Should I get Knights of the Old Republic?

[Alf-Life]

Right, I like Star Wars. Check. But I've never really got into RPGs. Ever.

Like, the closest I've ever come are action-adventures like Zelda and Little Big Adventure, and a quick two-minute go of Baldur's Gate (or it's sequel?) and reaching the park level in Deus Ex before I found it too boring.

Now, I've decided even if I end up hating the genre I've got to at least play one through so I know what people are going on about when they talk about turn-based battles, random challenges and levelling up.
So, is KOTOR the one? Would you guys recommend it? I've heard/read good things about it being both accessible for beginners and having realtime battles (I think).

Bearing in mind, when I had Mace Griffin and Metroid Prime on my to-play pile, I ended up completing Mace Griffin because I wanted to get it over-with and not have all my time sucked up by a game... how long is KOTOR, and how long between save or check points? Time's a massive factor in my 'dislike' or at least inexperience with RPGs.
And what's the combat like? Real-time? I mean... I can't stand all that building your character up point by point... I'd rather have a tangible 'gift' like a new weapon in Zelda which lets me reach new places, etc.
And finally, is it a linear game or can you go back and forth?
Oh, a final pet-peeve of mine, strange considering I love choice, is choice in games... I swear I don't want to play through a 100-hour RPG three times just to see what my other choices of text would have done. :/

Cheers.

[Commander Marklar]

You know there is a web page to NTSC-uk, right? Has reviews on it, I've been told it is pretty good but I don't read it myself...

Also, you could use the search function: http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread...ights+republic

God, how helpful am I? Medal please!

[E. Randy Dupre]

Get something else if you want to learn about turn-based battles and random challenges. KotOR's battles are turn-based in theory, but not so as you'd notice.

Check points aren't an issue - you can save wherever you want and reload from the exact same point later on. It's also non-linear for the majority of the game - the only times you don't have any choice about which order to do the planets in are at the very beginning (the first planet is pretty much a training section for the rest of the game, and you still get complete freedom wrt the order you do the subquests in anyway) and at the very end.

Combat is sort of turn-based, sort of real-time. Easiest (and most enjoyable) way to play the combat is to pause the game to tell each member of your party what to do, unpause to let them get on with it, then pause again when you want them to do something different. Rips past at a quite a speed, really.

Levelling up is similarly simple and speedy. You'll get a certain number of new skills that you can teach your character - Force Persuade, Duelling, or whatever - and the game will let you know what level your stats have to be before you can learn them. Or you can switch the levelling up to automatic and have the game take care of it itself - let it know what kind of character you want and it'll take care of the rest.

Oh, and as far as choice goes, whenever a dialogue box opens up you get to see all the branching chocies straight off. Apart from those which require Force Persuade, of course.

[jezzace]

You know there is a web page to NTSC-uk, right? Has reviews on it, I've been told it is pretty good but I don't read it myself...

Zzzzing!

stupid 10 characters...

[scarredbyvideogames]

Well since you like star wars I think its a no-brainer,you should play it.

KOTORS not too long (not compared to some typical PS2 RPG's anyway) and you can save when you want (you can have auto-save on as well if you like - saves every time you enter/exit new area).There are several options to allow you to play out battles in a way that suits you.They're not the usual turn-based shennanigans so dont fret and no random encounters so dont worry there.Theres even an option to auto-level and thus points/skills get distributed without you having to fiddle around with those pesky stat points......oh I cant be arsed to explain anymore - lets just say its a bloody good RPG - especially for those people who dont actually like RPG's so it'l be up your alley for sure and im certain you can find it dirt cheap now - or use games 10 return thingy so it has to be worth a try no?

[Alf-Life]

Alright, cheers. Actually, I just remembered I have played an RPG sort of - Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga. It reminded me of a Zelda game with Mario in it rather than one of those number-crunching statto RPG games, though.

Anyway, thanks everyone, I think I'll go to Game tomorrow and get it then.

[Robster]

in case your intrested VG+ are doing KOTOR at $20, I purchased it on Monday so Im in the same boat as you mate,


keep in touch

[sam1981]

Just looked and it's $39.99...

