otro trailer de kotor

After a greatly huge amount of preliminary hype, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is finally about done and ready for the duplicators. Judging from the preliminary version that's in GamePro's hands now, BioWare's first console-specific game could finally be the title that convinces old-school Japanese RPG fans that American developers maybe aren't so bad with the genre after all.

BioWare and LucasArts are proud to announce that the Xbox version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has GONE GOLD!
As promised, we're announcing it here FIRST!

Thanks for all of your patience and support over the last year or so - it's been a long journey, and we're happy that you took it with us.

The game will be available starting on July 16th at retailers across the United States and Canada.

Game on!

Casey Hudson ~ BioWare Corp
Mike Gallo ~ LucasArts

Expect press releases soon.

Best RPG ever? Maybe. All I know is that while I type this message, it's calling me back to my Xbox. Here I come, baby!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, since I just got back from eating a yummy meal, I am no longer shaking with hunger, and am able to type coherently. Consider that I know my way around a Final Fantasy game or two. IMO, the FF formula has gotten increasingly stale (new hero, new ways of calling summons summons, slightly new battle system, etc.). There's no discounting the high quality of Final Fantasy games, but are they all that much fun? Or just wondrous to experience?

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is wondrous AND fun. KOTOR is, among other things:

1) Huge.

You aren't even a Jedi for the first ten hours or so, because you've been trying to rescue Bastilla, a Jedi warrior who's been captured. By completing all the side quests (you gain experience for talking to people) you become strong by leveling up. Since there's no time limit, it behooves you to embark on all the side quests, and in doing so, adds valuable allies to your party, and enables you to discover key weapons and armor that you wouldn't have found if you hadn't taken those quests.

Plus, once you've gotten through about 20% of the game, you then discover that you must travel to at least four new worlds. HUGE.

2) It's never boring.

Unlike many RPGs where the standard fetch quests make you feel like somebody's messenger boy, all the side quests (even settling a Romeo and Juliet-like war between two families) in KOTOR are enjoyable and worth doing just for the experience, not just the experience points.

3) Battle system rocks.

It's not quite real-time, it's not quite turn-based. It's somewhere inbetween. You choose your own actions, and can "stock" a sequence of actions (such as perform a regular attack, powerful attack, throw grenade, and then heal, in that order), leaving you free to cycle to one of your main character's two available allies to use their particular skills as well. If you choose to let them handle themselves, you can also program their strategies, such as setting Bastilla the Jedi to use Jedi skills (speed up, heal, push-back attack) until her Force points deplete. You can also have droids or warriors use their best abilities (grenadier, droid attack, etc.) to support you in battles.

4) Customization is king.

Being able to see, on the real in-game model, the outfits you assign to them, as well as the weapons and accessories, KOTOR takes on a very Diablo II-like style (or if you prefer, Neverwinter Nights) feel. Assigning items to different body parts is made easy thanks to the largely visual equip screen. You can also upgrade specifica armors and weapons, and even enhance your lightsaber with different crystals.

5) Branching paths.

Obviously, it's up to you whether you choose the light side or the dark side, but it is in your actions and deeds that determines this path. A staggering amount of conversations take place, and almost all of them have meaning.

Unlike Final Fantasy, where NPCs (non-player characters) usually have one or two trite lines of inconsequential hoo-ha to say, in KOTOR you actually have conversations. Sure there are a lot of NPCs with nothing to really add to your experience, but that ratio is kept slim compared to the amount of people who do. Since you get experience for furthering the story, it's in your best interest in both the experience gaining sense and the information-gathering sense to be as verbose as possible. There's a payoff there that most other RPGS simply don't have. The fact that the script is unbelievably well-written helps things. To be quite honest, KOTOR has some of the wittiest dialogue I've ever seen in an RPG.

And since I'm 32 years old, I can say that I've seen 'em all. Oh, and I'm currently playing my way towards the Dark side, and let me just say that the options in the dialogue become a lot funnier when you're evil. Fortunately, since the game was designed this way, you're not quite penalized for playing towards the Dark side. Your companions remain unaware of your leanings except by noting how impatient you seem, or how much danger you're in of being persuaded by the Dark side.

As soon as I'm done with the game as a Dark side-type, I'll play through again as a goody two shoes. While a couple things could make the experience a little smoother (interface things, mostly), it's nothing worth griping over, which leads me back to my original point:

Best. RPG. Ever?

