Katrina Johnson

Recently, I have discovered that there are two basic types of RPGs: the kind where you have a little group of friends to fight alongside you and the kind where you’re pretty much on your own. When I tell people I love RPGs, I mean that I love RPGs like Final Fantasy where you have those virtual friends. I do not mean that I love RPGs like Oblivion where you pretty much run around on your own and the camera follows the character around as if it’s a third-person shooter.

I had heard that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) was a great RPG. I am a fan of Star Wars and many of my nerdiest friends had basically told me that KOTOR was the best Star Wars game ever made. I had the feeling it was the no-friends type of RPG, but so many of my friends recommended it that I felt I should give it a try.

I had purchased the game just after buying my 360, counting on it to be a great experience. One hour into the game, I wondered if I had made an unfortunate mistake. While it was certainly Star Wars, it was feeling less and less like a game I wanted to play. To begin, you can customize your character. I knew very little about the game and didn’t care about character stats and intensive customization. I just wanted to try the game out, so I went with recommended stats and chose the female character that looked the least mannish.

The game began with a stuttering cutscene of a ship under attack that made the game look incredibly dated. I soon gained control of my customized character and had to run around a ship. Finding my way through the ship was easy enough, especially as there was basically only one exit in each area. The battle system felt staged and boring, as characters would attack in turns but there was one attack “mode”. Moving my character while this attack mode was engaged would cancel my actions. So, much like World of Warcraft, I got to sit back and watch my character attack automatically unless I was struck by the sudden desire to use a special attack or a healing item. There seemed to be little thought required here – a stark contrast to the many options allowed just minutes ago when customizing my character.

I continued through the game and ended up in Taris. I ran around, talking to many people. I had a companion who followed me around at this point but he said little and was pracitally useless. I got lost in a circular maze of a bar and had to consult my map (in the menu). After consulting the menu a few times, I grew increasingly frustrated by its complexity. The attempt to visually map things out such as character stats and equipping items in a grid seemed overly complex. There were so many options that I had trouble finding what I wanted. To make things more difficult, this was the first real Xbox game I had played on the 360, so I was continually confused when the game kept asking me to press the black and white buttons (now bumpers in a completely different area of the controller). This was not the game’s fault, but it wore down my patience.

After half an hour of talking to people and exploring the town, I had no idea where to go. Perhaps I am just one of those people who has to have a strategy guide in order to enjoy RPGs. I would like to think that KOTOR is more like an adventure game, so I would not need a guide. Unfortunately, I got stuck shortly after going to the one “event” to which I was invited. It was some sort of Sith party. When I went to the party, I was greeted by the man I had met earlier and then saw a short cutscene where the attendees joked about drinking too much. The cutscene ended and I heard a “clunk” noise. I looked around and everyone at the party was on the floor, unconscious, and no one in the surrounding apartments cared. The one lead I had stopped dead on the floor with the Sith party.

I was frustrated with my first experience of KOTOR. The game seemed burdened by dialogue that continued to refer to at least five people I had never seen or met. I was forced to ask stupid questions because I had so little background and constant remarks like, “You really aren’t from around here, are you?” made me feel even more like an outsider. Perhaps I take such comments too personally.

I wanted so badly for this game to take me away into the Star Wars universe. I really hoped that I could break out of my habit of playing turn-based RPGs with happy parties of friends. I may give KOTOR another shot in the future, but next time, it will probably be with a strategy guide to serve as my faithful companion.