Clicky

[Moodmon]

I hated Deus Ex, thought Baldur's Gate was too difficult to get into. I loved KOTOR. So did everyone else... NTSC 2003 awards

[martingee]

Be wary of the PC version, i've experienced a massive bug that, from what i can gleam from the KOTOR forums, corrupts you're save game and at one particular point, before you even become a Jedi, is where it goes tits up.

As with a lot of bugs many people haven't encountered it but in the forums there was a massive thread that was devoted to it and as far as i'm aware no fix was possible cos they couldn't re-create it at Bioware.

Unfortunately its a show stopper and there were people complaining of similar things quite a way into the game after putting in alot of hours.

If you do get the PC version save your game in a new slot everytime and don't use the auto save, these were work arounds that people suggested although after playing up to this point for a while i was totally gutted and haven't gone back to it yet, so i'm not sure if it works.

Other than that, it was enjoyable and easy to pick up which made the bug even more annoying.

[Robster]

Just looked and it's $39.99...

Clicky

sorry , my post should have a ? instead of a $ sign.

Edit: its even less than ?20 , ?15.90 to be exact: BARGAIN!!!!!!!!!!

[scarredbyvideogames]

Be wary of the PC version, i've experienced a massive bug that, from what i can gleam from the KOTOR forums, corrupts you're save game and at one particular point, before you even become a Jedi, is where it goes tits up.

As with a lot of bugs many people haven't encountered it but in the forums there was a massive thread that was devoted to it and as far as i'm aware no fix was possible cos they couldn't re-create it at Bioware.

Unfortunately its a show stopper and there were people complaining of similar things quite a way into the game after putting in alot of hours.

If you do get the PC version save your game in a new slot everytime and don't use the auto save, these were work arounds that people suggested although after playing up to this point for a while i was totally gutted and haven't gone back to it yet, so i'm not sure if it works.

Other than that, it was enjoyable and easy to pick up which made the bug even more annoying.

Not just the PC version either.
Took me 2 whole afternoons to get my xbox version to work.Froze every time I tried to save manually or auto-save or even just bringing up the menu.
Still - I'd already experienced the horrors of trying to get Morrowind to run without some horrendous cock-up every five minutes so I wasn't going to be put off that easily.
Eventually it just....worked.Well,after turning it off and back on again and starting a new game quite possibly over a hundred times.
Been fine ever since.And well worth the trouble.
Never figured out why it decided to work all of a sudden (as with Morrowind) -it just did.
The xbox (much like my PC) is an enigmatic and temperamental beast.
(and by the way - just because I experienced these problems doesn't mean you would - if its the xbox version your after Alf Life - it seems to be arbitrary)

[turq]

Y'know I love Star Wars and I'm quite a fan of Bioware, but to be honest I just couldn't get into the game.

I originally thought it was because I didnt have the time, what with work and going out etc, but I 'made' the time when playing Baldurs Gate 1 & 2, so there is obviously something I felt was missing, which is a shame in some respects as the game itself is pretty solid but its been sitting on my shelf and I've only played it for about ten hours tops since launch

[numel loves you]

I completed XBox Knights yesterday, for the first time. Excepting the two Deus Exes, it's the first western RPG I've got into in donkeys' years. I absolutely adored it, and will be playing it through again very shortly.

It's incredibly easy to play; you don't need to learn the D&D ruleset or anything to get a lot out of the combat. In fact, I still have no idea how the various different factors affected the way my characters fought, and for the most part let the game recommend skills for me. I made sure I got my favourite pansy light-side force powers, though.

As to whether you'd enjoy it: it depends what you play the Zelda games for; do you like the combat or the story and the many little sub-quests? Because while the combat is merely fun and exciting, the story is blooming brilliant, and I loved skipping all over the place solving problems for people. Only problem, as far as I'm concerned, is that it wasn't long enough; I want more!

No buggy problems with my version, although I did save every few minutes, just in case.

[NeilMcRae]

its pants great at first but get repetitive quickly.