Star Wars Knights Of The Republic 2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic originally came to video game retailers in 2003, and it is highly touted as being the best role playing game. The storyline in the game transpires approximately 4,000 years before the events of Star Wars Episodes I through VI and had a prototypical light vs. dark theme. A nefarious Sith army (led by Darth Malak) plans on overtaking the republic; consequently, countless Jedi Knights are slain. The ones that survived have defected to the Sith and Darth Malak or managed to escape. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has the most engaging storyline I have ever seen in an Xbox video game. The game begins with a completely customizable character selection screen. This is where you can pick either male or female and assign your character a class. Classes can break down into strengths and weaknesses affiliated with each class. The gameplay is the most unique I have experienced in any role playing game. Gamers can lean towards the light side or succumb to the dark side. Your actions will determine which side you ultimately join. A great deal of the gameplay comes from having conversations with various people. A bevy of these conversations will give players the opportunity to act a certain way; as a result, you will start accumulating light or dark side points. For instance, threatening someone will net dark side points but decrease light side points. Conversely, providing helpful information to a civilian will increase light side points and decrease dark side points. These points should not be confounded with experience points (which are earned via the conventional way of eliminating enemies and performing certain tasks). The character interactions in the game vary from conversation to conversation. There are a plethora of dialogue permutations that will make any gamers head explode. Little things like that made Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic so brilliant. Gamers can have up to three members to bring with them, and they can be switched on the fly. You can also go into solo mode which does exactly what it sounds like. The combat in the game is a typical turn based style that is personified in many other games in the genre. Each fight
sequence begins with a combat mode that pauses the screen. While the game is paused, players can choose from a myriad of commands. These include rudimentary lightsaber attacks to the more intricate grenade and force maneuvers. Speaking of force maneuvers, there seems to be an endless array of them in this game. There is force push, pull, speed, tornado, heal, lightning, and so much more. Executing these force powers in conjunction with light saber attacks will pulverize virtually any foe. Some force abilities can only be unlocked if you are on a particular side. For instance, force drain can only be used if your character is part of the dark side. The pause and play gameplay mechanic worked extraordinarily well, and it gave players time to contemplate their next move. Traveling from location to location is done through a vehicle known as the Ebon Hawk. The mini-games are a welcome change of pace from the main storyline element. There are card games, pod races, and gun turret battle segments. The only blemishes with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic were the glitches with the frame rate and graphics. Visually, the graphics were average at best. The environments had a phenomenal Star Wars ambiance to it, and the clashing of light sabers felt realistic. Tattoine looks exactly as if it was stripped out of the Star Wars movies. However, some of the character models looked dreadful. #Fortunately, the audio in the game was flabbergasting. The voice acting really made the dialogue come to life, and it was pleasant to hear. An original musical score was heard that perfectly exemplified the tone of the gameplay. A soft melody would play during the poignant moments, and an up-tempo intense melody would be playing in the background during the action scenes. After taking into account all of the side quests, the game can take over fifty hours to finish. No, that is not a typo. I meant it. Over fifty hours of gameplay. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was not a perfect game, but there are no perfect video games on the Xbox. The game hits all the right notes and kept gamers intrigued from beginning to end. All things considered, I believe Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was the greatest video game ever made for the Xbox.