Maybe.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – July 9, 2003 – LucasArts today announced Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a role playing game (RPG) for the Xbox™ video game system from Microsoft, has gone gold and will be available at retail throughout the United States and Canada Wednesday, July 16.

One of this year's most eagerly anticipated titles, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was recently named the number one game in Electronic Gaming Monthly's Top 20 Summer Games feature. In addition, Official Xbox Magazine called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic an "instant classic," and the game received a perfect score in the forthcoming September issue of GMR.

LucasArts also announced that in Winter 2003 it expects to make available to Xbox Live subscribers downloadable content for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Featured will be a variety of new weapons and other items to assist players on in-game quests.

Developed by BioWare, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic features an original story set some 4,000 years prior to the timeframe of the Star Wars films in an era dominated by an epic conflict between the Jedi and the evil Sith.

From the start, you’ll notice a lot of time was invested in KOTOR. The graphics are nothing less than spectacular, CG scenes are beautiful, and the framerate’s solid.

Battles range from 1-on-1 to 18-on-1, allowing the opportunity to wipe out armies with ferocious Jedi abilities, and battles like these make KOTOR a gem. Overall, there are more than 40 different enemies, and perhaps more, but at this time it’s almost impossible to explore every planet without spending a good month on the game.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How's the camera? Framerate? Is the battle system fun? How's the story so far? Is it epic? Engaging?

Camera is fine. Full control. Occassionally when you hit a dialogue cut-scene the camera gets stuck behind an object, but that's only happened twice and there's a LOT of dialogue, so very minor.

Battle system is like halway between turn-based and real-time. I like it. It keeps the flow going. And basically your standard action (normal attack) will default unless you choose another action. Picking your class makes a big difference in combat. As a Scoundrel, I'm much better with ranged attacks. You can pretty much fight how you want. I gave my wookie a sword. Bowcaster my butt. He's my strong man. F's everyone up like Uma Thurman's gonna in Kill Bill.

Story is really good. Definitely the best star wars game since the Tie Fighter series. Very epic. Every single NPC has full voice and I've literally talked to at least 100 NPCs already, and I'm on just the first of six planets.

Each of your group's NPC's (9 total by the end of the story... know this cuz there are nine slots in the character selection grid) has their own story to tell. Plus there's the main plot. This is the Star Wars prequel movie we all wanted.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
overall thoughts on the game so far?

Totally amazed. I think Fable will outdo this, but other than that.... jaw-dropping, to be honest. Every time you talk to anyone you basically shape the personality of your character. So you can choose to be the selfless hero or to be a total jerk. Like when one of my NPC companions started jabbering and mentioned their long lost brother, among my choices of response were:
"I want to know what happened to your brother."

and

"Oh no. You're not gonna start whining about your stupid brother now, are you?"

Or something to that effect. And from seeing Aaron's progress on the Dark Side and mine on the Light, eventually your responses become more geared towards your personality. So the longer you are a jerk, the more jerk responses you get to choose from. At least, that's how it seems to me.

It takes quite a bit of time before you get your Force powers and your lightsabre. I just got mine, but the time it took to get there, I was still loving the game. There's a lot going on in the game in terms of leveling up and such (this is truly a table-top RPG ported to the Xbox) but the interface is so easy.

There's only one thing I dislike so far and that's basically the ability to heal yourself for free almost anytime. You can look at the map and as long as you are not near enemies or in certain locations, you can jump back to your hideout/ship. That way you never have to backtrack to get there. You can then choose to jump from your hideout back to your last locale. Thing I don't like is that you automatically heal at your hideout. So you can leap back to your hideout right after a battle, heal without using med packs, then jump back to your last location.

However, you do have to sit through load times. Basically the only other real drawback... huuuuuge worlds and lots of 30-40 second+ load times going from building to building, area to area.

Bioware nailed the Star Wars universe perfectly. This game feels more like Star Wars than the past two movies.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
do you have the gold version or an earlier copy for reviewers?

Gold copy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Asked about how load times work

Haven't done true world transitions yet, trying to make sure I get everything on the first world before leaving... and the first jump off-planet is a bit different (I believe) than any of the others, for story reasons I won't spoil.

Well, it's like you can be in the upper level of the city outside and there's an elevator to the lower level, an open-door droid shop, and a closed-door cantina. Basically, you go to the elevator to the lower lever and it has to load. You can walk into an open-door shop wihtout a load. But the Cantina is a big place with multiple rooms and lots of NPCs and events going on, and that has to load.

