I do have fond memories of this game... I also have some frustrating ones. Ultimately, it's a decent game with a meaty, if somewhat clichéd storyline. The expansions certainly added to it, though for me at least I seem to be the odd one out in that I found the timed aspect of MotB detracted from the enjoyment. Graphically - It is looking dated now, but it's still more than playable. After all, you want story over graphics, this is why we still play the likes of the BG series, Torment etc. Character creation - Let's be honest, outside of story, this is the most important part of any RPG... And it's certainly D&D in terms of choices etc. AI - This is where it slips up a bit. I shit you not, I genuinely had a Githyanki cleric who kept dying on me. Every fight, she died. Didn't know how, didn't know when... So I checked the combat log. Hmm, she dies after casting something eh? Watched her in the next fight and was somewhat shocked to find her casting banishment... In the area she was stood in... So yes, my outsider cleric kept banishing herself mid-fight. Turning off her AI casting solved that though. Story - Cliché all around, but certainly enjoyable. Value - I've played the main game through twice since buying it on release and I'd say each play through (of the main release, not expansions) took about 60 hours. That, to me, indicates good value for sure. So in short, I would recommend this to anyone interested in RPG's. But don't go into it expecting perfection.
The game is an easy 5/5 without hesitation. The game is a classic Bioware game (which is no bad thing in my opinion) and it's possibly the greatest Star Wars game around, followed closely by its sequel. The story is great, albeit a little Star Wars cliché, but that's kind of to be expected. You know what's going to happen because that's what likely 'would' happen in the Star Wars universe. The voice acting is fantastic for the main sections, although there are a couple of repetitive lines on Kashyyyk. I believe a wookie repeated the exact same line of grunts 5 times over one conversation, but this is only a mild annoyance. The gameplay is generic Bioware RPG, similar to what they have nowadays with the likes of Dragonage 2 & 3, but I think it was new at the time of release from what I recall. It works well though and suits the game perfectly. Score - The music is generic SW music. If you enjoy SW, you won't have an issue here. Graphics - Starting to look dated now, sure... But they still hold up well enough. With this being an RPG though, graphics are of all but minimal importance. So to summarise - It's a great RPG in general and it's possibly some of Bioware's best work, whilst it IS one of the best titles in the SW series. The game is a must have if you are a fan of SW and/or Bioware and should be fairly high on the list if just a fan of any old RPG.
Reading some of the many reviews for this game, I notice a lot of people complaining of the games difficulty and that it is unforgiving against user errors. People need to keep in mind that games in the 90s were far more difficult than today, this is where the issue with hand-holding in modern games comes into it. If you think back to many classics, all of them were frustratingly hard... Baldurs Gate, Golden Axe, Flashback, Another World, Diablo to name but a few. All were hard, but when you beat something, you actually felt an accomplishment. I never beat this game, I never figured out the ship scene at the end... And without the internet as we have now, there were no real hints on how to actually defeat it... Perhaps now I can actually finish this though. But in truth, I very much doubt this game (or many on the site in general tbh) are designed for new gamers. It feeds off nostalgia which is what we love... If you've never played this before, expect it to hurt, but work through it and you may learn to love it.
I played this on the X-Box when it was first released and frankly, I would not waste my money giving it another try. The gameplay was beyond terrible, the graphics were far below sub-par, the voice acting was worse than the movies you can find on sci-fi channel or others of the same ilk and so on. I lasted an hour playing the game and I can tell you now, 100%, this is the single, worst game I can remember ever having the misfortune to play. I am not just hating on the game because it seems to be 'in fashion' or anything of the like, I just found it that bad. RPG's have been amongst my top games since the good old days of Baldurs Gate, Torment and Fallout... But this? It's just beyond what words can say. What's more shocking, is the user reviews. People claiming this is better than Oblivion, that it's amongst the best RPG they've played etc, etc, etc. All I can say is 'either' these people are part of the dev team who made it (but then, even THEY have admitted to the public that the game was terrible...), or these people have never 'actually' played an RPG prior to loading this game... Heed my words. Do not waste your money.
