you even want to? I also found the Ebon Hawk gun turret mini-game equally boring and useless. There just wasn't any point to it other than to break things up between space travel, six fighters, awkward controls and nothing to it.

My last gripe and a rather minor one was the actual usage of your party members. Because lets face it, there were those in your party that were pretty much useless and only needed once to further the story (T3-M4 anyone?). I was disappointed at how your party members automatically leveled up even if you stopped using them altogether. But if you did manage to give one of your freeloadin Ebon Hawk stowaways another try to spice things up, fear not, they'll level up with everyone else regardless of how often you use them. I guess they didn't want any one character to get left behind if you really needed them to further the story later. Logical in theory, but it felt forced in the RPG scheme of things. Also, when you top off your characters light or dark side alignment, that's it, you can't be any more good or evil than you already are. So for example if your playing completely on the light side and peek that force meter all the way up, you don't get any incentives or rewards for doing more good, why bother. I found myself doing bad things from time-to-time just to have a change of pace, besides theres plenty of opportunities to do more good and make it up. And I was also a bit peeved making it thru the whole game only using light and universal powers, not knowing that you could use Dark powers without losing light points. Sure it costs more force points, but it would have been worth it.
The story was halfway decent. I liked all of the hidden character back stories and development. I actually felt compelled to talk to each and every member of my party just to get a little more insight to their troubled past (Although most Magazine reviewers put too much hype on HK-57, he wasn't that funny). The Gameplay was very solid, I appreciated the pause in time when ever you'd encounter an enemy so-as you can properly prepare for battle. I also liked the various weapons and upgrades you can aquire, although you'll find that you won't use half of them. The Graphics looked okay, but considering it was on the XBOX I expected more.

Before Knights of the Old Republic, BioWare was solely known by its Neverwinter Nights franchise. The company had always kept on the PC market and never delved into consoles. This all changed with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. KOTOR is a throw-back to the great gems that small in-house developers used to make. It quickly becomes obvious that BioWare took strives to look after every detail in the game. The sheer amount of polish is remarkable for such an ambitious a game.

Star Wars: KOTOR follows the story of Revan and Darth Malak, two rogue Sith Lords who had jumped from the Jedi Order. You, as the player, must travel across six planets, encounter copious amounts of puzzles, enemies, and new characters in hopes of stopping Malak from taking over the Old Republic. The story-line is very open-ended, allowing the player to travel to any of the planets at any time and still seamlessly flows the story through. The game, without wanting to spoil anything, has the biggest twist that I have ever encountered in a game.

The game-play is top-notch. The RPG elements and number crunching (the game uses the Dungeons and Dragons rules) are all hidden so that, on a casual glance, you might mistake the game for an action-adventure game. The character customization is truly one of the strong points of the game. There is a litany of weapons and equipment for the main characters. As well, each can have their skill sets enhanced and augmented following each subsequent level they attain. Finally, you have the ability to become a Jedi and wield powerful Jedi powers.

The graphics of the game were on-par with standard PC configurations (in 2003). However, nowadays, the graphics of KOTOR pales in comparison to some other games on the XBOX (Ninja Gaiden) and although usable, the graphics are not very good. The character models themselves look good, but the hit detection and the environments look pretty bland. The different weapons and armor lack detail and are of the generic run-of-the-mill type.

The sound and the music are excellent. The voice acting needs special accolades because of the sheet amount of voice work in the game. There are literally hundreds of hours of wonderfully characterized speech. The sound effects sound good and the music works well with the overall mood of the game.

The game features very little past the story-mode. However, despite this, you will find that this is enough to satisfy yourself. This is partly due to the sheer amount of things one can do in one play-through. It takes an average of 40 hours per play through, and with both Light and Dark sides available, you could easily lose 60-80 hours of your life in this game.

Overall, this is simply the best RPG on the XBOX and one of the best RPG's available. It features memorable characters, excellent game play, and one of the best stories I have ever encountered. If you even remotely enjoy RPG's, pick this up for your XBOX!

Hearing of Bioware's so called "one of it's best games", I couldn't wait to try this out. Though I've never been one for Star War's (beyond the old movies) or space related games, the thought of being able to customize my own character sounded amazing. However, I soon found out that as far as customization went, it focused mainly on pre-made skills that you boosted up. Creating your character's look was to simply choose from a series of default images. This, in itself, was very disappointing. However, never one to simply give up, I continued to play it and found that the graphics were lacking, the movement was blocky, and the gameplay was laughable.
Though I haven't reached the "dialogue" options that I've heard is what makes the game great, my overall impression was not very good. I'm a big Bioware fan, however this game disappointed me severely. Though I should take in consideration of the release date, I still compare the game to Jade Empire (a wonderful RPG made by Bioware), though KOTOR WAS two years behing JE.
Overall, if you've played Bioware's more recent games, I would not recommend KOTOR. Thoough my opinion may change when I reach the dialogue options.

This is one of the best, if not the best, video game I've ever played. I had it on original Xbox when it came out, but then sold it on eBay later. With all the hyped around the new Old Republic game on PC, I felt the need to play it again. Just as good the second time through on the 360, even if the graphics are a little dated and even though I already know the story. Also be warned if playing on the 360 you will experience some minor hiccups. The sound sometimes cuts in and out while people are talking and every now and then the sound effects will go out and you have to save and restart the game from the dashboard. Kind of annoying, so if you still have an original Xbox, play it on that, if not, the minor bugs aren't that terrible to deal with for the incredible game you get. The story is the main reason you should get this game. GREAT story and great story telling by Bioware. I would say the Old Republic universe they created here (which has now been expanded upon in books, comics, and more video games) is even better, and way more interesting than the original Star Wars universe set in the original trilogy and the prequels. Seriously, if you've never played this game and like Star Wars even a little bit, do yourself a favor and get this game. And the sequel (even though the story suffers a little bit in that one, but the gameplay is a little bit better).