Load times suck, but I've yet to be bothered by them here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's see if I can hit all the bases...

Sound: The main NPC's are all well-voiced. some of the minor NPC's aren't that great. But there's some really good dialogue. It sounds natural, like people actually talk, instead of mechanical, like the movies sometimes end up. Good music of course, and the SFX are basically staight-up from the movies. All of the aliens talk in their native tongues, so you get Wookies howling and Hutt's doing their thing. And all of the aliens are lip-synched pretty well to their own alien tongues. Tons and tons and tons of voice-over in the game.

Graphics: The environments and character models are really good. There are a lot of NPC's with the same faces though. Framerate drops now and then, but a lot more solid than PotC. The environments are definitely the best-looking thing. I wouldn't put it at the top tier of Xbox games in terms of graphics, but it isn't gonna hurt your eyes. Good, just not the best on Xbox.

Character classes:
Warrior: Fighting class (duh). Good with hand-to-hand. Only has a few cheap skills. Mainly there to kick ass, not there to sneak around and reprogram droids and such. Definitely a plus for combat.

Scout: honestly haven't played must with the scout, but they are about stealth. More about skills than the warrior, but obviously less powerful in hand-to-hand.

Scoundrel: This is what I'm playing. Lots of class skills to choose from. Can go either way for combat in H-T-H vs. ranged, depending on how you spend your attribute points. Scoundrels benefit from "luck". Come on, this is Han's class... it's the coolest one!

Choosing a class doesn't so much change the missions in the game, but changes how you might approach a mission. For example, at the start of the game you're escaping from a Republic ship that's been boarded by the Sith. As a scoundrel, I'm not too great of a fighter yet, but I start with a stealth belt which lets me turn invisible (nice visual effect here!). So when I get to one point with some tough Sith guards, I could go in guns blazing or, I can sneak in. Using my repair skills, I can activate a nearby droid and switch him into "patrol mode". The droid then comes to life and fights the two Sith while I sit back, invisible, and watch them duel it out.

Obviously, as a warrior I have little stealth but more strength. Screw the droid, I would take on the Sith with my barehands.

Middle path?
There are good deeds, bad deeds, and some middle-of the road things. You won't always get Light or Dark Force points for helping (or hurting) folks. Sometimes it's just experience points and nothing else.

For pretty much every conversation, there's at least one "neutral" response. However, the Bioware guys told me at GDC that at some point you will go either light or dark. There's two endings, depending on which side you end up on. But you can actually do some Light things and then some Dark things and stay sort of balanced. However, that can make improving your character a tougher challenge.

See my next post for character creation/level-up answers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Character creation
Here's the fast and dirty rundown as I remember it off the top of my head:
1. Select your sex and class (Warrior, Scout, Scoundrel). Everything is explained on screen as far as the advantages of each class and what every skill and feat does.

2. Pick a face. There's about a dozen or so for each sex.

3. Distribute 30 attribute points. You start with "8" in each attribute. All rules are based on the Star Wars table top game, which basically uses modified AD&D rules. So you get bonuses to different things depending on your attribute level.

4. Choose skills. There are 8 skills everyone has. However, each class has skills related to it. If your class supports a skill (i.e. Stealth is a class skill for Scoundrel and Scout) then it's one point for each level. Cross-class cost double the points. And you are limited in how high you can raise skills based on your current experience level. Your skill points is based on your intelligence and your class.

5. Choose feats. These are your special abilities and include things like "Scoundrel's Luck" and the ability to use a weapon in each hand. There are a lot of feats. Many have prerequisites. You get a lot depending on your class and some are class specific (like Scoundrel's Luck).

6. Name yourself. There's a random name generator or you can type one in yourself. Dunno that character limit, but it's at least 15 characters.

Each time you or any other character in your party levels up, you earn more skill points to spend. You also get new feats at specific levels and more attribute points to distribute.

You earn experience from fighting (of course) but also from performing tasks and even just from conversations. I had two guys who were about to get into a fight. One choice was to provoke the fight, another was to stay out of it, and another was to use my persuade skill to convince them it wasn't worth it. I stopped the fight and earned experience.

After the first world, you earn your jedi powers and begin training for your destiny. And then you will earn extra force powers as you level up as well.

Oh, and some armor and weapons can be modified (not just lightsabers) to make them more effective.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------