Like many others I got this as a freebie and decided to try it out for grins and giggles not expecting much. The intro had me groaning a bit as it's pretty cheesy but after I got a couple of hours into the game I realized I that this is a well thought out and impressive piece of work. It's a quality game and I would have been more than happy with it after a purchase. Why it hasn't gotten more hype and attention amazes me and not in a good way. It's a splendid mix of old and new and more than worth $25.00 as I'm honestly loving it so far. Every time my team gets destroyed it just make me even more motivated to dig into the systems and my party makeup and try again. The battles can certainly be a challenge that makes you change things up and implement strategy on the fly. Go in with a plan only to see it wrecked, turn things around just to see things are even harder than you thought so... Yeah. I'm loving this game.
This game ruined me. Every 4X strategy game I play is compared to it and they all come up short. The story! The atmosphere and the factions. The gameplay! So awesome! So cool! So..... Why, why why did I ever play this?
If you've ever had even a slight appreciation or interest in this kind of game/genre then this is a prime example of how to do things mostly right. Minor gripes aside with the devs budget and the price of the game I can't imagine they could have done much better than they did though. There is a "background" story and some conversation in the game but that isn't it's strong point at all. This isn't an RPG by any stretch of the imagination. What it is is a great exploration, puzzle, battle game that has tons of ways to form a group, outfit them and level them in ways that can see you either manage battles effectively or have a hard slough and barely get by the skin of your teeth or get pounded mercilessly over and over again until you start over having learned from your past mistakes. It also has varying difficulties that are great for adding replay value to the game. It's not the best game of this type out there but based on a pure price-quality scale this is easily a 4 out of five for me.
If you love RPG's you'll love this game. A fantastic storyline steeped in lore. Great game mechanics and the ability to craft your Jedi in the manner you like via level up system. The NPC companions are very interesting and their back stories help add to the experience. I'd easily rank this game up there with Baldur's Gate because it really is that dang good. I rate it as: Get it now!
If your going to expect top notch FPS mechanics and that's all you're interested in then this game will disappoint you. I'm not saying that the gameplay is bad because it isn't. I would better classify it as mediocre. If on the other hand you can appreciate a game that has great story told with a unique artistic style then you will be very pleased and have quite a bit of fun. If I would have rated this game when it first came out at full price I would have given it a 3 out 5. Good but not great and only held back by its serviceable but not stellar gameplay. But at a mere $5.99? 4 out of 5.
