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the_christian, plus SW: KoToR stuff.
2004-Feb-24, Tuesday 20:08thorfinnFor those of you that don't know ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_christian, well, you should, and you can read something of his, entitled Break Steel with Hands. You can stalk him further on his website at http://www.f1-comics.com/read/.
That aside... I recently bought Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (PC Version). I have now finished it once. I like it, and I like it a great deal.
The story is good, the pictures are good, and the illusion of non-linearity is particularly good, at least first time through. And whilst the order of subquests is mostly linear (a generally shrinking tree for each locality, plus a couple of arching quests that take you through the localities), the outcomes available for each subquest aren't linear, and they are entirely meaningful and have an effect, if nothing else, on your alignment.
I love the fact that almost every conversation you have with someone potentially affects your light vs dark alignment, and I really like the way that force powers are structured. First time through, I played everything fully goody-two-shoes light side, resulting in the rather nice 50% force power reduction cost relatively soon. I just have to say, too, that a light sabre equipped with a critical range extension (critical threats on 17-20, ow), plus waving around "master critical" feat, making that threat range 5-20, plus "master duelling", plus a +3 to hit and 2 damage crystal is just nasty.
The location designs are really very good, and there are plenty of excellent views to be had. I should probably take pictures this time through, it occurs to me. One striking map feature is right towards the end, when your spaceship is on a beach, and there's a sandy path that curves uphill and forks to the north... but they've added a twistback so that you can stand on the rocky cliff, overlooking the spaceship, peering over the beach and out to sea... Talk about cinematic moment, and this game really has them aplenty, both in "in game" scenes and pre-rendered movies.
As for the sub games... I didn't like the swoop racing, but that's because I'm not a twitch-game fan... but after the first set of races, I proceeded to ignore swoop racing entirely... And I was very happy that it didn't matter. Pazaak was, err, a bit silly, and a vaguely amusing mild diversion... And shooting down enemy fighters? Reminded me of a crappy 3d Galaga... If you blow them all up the first time they fly in all bunched up, it's much easier. Fortunately, they don't force these sub games on you (well, except for the fighter shooting, and that only a couple of times), and I liked that.
This time through I'm playing it dark-side all the way, just to see what happens. Should be fun, especially as I'm selecting my feats a bit more carefully this time.
the_christian, well, you should, and you can read something of his, entitled Break Steel with Hands. You can stalk him further on his website at http://www.f1-comics.com/read/.
That aside... I recently bought Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (PC Version). I have now finished it once. I like it, and I like it a great deal.
The story is good, the pictures are good, and the illusion of non-linearity is particularly good, at least first time through. And whilst the order of subquests is mostly linear (a generally shrinking tree for each locality, plus a couple of arching quests that take you through the localities), the outcomes available for each subquest aren't linear, and they are entirely meaningful and have an effect, if nothing else, on your alignment.
I love the fact that almost every conversation you have with someone potentially affects your light vs dark alignment, and I really like the way that force powers are structured. First time through, I played everything fully goody-two-shoes light side, resulting in the rather nice 50% force power reduction cost relatively soon. I just have to say, too, that a light sabre equipped with a critical range extension (critical threats on 17-20, ow), plus waving around "master critical" feat, making that threat range 5-20, plus "master duelling", plus a +3 to hit and 2 damage crystal is just nasty.
The location designs are really very good, and there are plenty of excellent views to be had. I should probably take pictures this time through, it occurs to me. One striking map feature is right towards the end, when your spaceship is on a beach, and there's a sandy path that curves uphill and forks to the north... but they've added a twistback so that you can stand on the rocky cliff, overlooking the spaceship, peering over the beach and out to sea... Talk about cinematic moment, and this game really has them aplenty, both in "in game" scenes and pre-rendered movies.
As for the sub games... I didn't like the swoop racing, but that's because I'm not a twitch-game fan... but after the first set of races, I proceeded to ignore swoop racing entirely... And I was very happy that it didn't matter. Pazaak was, err, a bit silly, and a vaguely amusing mild diversion... And shooting down enemy fighters? Reminded me of a crappy 3d Galaga... If you blow them all up the first time they fly in all bunched up, it's much easier. Fortunately, they don't force these sub games on you (well, except for the fighter shooting, and that only a couple of times), and I liked that.
This time through I'm playing it dark-side all the way, just to see what happens. Should be fun, especially as I'm selecting my feats a bit more carefully this time.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-26 05:20 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-02-26 15:57 (UTC)